The Rangers lost 3-2 to the Red Wings on Tuesday. Despite outshooting Detroit 43-30, New York was unable to beat Jimmy Howard more than twice, continuing their recent goalscoring ills. Nine game remain on the season with a struggling Toronto squad up next.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad- Buchnevich
Namestnikov-Howden-Lettieri
Vesey-Chytil- Strome
Lemieux-Andersson –Smith
Changes from what we saw at practice Monday. Vinni Lettieri, who was called up Monday, was placed on the second line, moving Pavel Buchnevich up to the top trio. Ryan Strome, who was on the top line, was shifted down to third line, playing with Jimmy Vesey and Filip Chytil, who originally was not slated to play with the flu. Jesper Fast, who missed Monday’s practice for maintenance reasons and has been reportedly playing through an upper-body injury, was scratched. Connor Brickley and Boo Nieves were scratched with Andersson sliding down to the fourth line, but at least he saw 10:45 of action.
D pairs:
76-22 Skjei-Shattenkirk
18-77 Staal-DeAngelo
58-44 Gilmour-Pionk
Claesson was scratched. Skjei was moved off pairing with Pionk to play with Shattenkirk. Gilmour, called up Monday as well, was in line paired with Pionk. Those two had an okay game with Pionk actually looking fairly good while Gilmour didn’t look out of place. He has nine games to show New York he should remain there, but, my guess is that he signs elsewhere as a Group VI UFA.
From Carp: The Rangers have six goals in their last four games and were held to two or fewer nine times in the last 10. They scored their second goal of this game with 9.6 seconds left, against the third-worst team in the NHL. Since Mats Zuccraello and Kevin Hayes were dealt, the offense has dried up. That has filtered down to the top duo in Zib and Kreider, supplemented by the lack of scoring from the remaining lines. Only Buchnevich and Strome, who had one of the two goals Tuesday, have been mildly warm offensively.
I wrote the
below paragraph yesterday. I will note the results of each of the final 10 games here and if New York’s place in the standings has changed.
March 20 – Detroit 3 New York 2. Still sixth. Tied with Anaheim, one game in hand. Edmonton lost, so no change
If the Rangers continue to struggle, they could may slide down one more slots, below Anaheim, as they are tied with them in points but the Blueshirts have two games in hand. In addition, Edmonton and Buffalo have two more points than New York and have played the same number of games while Vancouver is three points north of the Rangers, who have one game in hand. New York faces Detroit, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Boston, St. Louis, Philly, New Jersey, Ottawa, Columbus and Pittsburgh down the stretch.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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