The Rangers played their most complete game in weeks before falling on a goal with 1:29 left in the game Saturday. New York actually dominated action for much of the contest but Jacob Markstrom did to the Blueshirts what Henrik Lundqvist did to so many opponents for years. If the Rangers can play like this Tuesday and moving forward, they should win more games than they lose.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
Coach Quinn: “We’ve got to fight through some adversity here. I think we can certainly draw from this game to understand what we’re going to have to do to have success. We’ll get home, get some rest and get ready for a big game on Tuesday night.… pic.twitter.com/C6MIxOk6su
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 5, 2020
A few thoughts: 1) Graphic representation of just how well New York played Saturday. After two lousy performances in a row, the Rangers flipped the switch yesterday. Markstrom was the main reason for the defeat, especially on his pad stack to rob Jacob Trouba in the third period.
Courtesy of @csahockey. Last night’s @NYRangers at @Canucks Scoring Chances Summary (including posts). #NYR pic.twitter.com/09EoX54e5L
— Stephen Valiquette (@VallysView) January 5, 2020
2) Pavel Buchnevich notched New York's only goal. The most impressive part of the tally was that he took a check on the boards and then went right to the net. As seen by the advanced metrics since 12/1, Buch has deserved a better fate but the results have not been there.
This is since December 1. Buchnevich has been playing some really good hockey, but the goals just haven't come. Wouldn't be surprised if he goes on a bit of a run coming up. pic.twitter.com/X2h4KN06ck
— Tom Urtz Jr. (@TomUrtzJr) January 5, 2020
3) Defense - better last night but the first goal of the game - 11 seconds in - sensing a pattern there the last few weeks - came on a breakdown. Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox were caught flatfooted and lost Antoine Roussel in front, allowing him to put in the rebound. Other than that goal, the team was pretty solid in their own zone, though Brady Skjei wasn't good again.
4) Faceoffs - a major concern for the team overall again this season. A bad icing penalty on Skjei led to an own zone draw late. Mika Zibanejad, who won just 24% of his draws yesterday, lost that faceoff, leading to Vancouver gaining possession. Tyler Myers' shot should have been stopped by Alexandar Georgiev but the whole play started with the icing and faceoff loss.
Zib was at 52% his first year in New York in 2016-17. He dropped then 50.82%, then 49.67% last season and is at 47.94% this year. Between the dots is a major weakness for this team. You can work around those issues but losing draws in key moments has resulted in late goals against and a pair or losses recently. Need to get Brad Richards and maybe Mark Messier to work with the team to try and attempt to fix what's broken and.or help those struggling, which is most of the pivotmen.