The Rangers lost their second straight, falling 4-2 to the Capitals on Monday. New York trailed 3-0 just 8:54 into the game, chasing Alexandar Georgiev from between the pipes. Ondrej Pavelec replaced Georgiev, stopping 26 of 27 shots in his first appearance since Feb. 9., allowing a shorthanded goal to Evgeny Kuznetsov to make it 4-0 at 16:39 of the first. New York played better in the second and third periods, but were only able to bet a pair against Philipp Grubauer.
Game recap:
Washington blitzed New York in the first, promoting several of us to suggest throwing in the towel would be the wisest course of action. The Capitals, now 45-24-7, have won eight of its past nine games. Washington is up to 97 points, five more than the Penguins, who sit in second place. Each has six games remaining.
Oshie scored his fifth goal in seven games, beating Georgiev in the narrow space between his blocker and body. Matt Niskanen, left all alone in front, has enough time to wait for Georgiev to drop his glove and beat hIm top shelf for his third in six games. Alex Ovechkin scored his League-leading 45th goal on the power play from his favorite spot at 8:54 to chase Georgiev. Kuznetsov’s SHG was the second of his career, the first coming just over three years ago on March 25, 2014).
Andersson made it 4-1 at 13:16 of the second period, thanks to a nice feed by Jimmy Vesey and read by Andersson to find open space at the site of the net. Zuccarello tallied his 16th if the season, assisted by Filip Chytil, his first NHL point, on a pass/shot to the net that found Zucc, at 4:26 of the third to make it 4-2. The Rangers outshot the Capitals 23-18 in the final two periods, including 16-10 in the second period, but Grubauer was up to the task, stopping 28 shots.
I wrote yesterday about the line combinations. Adding more is a futile and pointless exercise. The only positive from the game was seeing Andersson and Chytil, though both should have been used more, especially when the game was out of hand. Some interesting bits of news about the rookie duo and their respective play yesterday from Dan Rosen’s recap and the NY Post today:
Chytil, 18, and Andersson, 19, were recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Sunday. They're the first pair of teenagers to play in the same game with the Rangers since Dave Maloney and Ron Greschner did so Dec. 19, 1974, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Andersson (No. 7-overall) and Chytil (No. 21) were also the first pair of Rangers first-round draft picks to play in a game with the team in the season immediately following their draft year since Ron Duguay and Lucien DeBlois in 1977-78.Andersson played 10:44 while centering a line with Jimmy Vesey and Ryan Spooner, and his highlight came when he finished a great Vesey feed from behind at 13:16 of the second period, a quick little shot past Grubauer’s glove to make it 4-1.
Andersson joined the Wolf Pack after that tournament — and after rehabbing a shoulder injury — putting up five goals and 14 points in 24 games. When Chytil was sent down, he pushed to stay here rather than go back to his junior team in his native Czech Republic — and he excelled in the AHL, with 11 goals and 31 points in 45 games.
“Every shift I felt more comfortable,… said Chytil, who centered a line between Kevin Hayes and Zuccarello and had a team-high six shots on net over 14:23. “It was a good game.…
The Rangers are all but elmininated from playoff contention. It that this news comes as any surprise, just that the finality of the situation is almost here. New York, 33-35-8, is 12 points behind the Devils for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They will be eliminated from playoff contention if the Devils get at least one point against the Hurricanes today.
Brooks today discussed the pending status of coach Alain Vigneault, highlighting an aspect / major focus we have repeatedly discussed. The defensive failures, both from the blue line and forwards, driven by the system will be his downfall of a move is made. GM Jeff Gordon has not tipped his hand in either direction, but those deficiencies rather than the need to mentor youth may be the driving factor in his ouster.
The chronic issues in the defensive zone will, I believe, be determinative if the Rangers make a change. That, more than the charge that young players don’t develop under Vigneault or that the team needs a different voice, is likely to be the crux of the matter.The adage in sports is that you can’t change all the players, so you change the coach, instead. Except that management has already changed nearly all the players over the last two years, with another couple likely on the move this summer. Indeed, only seven guys — Henrik Lundqvist, Staal, Skjei, Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello and Jesper Fast — who played in the 2016 first-round defeat to the Penguins remain on the roster.
But the more things have changed in the personnel department, the more they have stayed the same in the defensive zone even as the Rangers have had three different assistant coaches running the blue line — first Ulf Samuelsson, then Jeff Beukeboom and now Lindy Ruff — over the last three seasons
Ranger forwards have been shockingly delinquent in their D-zone work and coverage. Players have changed, but the system of hybrid man-to-man, with intended outnumbering at key pressure points, has remained in place. It has not been a good fit.
Over the last three seasons, with and without Derek Stepan, with and without Derick Brassard, with and without Girardi and McDonagh and with and without Yandle and Dylan McIlrath, the Rangers have allowed the third most five-on-five attempts against and the third-most shots against; have the third-worst attempts percentage; and, the second-poorest xGA, according to the numbers on corsica.hockey.
Perhaps more damning, even in acknowledging that subjectivity can be applied to defining “high-danger chances,… the Rangers have allowed more of them than every other team in the league over the last three years, according to naturalstattrick.com. These numbers merely confirm the eye test.
Here is the continuing run down for the last 16 games of the season. After losing to Winnipeg 3-0 on March 6, Tampa 5-3 on March 8 and Florida 4-3 in a shootout March 10, New York defeated Carolina 6-3 on the 12th and Pittsburgh 4-3 in overtime March 14. St. Louis defeated New York 4-3 on March 17 and the Rangers fell 5-3 Columbus (March 20) and Philly 4-3 on March 22 before defeating Buffalo 5-1 last Saturday, New York lost 4-2 to Washington yesterday at MSG and will face the Caps on the road Wednesday, followed by games against Tampa (last home game) and Carolina (road) to close out March. In April, New York faces the Devils, Islanders and Flyers, all on the road.
With less than two weeks left in the season, the Rangers sit in 22nd, Edmonton earned a point Sunday and sit in 23rd tied in points with the New York but the Rangers have one fewer win than the Oilers, why the Oilers are behind them in the standings. The Islanders sit two points in back of the Blueshirts and Oilers while Chicago is in 25th, at 71 points in 77 contests, one more game played that the three teams above them. Carolina is in 21st with 79 points in 76 games and Calgary has 80 points in the same amount of contests and sits 20th in the standings, but the Isles have their first round pick from the Travis Hamonic deal.