The Rangers fell 3-0 against the Islanders on Wednesday. With the defeat, the Blueshirts fell to 0-2-2 in their last four contests. The Rangers’ offense has dried up, which has been the main contributor to their recent downward swirl.
Game recap:
Lineup: Julien Gauthier was promoted and dressed in place of Vitali Kravtsov, who suffered an upper-body injury (arm or shoulder) Tuesday against Colorado. Zac Jones sat again, which kind of was expected since Libor Hajek was solid enough versus the Avalanche. Jaroslav Halak got the start, also kind of expected due to the back-to-back and Igor Shesterkin having a heavy workload the night before.
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière Vesey-Goodrow-Gauthier Blais-Carpenter-Reaves
Miller-Trouba Lindgren-Fox Hajek-Schneider
Halak Shesterkin
A few thoughts: 1) Offense or the lack thereofTuesday, the Rangers scored twice on 46 shots. Yesterday, it was no goals on 41 shots. Against, San Jose, the volume of shots and attempts were evident as well, but just two goals were scored. Are you sending a pattern?
The Twitter comment is that the Rangers were goalied. To a certain extent that has been the case. James Reimer, Alexandar Georgiev and Ilya Sorokin all stood on their head during the contest. When the Blueshirts created most of their prime chances, it was by going north-south. But as seen on the two breakout goals Tuesday, there was some east-west on the passing plays, so not one style works.
Yesterday, Gauthier had a prime scoring opportunity 2:06 into the game and he was stoned. Kakko Kaapo went around four Islanders only to be stopped by Sorokin. Alexis Lafreniere hesitated for a millisecond on a cross ice pass from Artemi Panarin, which allowed the shot to be turned away. The inability to get that first goal to create momentum is also a factor as that would force the opponent to be on their heels.
Vince Mercogliano posted this in his column: “According to Clear Sight Analytics, the Blueshirts have scored fewer goals than expected based on the quality of their scoring chances in all but one of their first eight games. That xG unbalance has now occurred in six consecutive contests, with five resulting in losses.… I know you all don’t like analytics, but this stat shows that New York is generating enough chances, just not converting. That is different from last year, when 5x5 the team was horrible until the trade deadline but bailed out by the PP. The shot made percentage should hopefully return to norm, at which point, we will see a lot more goals.
2) Lineup - Most of the complaining has been directed at the bottom-six. The third line has actually been fairly solid, despite the loss of Filip Chytil. Against Colorado and the Islanders, that trio - which incorporated Jimmy Vesey again and yesterday included Gauthier - were somewhat evident and not why they lost. When Barclay Goodrow moves up, this hurts the fourth line, which to me has been a contributor to the losses. That group has no true identity nor have they made a difference in any of the three zones, which is why I think a change could be made there in the near term.
In general, if the top six doesn’t score, your team is unlikely to win. This has been exceedingly evident and on display, especially recently. I saw the calls for Patrick Kane, put that in your back pocket for now, as I don’t see that happening right now. Coach Gerard Gallant will probably stick with the current configuration since the team is generating chances - especially 5x5 - despite not scoring. If the upcoming back to back goes poorly, then everything needs to be up for consideration.
3) The powerless play - the definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different result. New York looks to have sold out to make the cross ice pass to Mike Zibanejad for the one-timer from the left dot area. Zib isn’t Alexander Ovechkin and some diversity in attack would be wise.
The Islanders do deserve a lot of the credit. They went 3-for-3 yesterday and are a perfect 25-for-25 on the season on the penalty kill. But the Rangers didn’t force the issue and make it difficult on their opponent yesterday.
I would love to see more of the play and shots created from the slot. In addition, Chris Kreider is snake bit to an extent. The deflection of in close shots that went in last year are being smothered this season. A mild return to form - we hope - would also go a long way to helping the offense and PP look a lot better.
4) Halak was brought in to back up Shesterkin. He is 0-3, including losses in his starts Sunday and yesterday. I don’t place all the blame for the defeats on him but Halak also didn’t make the big save when needed. The two goals by Kyle Palmieri, his first two of the season, probably should have been stopped, especially the second. Making the big save when needed separates the great from the good goalies and is what Igor gives the team.
With the loss to his former team, Halak is 0-2-2 with a 5.62 goals against average and .825 save percentage versus the Isles. Ugly numbers to say the least. With another back to back upcoming this weekend, does Igor go twice?
5) Schedule - how the heck is this the only game the two teams will play this year at UBS Arena? In addition, they only meet twice more this season, November 8 and December 22, both at MSG. So by Xmas the rivalry on ice for the year will be over. Great job NHL.