The Rangers dropped to 0-2 on the season, falling 3-1 to the Sabres on Saturday. For the second straight game, New York put forth a solid effort with little to show for it at the end of the day. The Blueshirts will try to pick up their first win of the season today against the Hurricanes.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
“I thought we played pretty well...but there’s a difference between playing well and playing winning hockey.…
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 7, 2018
- #NYR Head Coach David Quinn pic.twitter.com/zUZ31NNR02
A few thoughts: 1) Penalty kill - allowed a pair of Conor Sheary goals, though on the first one, hard to fault the players on the ice. Buffalo had six men on the ice which wasn't called by the officials. In fact, the penalty should have been on the Sabres for water-skiing Chris Kreider, but instead Kreider was flagged on the call. On the second, great play by Jack Eichel, beating Zib and Pionk and the Marc Staal was caught in no-man's land, leading to an easy goal by Sheary.
2) The kids - I loved seeing coach David Quinn using the kids late in the game. Brett Howden and Filip Chytil were both on the ice down the stretch as new York tried to rally. Playing in situations like that can only accelerate their growth.
3) Howden - excellent again. Won 62.5% of his faceoffs. Scored his first goal of his career in the third after getting stoned by Carter Hutton on a 3-on-0 earlier in the game. Was moved in the center pecking order, replacing Kevin Hayes, who was demoted to the fourth and didn't see much action in the third.
4) Chytil - returned from an unnecessary and late shot to the head by Patrik Breglund early in the game. Glad Cody McLeod dressed as a deterrent. Another solid effort by Chytil, who has shown a willingness to shoot the puck.
Chytil's hurt after this hit from Berglund. pic.twitter.com/yczyMZTu8C
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) October 7, 2018
5) Power play - no goals but like the puck and player movement. Generated good shots though don't love the attempts to pass the puck through the center of the ice and carry the puck in all the time. Mixing it up at times, trying a dump or chip and chase occasionally would be wise.
6) Jimmy Vesey - strong again, just can't finish. Can say that about a lot of Rangers. Need Mats Zuccarello to shoot rather than pass at times. I thought Mika Zibanejad was pretty active throughout, despite not scoring. Kreider missed some time with a cut by his eye resulting when a shot deflected off a Sabre and hit CK20 on his visor, forcing it down creating the cut. He was better than in Game 1 but still not good enough.
7) Lundqvist was very good again. No real chance on the second goal following the royal road pass and the first was on a 2-on-1. Several excellent saves and i believe he is 48-for-50 on shots in 5x5 situations. Rangers are 0-2 but not because of Lundqvist.
8) Kevin Shattenkirk - still rounding into form, better, but not great. Late in the game, has to find a way to get the puck on net, as he had a pair of shot attempts blocked with New York down a goal.
9) Hutton - plays like he is Patrick Roy against New York. Showed why he led the league last season with a .931 save percentage. Solid play, with some spectacular saves added in for good measure.
Positive signs again in the loss but the team is 0-2. The team is still ironing out some of the kinks, including communication on the ice, which resulted in a few turnovers and missed chances Saturday. First of the 11 back-to-backs on the season today in Carolina.