The Rangers dropped their third straight game, falling 6-3 to the Ducks on Tuesday. Four goals allowed in the first period set the tone and following the third tally, Henrik Lundqvist was rightly pulled. New York pulled to within 4-3 in late in the second, but the penalty kill faltered again in the first minute of the third, effectively ending the game.
Watching the first period, I actually New York didn’t play that badly. The Rangers outshot the Ducks 18-8 but four of those shots against ended up in the net. J.T. Brown scored on a 2-on-1 beating Lundqvist short-side on Anaheim’s first shot of the game. A horrific change in the penalty kill created copious room in the neutral zone, allowing Ryan Getzlaf to spring Corey Perry for a breakaway goal. Lundqvist got a piece of this shot as well but not enough to stop the puck from entering the net. David Desharnais backed up, giving Andrew Cogliano too much room and Coglano beat Hank top-shelf to the glove side, ending his night. Seven shots, three goals, two of which probably should have been stopped. But seeing how often Lundqvist carried the team, he is entitled to his first bad effort in Close to three months. Yet the team couldn’t pick him up.
It didn’t get much better from there, as Ondrej Pavelec allowed a goal on his first shot against. Not that he could have done much about that. J.T. Miller’s telegraphed pass was picked off in the neural zone and the dish sent in Adam Henrique all alone on Pavelec. Henrique undressed Pavelec for the fourth goal of the period. Miller was benched after that turnover and I have no problem with that move.
I wrote in the blog comments that AV last night played those who should play. Paul Carey, who hit the crossbar, and Pater Holland each put in an honest effort. Others did not. Now, if looking just to the future, then sure play those players who are going to be keys to down the road. But if still trying to win games, then those who are playing hard are thosevtgat should remain on the ice.
The only positives in the game were that Rick Nash and Michael Grabner likely enhanced their trade value. Nash scored twice, both tallies coming from the dirty areas. Grabner was stoned early in the game on a breakaway but beat John Gibson, who stopped 41 shots, on a shorthanded breakaway in the second. New York scored a PPG and added that shorthanded tally but it was not enough.
The sieve-like PK allowed two more goals. I discount the second one slightly, as it came just after a 5-on-3 ended. That 5-on-3 was created by a questionable penalty on Jesper Fast early in the third that could have gone the other one. A week ago, New York was second in the league with an 83.4% kill rate. Since then, opponents have been successful on seven of 14 power play chances. Whatever could go wrong had gone wrong.
The numbers against, as posted in the blog comments yesterday, are staggering;
#NYR Since December 10th (last 20 games): - 3 regulation wins - 13 times allowing 35+ SOG - just 1 regulation win in 9 games against top-16 NHL teams (3-4-2). - have been outshot in 8 of those 9 games
If that’s not a pretty good indication the direction New York should take, very little else should be. The team looks spent mentality and the coaching staff’s inability to remediate the same issues has been highly evident lately. I have reached the point where I expect a loss, where I expect a critical mistake leading to a goal against, where I expect something to go awry. I think the team may be at that same point. I would love to still hold out hope for a turnaround but to expect that based upon what we have seen is likely chasing rainbows. The point of no return may have been reached and changing are needed. Those changes will mean players go, and at some point, the coaching staff and possibly management.