The Rangers found ways to blow a 5-on-3 and once again were a turnover machine in their 4-3 loss to the Flames. New York was unable to overcome those mistakes in the loss, continuing a pattern we have seen all too often this year and in years past. The four-game Canada road trip ends Saturday in Vancouver against the Canucks, who put a seven-spot up on Robin Lehner and the Blackhawks yesterday.
Game recap:
A few thoughts: 1) Turnovers - first goal came as a result of a bad pass by Artemi Panarin, leading to Johny Gaudreau's breakaway marker. Second goal scored by Mikael Backlund on a breakaway while defending a 5-on-3 caused by Tony DeAngelo's bad pass. Third goal deflected off of Brady Skjei's skate after his pass was deep in his own was knocked down and stolen. All three tallies in the first period came as a result of turnovers, making winning an improbability.
2) Defense - not aided by the turnovers but also not good in its own right. As Vince Mercoliano pointed out in his column today: "Defense has been a weakness for the Rangers in recent years, and that trend has continued in 2019-20. Through 40 games, they’re allowing an average of 34.85 shots on goal and 17.8 high-danger scoring chances per game, according to Hockey Reference." That number of shots on goal and high-danger chances are embarrassingly bad.
i sarcastically asked on Twitter last night, based on the tweets I saw flying back and forth, who is to blame for the Rangers' loss, Skjei, Quinn, Ruff or all of the above? The responses were great. My question was sarcastic because not one person is always to blame. But last night, Skjei was brutal again, as he was benched after his poor penalty. The talent is there, the issue to me is between his ears, as he is overthinking everything rather than playing. Regardless of the reason, the contract that New York gave him a few years ago looks like a massive waste of money.
I have been a broken record, as it is the system and the coaching and the players. All are culpable. But as we know, you can't replace a whole team, so....Quinn has to be held accountable as does Ruff. Fix the system if the one you are using isn't effective. Change the d-pairings. Maybe when Libor Hajek is healthy, he gets back on the lineup. I would love to say one unit has excelled, but even Lindgren and Fox, despite the latter's three assists, two on the man-advantage, weren't great last night.
Whatever they are doing has been wrong, as seen from the end result and what's gone on game-by-game, period-by-period and shift-by-shift. Fixes need to be made, what those are and how they are implement remain to be seen, but changing pairing and also making sure forwards are in the right place to defend, as the issue goes beyond just the blueline. The inability to do is on Quinn and Ruff. As I wrote on twitter last night: "The defensive structure is on the coaches. I called out the D on my latest blog but said it’s also on the players. You can teach all you want but at some point it’s on execution and willingness to put in the work. If the latter two are lacking, structure won’t matter."
3) Quinn - I get benching Skjei, because it was deserved. But you have a player like Kaapo Kakko struggling with confidence. He finally gets a goal and an assist, bolstering that confidence, yet despite a penalty - albeit not a good one - he is benched with the team down a goal late in the game for Greg McKegg. In-game benchings make sense to a certain extent, but need to be doled out appropriately. This was not the case yesterday with Kakko, which to me was a mistake yesterday.
igor Shesterkin and Joey Keane named to the AHL All-Star Game:
The 2020 #AHLAllStar rosters are here.
— AHL (@TheAHL) January 3, 2020
Details: https://t.co/iqb8pMCQyC pic.twitter.com/9cMX1RDNfm