The Rangers, playing short handed again, fell 4-2 to the Bruins on Saturday. After winning seven in a row from January 27 to February 17, New York is 2-5-1 in their last eight games. This rough patch has cut their lead over the Islanders, currently in the first Wild Card spot, to seven points, with the Rangers having two games in hand, and eight of the Penguins with a game in hand. The good news is the team has four days off before facing Montreal on Thursday.
Game recap:
Lines: Kreider-Zibanejad-Tarasenko Panarin-Trocheck-Kane Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko Vesey-Goodrow
Harpur-Trouba Mikkola-Fox Schneider
Shesterkin Halà¡k
Scratches: Lindgren (upper-body injury), Miller (suspended), Motte (upper-body injury)
A few thoughts: 1) Defense - One of the primary concerns with the current roster following the trade deadline acquisitions was the expected lack of attention to defense. First is understanding the system. Second is actually being the right place at the right time. Last is attention to detail and effort.
For the Panarin-Trocheck-Kane line, you can argue all three were on display against the Bruins, especially the last component. Similar can be said for other lines and combinations. On the B'S first goal, Jacob Trouba and Filip Chytil left the slot open and Barclay Goodrow was late sliding down, leaving Charlie Coyle wide open for the goal.
On the shorthanded goal by Tomas Nosek, a brutal blind pass on the power play led to the opportunity and first shot. Then, after the Rangers mishandled the puck in their own zone, Kane left Nosek wide open in front, resulting in the goal.
Patrice Bergeron's marker, shocker, same story. Panarin-Trocheck-Kane with poor coverage, leaving Bergeron open at the edge of the slot for the goal. In addition, on the goal, Niko Mikkola, who had a decent game, completely screened Igor Shesterkin. We know Panarin and Kane think offense first with defense a massive afterthought. Trocheck has to be the defensive ballast, which has been a struggle at times for him. If the two wingers don't at least attempt to have some defensive responsibility, New York will struggle.
In practice this week, defensive coverage better be a major focus. If the Rangers don't get markedly better and fast in this regard, they will go nowhere, even if/when the offense awakens. I am quite cognizant that the team is playing shorthanded, which has had an impact. But the defensive gaps cannot be explained away fully by the fact the team was without certain players.
2) Alexis Lafrenière was by far the Rangers' best player. His two goals against the Bruins gave Laf seven tallies in his past 14 games. This hot streak has moved Laf's season point total to 31, tying his mark from last season. With the lines pretty much set in stone, Laf gets to remain with the Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil, boding well for future success. That trio has struggled a smidge lately, coinciding with the team's cold stretch.
3) Shesterkin, who allowed four goals in the loss, has allowed at least four goals in five of his past seven starts. He has a 4-3-0 record in that span with an .862 save percentage. Those numbers are ugly. Igor has been sieve-like, failing to make up for the defensive deficiencies in front of him. He has gone through stretches like this in the past, but has found his way out of it.
Against Boston, Shesterkin made several good saves, but similar to this span of games, he has been unable to make the key save at the key time. In addition, we need the Shesterkin that was able to steal games last season. For pretty much all season, that player has not be the one between the pipes. Benoit Allaire needs to find a way to get Igor back to center and re-find his footing.
4) Roster issues - skating with 11 forwards and five d-men is not a recipe for success. As the league ruled when New York requested an emergency call up, the team put themselves in that position. Acquiring a pair of big dollar free agents sucked up most of the cap room. GM Chris Drury created - with several machinations - sufficient room to bring in Vladimir Tarasenko, Kane, Tyler Motte and Mikkola. But, by failing to make paper moves to create additional room, the team now is hamstrung from making any additional moves.
K'Andre Miller will be back from his suspension for the Montreal game. Ryan Lindgren's and Motte's status are both unclear. It's possible each or one could be back for the contest against the Canadiens. But also realistic they won't be active and one or the duo end up on LTIR. Once the team finally has a full roster, we should get a better sense as to how they mesh. Adam Fox has clearly missed Lindgren, and maybe the time off has helped Miller see the mistakes he was making so he can look like the player we saw in the middle of the season.
During the four days of practice, the other hope is that Panarin and Kane start to rebuild the chemistry that existed in Chicago. Panarin and a good portion of the team have been deferring to try and set up Kane to score, rather than letting the game come to them and creating chances based on that flow. Because of that focus, they were predictable the last two contests. In addition, time to move Mika Zibanejad back to the left dot and put Kane in the bumper or on the far side, as the current configuration - for now. - is not working.
I am not overreacting to the last two games or week or so due to the roster issues. But they do need to get back to how they looked when the Western Canada trip started. If/when that happens, we will be able to breathe a little easier.