The Rangers lost their third straight contest, falling 6-3 to the Senators on Saturday. A repeat of the same mistakes we have seen all too often were on display again versus Ottawa, including early goals allowed and poor own zone coverage. New York, now 27-27-5 and trailing the Islanders by five points for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference, gets to turn right around and face Philadelphia at home in a 12pm matinee Sunday.
Game recap:
MSG Post-game recap:
Steve Valiquette noted that the Rangers have given up the most chances and shots along with most goals - 23 - in the first two minutes of a period. I believe we are now up to 11-12 goals surrendered on one of the first two shots allowed to start a game. That results in chasing the game right from the get-go, rather than being able to settle in. I would love to get angrier, but I am somewhat resigned to as to what we see is what I expect to see.
In terms of the second aspect I mentioned in the initial paragraph, poor own zone coverage, how many examples do you need? Tony DeAngelo doesn't close out to Derick Brassard, giving him open lane to find Mark Stone in slot for the opening goal just 1:03 into the game. In the second, with the score 2-1, David Desharnais doesn't get under the stick of Matt Duchene, allowing an easy deflection on Cody Ceci's point shot for the goal. At 3-1, J.T, Miller allows Derick Brassard to get inside position, failing to mark come coming from the side of the net and deflect the puck past Lundqvist. At least three of the six goals were directly from poor own zone coverage. You could say Johnny Oduya's goal to make it 2-1 was the same poor coverage, though I give Erik Karlsson credit for a brilliant deke and pass to create space.
Kevin Hayes was a surprise addition to the lineup, as his lower-body injury had him 50-50 to play. Unsure what was a bigger shock, Hayes playing or having him start on the fourth line. The third line had a rough day, as Fast was a stunning minus five, Vesey a minus four and Desharnais a minus three. That trio had actually been fairly decent lately, but not Saturday. Pavel Buchnevich rejoined the lineup after he missed the previous seven games following a concussion suffered Feb. 1. Buch started game on the second line but played on the top line with Nash and Zib later in the game. The good news was Cody McLeod was a healthy scratch.
Nash-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Grabner-Miller-Buchnevich
Vesey-Desharnais-Fast
Carey-Holland-Hayes.
The four kid blueliners went minus-seven. Skjei and Pionk were a minus-five combined. I give three of the four of the defensemen a pass, but Skjei isn't a kid and I expect a lot more from him. Games like Saturday are learning experiences. Painful for us to watch and deal with but valuable in terms of teaching moments for the kids. That's one of the reasons I am not railing like crazy. What's going on and direction the rest of the season has to be finding out who should remain and if these problems can be remediated now, so that don't repeat again next season. Not all of it is on the coach, but he has to bear a large brunt of the blame and it appears to be getting uglier not better.
Skjei-Pionk
Holden-DeAngelo
Gilmour-Sproul.
Brassard had a field day, notching a goal and two assists, raising his trade value. In addition, Duchene, Stone and Thomas Chabot each had a goal and an assist in the win. New York did have a decent number of chances beyond just the three goals, but Craig Anderson, who made 32 saves, stoned several good opportunities, keeping the deficit at three for the Rangers.
If there was another silver lining, beyond the teaching moments, Michael Grabner continued to raise his trade value, tallying twice. With the two goals in the game, Grabner was tied for second in the NHL in even strength goals this season (24), trailing only Nikita Kucherov (26) and even with Alex Ovechkin (24), and Auston Matthews (24) heading into the games that evening. I will hate to see Grabner go. Leading into the 2016 playoffs, I was beating the drums to add him, but that didn't occur. Now, add me to the list of those who want him back after the season. His speed is a major weapon, especially on the penalty kill. Ink him to a three-year deal for around $10 mil.
Stop me if you have heard this before:
"The first period, in general, we just didn't win enough battles," Rick Nash said. "I wish I had an answer for you guys because we talk about it before every single game, is to come out strong, keep it simple early, have a great start, and we're just not performing good enough at the start of games."
With the score 4-2, Chabot made it 5-2 at 7:27 when his wraparound attempt went off Nick Holden into the net. That ended the day for Lundqvist, who allowed five goals on 27 shots and was replaced by Brandon Halverson in the third period. Lundqvist clearly wasn't happy about getting pulled -the fourth time in his last nine starts that has occurred. But with the quick turnaround and game Sunday coupled with the lack of support from his teammates, I completely understand why that switch was made.
Halverson made five saves in his NHL debut. He surrendered one goal to Magnus Paajarvi, who tallied Ottawa's last marker when he put a rebound past Halverson at 17:15, Great job by the officials and replay booth completely missing the goalie interference on the play. Valiquette had an interesting idea. Have a goalie in the replay booth, as they can tell when a netminder is embellishing or really was interfered.
With nine days left to the trade deadline, we hopefully will see some moves soon. Recently, the chatter has been if New York moves Ryan McDonagh, Jake DeBrusk, some of former Ranger, Louie DeBrusk, would like be part of any deal. It's possible the deal could be DeBrusk, Brando Carlo and a first rounder.
New York would be getting quantity and nice pieces but nothing elite. If the view is to add components to a lineup, then this could be the direction followed. Carlo, who has suffered through an uneven season, won't score much, but is responsible defensively and maybe he is pair mate for Skjei. DeBrusk projects to be a solid second line player, willing to take the body and use his size. Again, not an elite but a solid package. New York has to decide if they will need to hit a home run to move McD or be satisfied with adding two solid pieces and a pick.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»