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Game 8: CGY 4 NYR 1, Lack of finisher evident again in loss

October 22, 2018, 8:08 AM ET [125 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers lost 4-1 to the Flames on Sunday. Despite carrying play for large stretches of the contest, New York was unable to beat David Rittich, except once, with the Calgary netminder making at least half-a-dozen phenomenal saves out of the 44 for the game. The Blueshirts are next in action Tuesday at home against the Panthers.

Game recap:


David Quinn post-game:



A few thoughts:
1) Brady Skjei - in my opinion, a mixed game for the defenseman. Shows signs of why he is viewed as potential first pair d-man, but then follows it up with a poor play.

On the fourth Calgary goal, Skjei put Mats Zuccarello in a bad position on that pass, leaving him vulnerable. Second, the hit was totally clean and Rasmus Anderson actually held up a bit on the hit. Third, glad someone paid attention to puck going the other way for the goal by Garnet Hathaway, his second of the game. All in all, a nightmarish sequence.




2) Various quotes:


Quinn: “I think it’s more of a mindset. I still don’t think we’re a quick-release, take-advantage-of-broken-plays type team. When there’s a loose puck, we look to hold it, then shoot it. I think we’ve got to be more tenacious with a shooting mentality. Too many times, we get a loose puck, and it’s hold it, stickhandle, then make a pass as opposed to just getting it to the net and maybe getting them turned around a little bit. I think we’re doing a better job in that area but not enough.

Henrik Lundqvist:: "We are playing good enough to win games but we are not finding ways to win games."

Zuccarello - On creating chances but struggling to score tonight…
“It’s also skill. You have to make that last pass or get the puck in. It’s a skill to score. We created a lot of chances and we can sit here and say that we didn’t play a bad game, but we lost. So, it’s not good enough. We have to come to practice, talk about it and see what can do better. We do it to ourselves, some mistakes here and there and then they capitalize.”


Those quotes present a pretty good picture at what New York is right now. The lack of a finisher has been fairly evident all season, resulting in the lack of scoring. But, hopefully Quinn can help change the mindset of holding onto the puck for too long looking for the right opportunity rather than creating chances. Mika Zibanejad, who did score, spoke about the need for more grit, which has been mentioned previously. The team needs to bring more of a lunch pail attitude and willingness to go to the dirty areas to score.

3) Filip Chytil/Pavel Buchnevich - I thought both had pretty good games last night. Neither scored but each were active, especially Buch. He created several chances and if he plays like this, the floodgates should eventually open.

4) Defense - overall, not horrible, but key mistakes. On the first goal, great move by Johnny Gaudreau. but Brendan Smith has to get the puck out of the zone. You can't make mistakes like that with elite players on the ice. On the second, the fourth line failed to clear the puck and got pinned. Kevin Shattenkirk released Hathaway to go to Mark Jankowski but Marc Staal failed to get back low and get position on Hathaway, allowing the easy tap in. On the third, Skjei was spun around again with Gaudreau scoring his second of the game. I discussed the fourth goal above.

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