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Game 8: NYI 4 NYR 3, SO, Blueshirts rally late to tie, fall in shootout

October 20, 2017, 8:06 AM ET [389 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers fell to 1-5-2 with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Islanders on Thursday. A team that was slexpedted to take advantage of all the home cooking to start the season finds itself in a perilous state just eight games in. The schedule gets no easier with a home matinee against Nashville followed by San Jose to close the homestand.

Stop me if you have heard this before. Team falls behind early. Sleep walks for first 40 minutes. Rallies to tie then loses. Sound familiar? But it’s even worse than that. As Larry Brooks pointed out today, New York has trailed by at least two goals in five of their six home games. That’s a staggering stat, yet doesn’t fully convey just how bad this team has been much of the early part of the season.

Thursday, it was Chris Kreider, who is playing like he is in the witness protection program and belongs in a milk carton, taking another Benoit Pouliot penalty, leading to an early shorthanded opportunity. I guess we shouldn’t be shocked that the Isles scored, because it’s the eighth power play goal against for New York which puts them at 30th in the league with a 73.3 PK%. Remember when the PK was a strength? Derek Stepan and Oscar Lindberg anyone?

The Isles set up with lefty on half boards, lefty below the goal line and righty in slot confused New York. That format is not use by many teams but a lack of communication and overcommitting allowed Anders Lee to be wide open in front for a 1-0 deficit. Read those words again: “lack of communication and overcommitting,” that should be the title of the video for the first eight games of the season for New York.

David Desharnais’ tying goal was the main highlight for the Blueshirts in the first 40 minutes. Brock Nelson gave the Isles a 2-1 lead 62 seconds after Desh scored, taking advantage of surprise, another turnover, and horrific own zone coverage. You almost can’t make up just how bad the team has been in that regard. At this point, I don’t know and don’t care if it’s the system, the coaching, the players level of interest or lack of awareness or that they have tuned out the coach. But whatever it is, as I said the last few days, it’s gettjng late, early and what that happens, usually something radical occurs.

Mathew Barzal tallied 1:15 into the second on a weak goal allows by Henrik Lundqvist. However, that came after he had robbed Barzal once before earlier and Lundqvist did the same later in the frame. Plus, if you saw Hank’s two saves the final few seconds of regulation to preserve a 3-3 tie, not one word of compliant should be assigned to his name.

The Rangers finally woke up in the third. Maybe they had an extra Red Bull in the locker room, but regardless, why did it take 40 minutes to happen? A horrific Lee turnover led to a 2-0 break that New York almost screwed up, but Mats Zuccarello banged him a Brendan Smith pass to cut the deficit to one. With just under eight minutes to go in the frame, Smith scored to tire it but it was overturned due to a ‘direct kicking motion.’ Smith did kick the puck but it was to go from skate to stick but he missed it with his stick and it went in off his right skate.

Kevin Hayes tied it in a weak goal allowed by Jaroslav Halav, who seems to raise his game every time he faces the Rangers, especially at MSG. Overall, he stopped 38 of 41 shots to improve to 7-2 as an Islander t MSG. Halak also made several brilliant saves, including stoning the snakebit Rick Nash twice in breakaway. Nash is 1-for-34 on shot attempts, most of which have come from high danger spots. We all know that if he doesn’t re-sign with the team, he will go elsewhere and pot at least 30 goals. Per Bob McKenzie, no extension talks between the two sides have occurred, and if the year goes south as it has, Nash could be dealt. But he appears interested in returning. If it came at an Eric Staal salary ($3.5 mil for three years), sign me up, if he wants Patrick Marleau money ($6.5 mil), bye bye.

In the overtime, another silly penalty and a 4-on-3 PP survived. Zucc scores to give the NYR 1-0 shootout lead which was matched by Jordan Eberle. Mika Zibanejad was stopped while John Tavares scored. Who did coach Alain Vigneault turn to in order to tie it, Desharnais. While Desh had a 42% success rate in shootouts, he was 0-for-his-last-8 coming into Thursday, so maybe someone else should have been used. Attempt stoned, game over.’

Kevin DeLury in his blog put it welll: “Five straight losses. Only four points in eight games to start the season. Tied for most goals allowed with 30. 1-3-2 at MSG. There’s no way to sugarcoat this folks: It’s ugly. I’m not sure how AV survives the month if this keeps up.” I am not advocating for AV to be fired, but the team keeps making the same mistakes, which doesn’t bode well for his continued employment. The team remains out of sorts and appears to be disinterested. That is usually a coach killer. Add in the odd line combinations and deployment, especially with Pavel Buchnevich seeing minimal ice time 5v5, and it all adds up to a dangerous situation for the coach. A season that began with optimism and hope needs to turn around quickly before it completely spirals out of control. Let me know when the team leaders help fix it.
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