The Rangers blew four leads, falling 8-5 to the Hurricanes on Sunday. Edges of 2-0, 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 were tossed in the garbage thanks to poor own zone coverage, reminiscent of the past few seasons. Jimmy Vesey, who could have tallied four goals, and Chris Kreider each notched a pair of markers in the loss.
David Quinn Post-Game:
Coach Quinn breaks it all down vs Carolina #NYR pic.twitter.com/0mAQBBybxH
— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) October 8, 2018
Steve Valiquette on the offense:
.@VallysView breaks down what went right for the @NYRangers offense in a wild 8-5 loss to Carolina pic.twitter.com/gMtsPz7m0b
— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) October 8, 2018
A few thoughts:
1) Part of the defense's struggles can be blamed on learning a new system and the need to absorb all the lessons taught during practice. But to see the same mistakes we saw the last several seasons, including two players chasing the puck behind the net leaving the slot open or a failure in general to cover the slot, is mind-boggling. The lack of communication between defensive partners or to the forwards still makes you shake your head. i keep reminding myself that these mistakes are likely to happen for a while longer and it's part of the rebuild, but boy, that was tough to watch.
2) Good for Vesey to get the two goals, but he blew a golden chance in the third on a pass from Brett Howden with an open net and missed a handful of other opportunities.
3) Lineup tweaks:
#NYR Vlad Namestnikov and Tony DeAngelo are in the lineup today in Carolina replacing Cody McLeod and Vinni Lettieri.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 7, 2018
Alex Georgiev gets his first start in 🥅
I had no issue scratching McLeod and was mildly surprised with scratching Lettieri but ada deserved to get in and Lundqvist was going to get a day off, so why not on the back end of a back-to-back.
How did it work out? Namestnikov wasn't great, especially in back checking, with his failure to do so resulted in at least one of the goals.
DeAngelo was New York's best d-man. Granted, he wasn't always great defensively, but he recovered quickly after making a mistake and his offensive capabilities were on display throughout the game. He notched a pair of assists, including one on Pavel Buchnevich's PPG, where his fake shot and cut to the middle opened up space, resulting in the goal. The penalty against him late looked like it was as a result if him trying to kick the puck to keep it in the zone and not an attempt at interference, though when he whiffed, that call was correct.
Georgiev wasn't helped by the defense but he was all kinds of woof. A bad short side goal late in the first and a bad whiff on a shot in the final minute of the second started the decline. Not a particularly first impression in 2018-19 by Georgiev, who will have to be better to keep the back up role.
4) Kreider had his best game of the season, despite getting mixed and matched with different linemates with New York dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, based on the lineup changes noted above. Plus, he was high-sticked on another call missed by the referees; the third such missed call in three games.
5) Marc Staal and Kevin Shattenkirk, in today's case, especially Shattenkirk were not good at all. his poor play resulted in just 7:29 of ice time, most of which was eaten up by ADA. Adam McQuaid struggled as well, while Brady Skjei had a handful of egregious turnovers.
Up front, someone tell Mats Zuccarello the season started, the same with Mika Zibanejad. Making up for their poor play was Howden, who was very strong again. Kevin Hayes was somewhat better than last night, though he too wasn't great. Filip Chytil saw just 10:03 action, as he didn't have his best game of the year either.
With three days off until San Jose on Thursday, Quinn should be showing the players their mistakes over and over and working remediating them in practice. The next few days should be teaching and working on the system to help make it second nature. At 0-3 with San Jose, Edmonton, Colorado and Washington upcoming, the Rangers don't get any easy games.