The Rangers played well for about the 25 minutes of Thursday's game. Problem is that it is a 60-minute game, and after that good initial blush, the wheels fell off resulting in a 5-1 loss. Vegas outskated the Rangers, blowing through holes in the neutral zone to gain the offensive zone easily, leading to a myriad of scoring chances. Very few players had a solid game with a few having lousy efforts in the loss.
Game recap:
A few thoughts: 1) Defense - Libor Hajek dressed again with Nils Lundkvist on the bench again. I thought Hajek played fairly well in the first period before he fell apart the last two stanzas. Hajek failed to get the puck deep, resulting in a breakout by Vegas and goal by Mark Stone (your interpretation of distinct kicking motion inserted here. He turned his skate, but it did not look like he kicked, though if the skate is moving forward, by definition, that's not a kicking motion). Later, he failed to tie up Mattias Janmark, which was set up by a poor dump in by Zac Jones, who beat Alexandar Georgiev on a shot he should have stopped. Later, Brett Howden (who would be an All-Star if played 82 games against his old team) beat Georgiev on a similar play with Hajek unable to slow him down,Those are the two glaring examples, but there were more. Nils should be back on Saturday, if the game versus the Ducks is played.
I didn't think Adam Fox had a particularly good game, as he appeared out of position and was chasing the puck. That was evident on the first PK, though part of that might have been Fox's pairing with K'Andre Miller with Ryan Lindgren in the box. Trouba and Miller were fairly solid, though that is in comparison to the other two duos.
The forwards have to be lumped here as well. Slowing down counter-attacks is the job of the forward, maybe even more so at times than the d-men. That was evident in how easy Vegas went from d to O with little resistance. On the PK, as mentioned in the blog comments, Kreider and Zibanejad are sandwiching Jonathan Marchssault and they let him chip in the puck with Zib missing a chance to clear, as did Miller. On the Stone goal, Zib got back late, leaving Stone open in front of the net. I don't know if it was effort, poor decision making, bad positioning or a combination of all three, but that was on full display last night.
2) Georgiev was pressed into action with Igor Shesterkin landing on the COVID protocol list. With Connor McDavid, who played Monday against the Rangers when he was already ill, sidelined due to the same reason, you wonder if more New York players will be sidelined. Artemi Panarin hopefully will be able to go Saturday if cleared from protocol.
The game was a mixed bag for Georgiev. Several excellent saves, but also a handful of goals he should have stopped. Little he could do on Marchssault's PPG, same with Stone's tally. But he should have stopped Janmark's and Howden's shots. I gave him a pass on Marchessault second as it was a blast.
3) Lineup - getting Panarin will help tremendously, which is expected. The third line is providing little and the fourth did the same yesterday. Put Morgan Barron on the fourth line and sit Greg McKegg. Panarin is back with Ryan Strome and try Alexis Lafreniere on the right wing. Filip Chytil should be sat, though Dryden Hunt or Julien Gautheir could be the odd-man out, though Gauthier is waiting on a COVID test and may be sidelined anyway. New York, as we have discussed, needs one more top-nine player, maybe two.
Our focus has been on Tomas Hertl. Claude Giroux, if Philly moves him, is a target as well. Same with Joe Pavelski. Yahoo speculated Vitali Kravtsov and a pair of second rounders might be enough to acquire Giroux. If the Rangers really believe they are contenders, they could pursue more than one player to lengthen and deepen the lineup.