The Rangers fell 4-3 to the Jets on the first game of their four-game road trip. New York bookended a strong second period with a weak first and average second frame, resulting in the defeat. After training 2-0 after the initial stanza, the Blueshirts knotted the game in the second and took the early in the third before allowing a pair of goals in a 1:59 span leading to the defeat. New York takes on the Sabres in Buffalo on Friday.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
A few thoughts:
1)
Zib and Zucc, Zucc and Zib - the Z-squared duo remained hot in the loss. The below is from the Rangers post-game notes. Pretty darn good run for both of them, one who is starting and one who looks to be on his way out of town in the next 12 days.
Zibanejad has recorded 13 goals over his past 11 games, the second Ranger since the 1989-90 season to accomplish that feat, after Adam Graves in 1993-94 and Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06. The center, who finished last season by recording 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in the final eight games, has 25 goals and 56 points in the Blueshirts’ 56 games and eight markers in his last seven contests.
Zuccarello’s two assists of Zib’s goals boosted his run to (five goals, 14 assists) 19 points in the last 12 games.
It’s also sometimes better to be lucky than good. Zib’s two goals were a result of good bounces. His first hit off Jacob Trouba, then the post and past Connor Hellebuyck. Zibanejad’s second, 57 seconds into the third period, banked off Trouba and Josh Morrissey and past Helly. These all balance out in the end, but yesterday Zib was the recipient of two fortunate bounces.
2)
Lack of secondary scoring - Carp noted the below, which is a stat I discussed last week. While the KZZ line is rolling and it looks like Pavel Buchnevich, who scored a power play goal on a beautiful deflection off Ryan Strome’s shot, seems to waking up, many others have been passengers. Vladislav Namestnikov now has no goals in 23 games, Strome none in 11 and Jesper Fast none in 13. When you add in Brett Howden’s slump before he was injured, you have a pretty good idea why the Rangers gave hovered around .500 the past several weeks and played so many one-goal games.
3)
Filip Chytil - Forever Blueshirts noted this stat, which was bandied about on Twitter and been noticeable the past few games. “Chytil only got nine shifts against Winnipeg – just two of which were in the third period. On Sunday night, Chytil had just three shifts in the final period, and none in the last 7:30 of the contest.” Maybe Quinn is protecting Chytil, especially in close contests. But nothing looked apparent in Chytil’s play of late that warranted this decision. You would hope that down the stretch, even if just for growth purposes, Quinn would use Chytil late in games to aid in his development.
4)
Dustin Byfuglien - Big Buff missed several weeks due to an ankle injury but he looked to be trying to make up for lost time with his hits yesterday, several of which were questionable at best.
In the first, he caught Jimmy Vesey up high with a flying elbow which went uncalled. In the second, he was handed just a two-minute minor for his elbow that sent Fast’s head into the rear glass late in the second period. In the third, his hit from behind on Neal Pionk, which was borderlin, also went uncalled.
Hit on Fast:
Hit on Pionk:
5)
Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves, but had at least one shot and maybe more he would like to have back. Bad first goal to Mark Scheifele, who beat Hank through the legs. Second tally was aided by an uncalled pick by Blake Wheeler on Brendan Smith, screening Lundqvist, who was beaten high blocker side by Scheifele. Third tally was helped by a screening Marc Staal but Lundqvist should have made the stop on Joe Morrow’s shot. On the fourth, Neal Pionk failed to pick up Andrew Copp in the slot.
Lundqvist played in his 40th game of the season, making him the first goalie in NHL history to make 40 appearances in each of his first 14 seasons.
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