The Rangers head into their 'bye-week' off a split this weekend. After Henrik Lundqvist kept the team in the game and bailed out the squad, New York was able to defeat Arizona 2-1 in a shootout Saturday. Ondrej Pavelec did his best Lundqvist impression, making save after save, but the Rangers fell 2-1 to the West leading Golden Knights on Sunday.
Game recap:
MSG Post-Game:
Mats Zuccarello returned to the lineup after missing Saturday's game, but clearly was less than 100 per cent during the game. To make room for Zucc, Pavel Buchnevich, who was dropped to the fourth line against the Coyotes, was scratched. Jesper Fast replaced Buch on the top line, Paul Carey went from the fourth to second line with Michael Grabner sliding down to join Vinni Lettieri on the bottom trio.
I get all the consternation for sitting Buch, since he is the one true instinctive offensive weapon on the team. But he also hasn't produced recently, though several others are in the same boat. The offense has dried up, Nash, Hayes, Grabner and Miller all have seen their output decline of late. The same can be said about Zuccarello to an extent and Zibanejad until recently. That's six forwards besides Buch who are not producing at the required level, making the hand-wringing for scratching him understandable.
Miller-Zibanejad-Fast Carey-Hayes-Zuccarello Vesey-Desharnais-Nash Grabner-Nieves-Lettieri
On the blue line, Brendan Smith - he on the four-year, $17.4 million deal - was scratched for Steven Kampfer. The other two pairings stayed the same. I have no issues with Smith getting scratched. Saturday, McDonagh-Holden was actually the only players for New York with a positive Corsi and also, appeared to have played a decent game. I get why they remained together, notwithstanding the need for a better partner for McDonagh, who was not great last night.
McDonagh-Holden Skjei-Shattenkirk Staal-Kampfer
Pavelec
During the game yesterday, New York lost Kevin Hayes basically after the first period with a lower-body injury following a hit from from Nate Schmidt at 5:22. Add in Zuccarello not at full strength coupled with the absence of Kreider and Buch and it's no shock they scored just once. Lettieri had a pretty solid game as did the fourth line overall, and while it's great that the bottom trio has extended the lineup, the upper-six and nine need to pull their weight.
Due to the above, it's no shock New York is 3-3-2 in their last eight games. Ranger Saver posted the numbers and I was thinking about this watching the game. The three wins were 1-0 over Washington in a shootout, 3-2 in overtime over Buffalo and 2-1 against Arizona in a shootout. In their last eight games, 16 goals for and 20 goals against (including two empty net goals scored by Chicago. Remember when the offense and the power play were cooking or at least the PP was carrying this team. Now, with each slumping, all the defensive woes - especially the lack of shot suppression and surrendering of high-danger area chances - are magnified, a situation that would be even more dire if Lundqvist and Pavelec hadn't stood on their heads.
Yesterday's game was no different. Here are the numbers via NaturalStatTrick, at 5v5: CF: 61-43 VGK SF: 33-25 VGK SCF: 27-22 VGK. That's getting dominated again. The two goals surrendered each came on poor defensive plays. On the first, McDonagh puts the puck in Carey's skates, creating the turnover with James Neal capitalizing. On the second, Kevin Shattenkirk played Reilly Smith correctly. Brady Skjei and Boo Nieves failed to cover the other side of the ice, leaving William Karlsson wide open. Despite having to go post to post, Pavelec still got a piece of ice and almost made the save. These were the goals, but NY was lucky to be tied 1-1 after two, as Vegas had four, two-on-one rushes in the second, The one D-man back played each situation well, allowing Pavelec to take the shooter, but the pinches by the D and failure to cover by the forward or space allowed in the neutral zone.
The defensive issues must be cleaned up, that is primary and first and foremost. But the offensive woes is the other key driver. Until that gets resolved, even if somehow the defensive problems are resolved, the inability to score consistently will plague this team the rest of the way. This is a situation exacerbated by the loss of Kreider but also not finding a way to get Buch going or at least show sufficient enough confidence to roll with him even when problems arise of he is struggling.
If you don't like AV, then his recent actions make it easier to justify that view. If you do like him, the current lineup tweaks and activations/scratches have you scratching your head. I am not advocating a change but the same problems occurring need to be fixed. Its either the players, the coach or both. If the second or third options, we know what will happen. He has been a polarizing individual, partially due to what some view as stubbornness and others see at short-sightedness. But, sometimes the blame does sit with the players, though even if it does, we know who takes the hit first.