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Rangers beat Panthers 4-3, my take on Brooks' points in his column today
November 9, 2021, 9:09 PM ET [43 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
The Rangers parlayed a power play goal, a shortie and two markers in 30 seconds to a 4-0 lead after a pair of periods. Of course, an easy win would be challenging, as the Panthers scored three times in the final stanza, including a pair in 56 seconds with under 90 seconds to go, to make the game a nail-biter. But Igor Shesterkin stopped 42 shots to help New York eke out a 4-3 win over the formerly 10-0-1 Florida Panthers. Larry Brooks was in usual form in his column today.

Game recap:


A few thoughts:

1) Coach Gerard Gallant was pissed post-game. Here are the quotes and the press conference. The same issues that plagued the Blueshirts in Vancouver and Edmonton were on display again last night. An inability to lock down a third period lead is a major problem that needs to be remediated quickly. If not, just like under AV, we will be on pins-and-needles every game and also, psychologically, eventually it will impact the team. But, Gallant also made a great point, which was mentioned by slimtj100, that the team has played nine of 13 on the road and could be tired. This is where mental toughness needs to take over and hopefully, the lessons learned now pay dividends down the road.




On the struggles from the road trip, but holding on to win “Carried over again tonight…it wasn’t no fun watching that. You win a game against an undefeated team, a great team, and you don’t feel good about that win. I’ll take the two points later, but that is not the way you play hockey.”

Why do you think they have these struggles, “I wish I had the answer for you. We’ve been talking about it, showing some video about it, it just seems like we give up the slot shots more than anybody else. It’s frustrating.” 

Were you satisfied with the start, “Still, Shesty made some unbelievable saves in the first two periods and we scored some nice goals tonight, we played pretty well in that department, but we are still giving up too much in the defensive zone.”

Does the team need this break, “100%. Hopefully it’s real good, like I said, I’m tired of talking about it, but we’ve had 9 games on the road, I think that is second-most, besides the Islanders, and it tears you down and wears you down and I’m tired of it myself, personally and it’s a tough grind, but tonight we battled for two periods, I thought and that third period is not acceptable for us, we gotta fight through it, we’ve gotta be men and fight through it. Winning 4-0 and to let them come back and almost tie it up.”


K'Andre Miller: One heck of a goal. Miller's history as a forward took over as he went coast-to-coast. The best part of the play was no hesitation. Once he made up his mind, he was gone, using his skill, size, skill and strength to beat the d-man and the goalie.



Shesterkin: As seen from Vally's tweet, brilliant again. The four goals didn't hurt, but if not for Igor, that game is likely a loss. You need elite goaltending to win in general, win consistently and hopefully go far in the playoffs. The Rangers have that...again.



Larry Brooks stirred the pot in his column. You may disagree with a lot of what he wrote, but boy was he on target about Igor, at least on his teammates needing to step up and defend him. He is trying to create controversy where one likely does not exist about Shesterkin not coming out when he was announced as the first star. But the team cannot allow liberties to be taken with their stud goalie. Someone or several someones need to respond and respond quickly and forcefully if that happens again.



When, on more than a handful of other occasions, the newly toothy Puddy Tats encroached and banged away at the puck in the crease while the goaltender was covering it, the response was limited to Shesterkin’s pleas to the referees to do something.

S.O.R.

Same Old Rangers.  

Maybe, just maybe, this had something to do with Shesterkin not appearing on the ice after the game when announced as the game’s first star.


Brooks takes Gallant to task for the lack of execution of his "system" and for his failure to bench players for not following the system. More than anything, that second paragraph spells out a large number of the issues, which sound very familiar to those over the past several seasons. He doubles down on this in his comments below about Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. What he didn't explicitly state but is implicit in the last sentence of that paragraph is the large number of slot shots and high-danger chances surrendered by New York.

Getting back with speed and purpose to apply pressure on the puck all over the ice — supposed tenets of Gallant’s system — seems as optional an exercise now as ever.

The mounting number of odd-man rushes resulting from a combination of inopportune pinches by the defense, careless management of the puck through the neutral zone into the offensive end and lollygagging by the forwards has created the oh-so-familiar scenario of the defense ceding the line and yielding acres of space while backing into the lower circles.

And I am waiting for Gallant to sit someone for these slothful transgressions.

The Blueshirts, according to Natural Stat Trick, allow the most five-on-five scoring chances in the league per 60:00 at 33.99. The first-year Kraken lead the NHL at 22.27. The Rangers rank 27th in high-danger chances against/60 at 11.95.


Under coach David Quinn, two of the big issues in the defensive zone were ceding the blue line and a failure of the forwards to help in their own zone. To date, that has been somewhat of a similar issue, though more so the poor defensive support and structure, rather than allowing the opponent to gain the blue line with impunity. Hopefully the next three days are spent working on their own zone play, trying to fix what's wrong, including video study and on-ice instruction.

Last year, the Adam Fox-Ryan Lindgren pair ranked second in the NHL to the imposing Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock shutdown tandem in five-on-five xGF% at 58.76. The All-American kids were also ranked second to the Islanders duo in xGA per 60:00 at 1.7. (Numbers from Evolving Hockey among D pairs with at least 450:00 at five-on-five.)

But this season, the Rangers’ top pair ranks 68th of the 79 pairs with at least 70:00 of five-on-five in xGF% at 41.81 while ranking 48th in xGA/60 at 2.56.

Again: second to 48th (!) in one category, second to 68th (!!) in another, and that is possible while Fox alone has elevated his play in defense of his Norris Trophy. How can that be?

That can be because the pair is not getting necessary support. The structure has evaporated. The Rangers are disconnected. The forecheck game comes and goes. Tell me again how this fourth line was going to be a momentum-changer


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