The Rangers rallied for three goals in the third to pull out a point Sunday against the Flyers. New York was unable to score in overtime or in the shootout, ultimately falling 4-3 to Philly. Tuesday, in New Jersey, the Blueshirts face a Devils team that has given them fits.
Game recap:
A few thoughts: 1) Friday was a debacle, Sunday slightly less so but the end result could have been just as a bad. The difference was that yesterday, New York was way more engaged and carried play far more than what we saw against the Islanders. The Blueshirts posted an overall 86-35 shots attempted advantage and 46-26 on ones that actually hit the net, yet despite that number, a minute into the third the score was 3-0 Philly.
Coach Gerard Gallant brought out the blender a bit, shortened the bench, and the Rangers upped their “panic… quotient. Not to say that the team panicked, but they sure looked have even more urgency and focus on carrying play after the first minute of the third. The big boys stepped up, helping to notch the three markers needed to at least get a point.
The comeback was nice, gaining a point was great, but New York should not have been in that position. Good teams find a way to beat teams not in playoff contention. Two straight games where not enough was evident. At least against Philly they carried play, but a chance to put some distance between them and Pittsburgh for second place in the division and home ice advantage in ether first round of the playoffs was lost. Guess which two teams meet on Thursday?
2) Power play - for all the gains made 5x5, it’s been somewhat offset by the struggles on the man advantage. In the playoffs, special teams take on even greater importance, as wasting chances are a recipe for disaster. So good earlier in the year, New York has hit the skids on the powerless play.
Yesterday, the Blueshirts were 0-3 on the power play. Teams have started to clog and up the checking in the neutral zone, trying to force the Rangers to dump the puck in, cognizant they lack the foot speed to carry the puck into the zone. When/if the Rangers finally gain the zone, opponents are forcing quicker passes by moving their zone up closer to the blue line, taking away time and space from Adam Fox.
New York has yet to counter that challenge. Maybe place a player higher in the slot to create an outlet, allowing that skater to be the quasi-second point person. Quicker passing to take advantage of that aggressiveness is needed, because repeating the same strategy that is not working is the definition of insanity.
3) Ryan Strome missed his fourth straight game. While his absence has been evident offensively, the one ancillary benefit has been the increased chemistry between Andrew Copp and Artemi Panarin, who was by far the Rangers’ best player last night. In addition, Coop’s quotes as to learning how to play with Panarin and the value of yesterday’s comeback show that he just gets it and really needs to be brought back for the future.
"You just want to figure out where he has the puck, because he has the puck a really large amount of time in the hockey game," Copp said. "You want to figure out where he gets that puck, where his head is and where he's looking for guys. ... I feel like I'm starting to figure out when he wants me to drive the night (and) when he wants me to pull up, especially as that lefty in that one-timer seam. I’m starting to figure it out more and more. I think coming through the neutral zone, too, he loves the puck on his stick, he loves being dangerous. So, it's create time and space for him a lot of time.""That’s a really good comeback by us in the third," Copp said. "It seems like there's a lot of belief. We feel like we're a really good team, so really good teams can come back in games like that. Even though we didn't get the extra point, I think confidence is gained from the way we played in the last few periods and being able to come back from something like that – which is going to happen in the playoffs, for sure, in my experience."
4) Igor Shesterkin’s recent struggles have been much documented. Those continued early yesterday as Cam York’s knuckle puck point shot that should have been stopped fluttered past Igor’s glove. His annoyance at allowing that marker might have impacted his concentration on Owen Tippett’s goal 50 seconds later.
Shesterkin was clearly still not in a good mood after the game, as he did not want to talk about his performance. If Igor isn’t at the top of his game, this team is going nowhere. Figuring out whatever the problems are and fixing them is job number one for goaltending coach Benoit Allaire and Gallant. Maybe Igor is tired. Maybe he needs more work to truly be effective. Maybe it’s a technical issue. Whatever it is, get in the lab and resolve it and quickly.