The Rangers lost their third in a row, including second straight where they blew a multi-goal lead, falling 5-3 to the Devills on Monday. New York (10-9-4) has registered only four wins in their last 12 contests during this rough patch. New Jersey is now 16-1 in their last 17 games and displayed their speed and solid forecheck in notching the victory. The Blueshirts take on Ottawa on Wednesday.
Game recap:
Lines:
#NYR in warmups:
— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) November 28, 2022
Kreider-Zibanejad-Vesey
Panarin-Chytil-Kakko
Lafreniere-Trocheck-Goodrow
Blais-Carpenter-Gauthier
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
Halak
A few thoughts: 1) Igor Shesterkin's evaluation of his game was 1000% accurate. Tomas Tatar's backhand shot, as well-placed as it was, should have been stopped. I don't blame him for Yegor Sharangovich's goal, which was set up first by Jacob Trouba's giveaway at the blueline and then by Ryan Carpenter playing the puck out of the corner into the middle. But the goal by Jack Hughes - even though on a breakaway after a great lead pass by Dawson Mercer - had to be stopped, as Hughes had nowhere to go with Ryan Lindgren getting back to take away any true move.
Michael McLeod's goal came after a Braden Schneider turnover in the neutral zone, leading to a Miles Wood shot off the crossbar. McLeod put in the rebound after Zac Jones failed to clear the puck. Of the four goals scored with Shesterkin in net, two were weak, which is not a good average. But two occurred due to poor defensive plays, which also has been a key factor in the team's slump the last 10-12 games. I appreciate Shesterkin, who made 33 saves, taking blame for the loss, and while he certainly has not played as well as he did earlier, he has had lots of company in the classification of subpar play.
Larry Brooks nicely further evidenced the difficulties Igor is having. Last season, anytime the Rangers needed to be bailed out, Igor answered the call. This year, that has not been the case, contributing significantly to the team’s 10-9-4 record. A year ago, Shesterkin recorded a save percentage of the NHL average .907 or below in 14 of his 52 starts. Monday’s contest, in which he surrendered four goals on 37 shots, marked the ninth time in 17 starts he’s been below that number. Shesterkin’s high-danger save percentage of .877 (Natural Stat Trick) ranks sixth in the NHL but his low-danger unblocked shot attempt save percentage of .962 (MoneyPuck) ranks 25th in the league.
He's allowed at least three goals in six of his past nine starts, including four times with four goals against. https://t.co/no54AoGDy2
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) November 29, 2022
2) Artemi Panarin broke a 12-game goalless streak with his tally early in the game. The Panarin-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko line turned the puck over at times while pushing for offense, but they were easily the Rangers' most dangerous unit throughout the night, out-chancing the Devils, 8-4, while they were on the ice together, according to Natural Stat Trick. It looked like a combination worth an extended look, though as we have seen to date, coach Gerard Gallant could mix up the lines again Wednesday.
3) The game was a good summary of what has ailed the Rangers this season. A lack of depth, need for speed and ongoing battle with inconsistency are becoming more glaring as the collective frustration - in players, coaches and fan base - mounts. In addition, the young kids have yet to fully pan out and show their draft selection location was fully warranted.
On the latter, this stat bears that out. Three of the Devils’ 25-or-younger forwards − Hughes, Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier − have posted 25 points or more this season, while none of the Rangers have more than Chytil's 11. That is a damning stat. Now, part of that has to do with usage and deployment, but the numbers support the criticism and concern related to the lack of development and output by Kaako Kappo, Alexis Lafreniere, and to a lesser extent, Chytil.
4) Gallant clearly doesn’t trust the bottom trio. Ryan Carpenter saw the most time of the three at 7:09. Some of this might have been due to the game score, but that is ridiculously low usage once again. The same with the bottom D-pair, which played about 11 minutes. Contrast that with Adam Fox, who played 30:04. Granted a good part of that was due to the five power plays awarded to the Rangers, but Gallant needs to be careful not to burn Fox out.
The season looks to be at a crossroads. The longer the struggles go, the harder it will be to dig out and get into a playoff spot. A ton of time does remain but losing connection with the upper part of the division or conference creates the likelihood of a panic move down the road. Right now, no answer stands out. No one is coming up from the minors to be a savior. The team needs to remediate the errors we have seen in each game and find a way out of this mess. Whether they can is the major question and up for serious debate.