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Rangers embarrassed again by Flames, shutout 6-0 to end road trip

November 7, 2021, 12:41 PM ET [88 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
New York crashed and burned to end their road trip, getting blown out 6-0 by Calgary. Jacob Markstrom pitched a shutout, his fourth of the season, Johnny Gaudreay scored a pair while Matthew Tkachuk added three assists and the icing on the cake marker - going between the legs to beat Igor Shesterkin for the final goal of the game. Just when you would hope for an easy rebound game, nope, the Rangers face the Panthers at home Monday.

Game recap:


A few thoughts, which will be brief as we all saw or read about the debacle
1) Igor Shesterkin - the defense left Shesterkin out to dry much of the night. Brutal team defense. Gaudreau's second of the game is one Igor would like to have back. Beyond that, it's hard to blame him for the other five scored by Calgary. Chris Kreider summed it up well. "“Igor [Shesterkin] has been our best player and has carried us to this point and for us to do that to him in the third is unacceptable.”

2) Kreider added that the team lost their structure and failed to play the system. Of course, the counter is what the heck is the system, as it's still unclear. Irrespective of why, the Rangers melted down the last two periods, but especially in the third.

"It stings," Chris Kreider said. "You don't want it to ever happen again, but we've got to go home and get better in a hurry and work on our process. It doesn't matter what the score is in the game. We have to play the same way. We have to trust each other and trust the system. We can't get away from that regardless of the situation or the context."

“We’ve talked about it, we haven’t beaten the Edmonton’s or the Calgary’s of the world yet, We gave ourselves a chance the other night against Edmonton, got away from our game, I don’t know if we got bored with doing the simple things. And then tonight, (we) didn’t trust the system when we were down 3-0 and the wheels fall off."


3) Filip Chytil, coming off a solid game against Edmonton, was injured at 2:16 of the first period when he collided with Sammy Blais and did not return. There was no update post-game. The initial concern has to be the injury is a concussion. Second, is another upper-body injury with the hope that it is not as severe as the one that cost a good chunk of last year..

4) Adam Fox - targeted repeatedly by the Flames as the fans booed every time he touched the puck. The crowd reaction makes sense as Fox was drafted by Calgary but did not sign, in essence forcing a trade. He landed in Carolina before getting dealt to New York. The Flames players seemed to try and hit him and Ryan Lindgren more than other teams have, opting for the physical approach against the duo.

5) Kakko Kappo - other than one shift early in the second, when he outmuscled two Flames for the puck on the boards, dished the biscuit rto Ryan Strome and then received the return pass for a shot, he was invisible.

Alexis Lafreniere was moved up to the top line during the game but did little as well. With both he and Kakko scuffling and not producing much, the pressure to score is on the remainder of the lineup. Take out Chytil and the focus on these two is increased.

6) Give Markstrom credit as he stole at least two goals. But overall, the team did not play well. Even if those two or three go in, the poor defense in front of Igor doomed the team to a loss. Hoping this is still just growing pains and the team adapting to Gallant's "system" but an ugly loss on top of a pair of third period collapses.

7) Gallant played Jarred Tinordi over Nils Lundkvist. If sitting a blueliner, that should have been Patrick Nemeth or K'Andre Miller, who continues to struggle. I would sit Miller on Monday.

8) The team is still 6-3-3 and came in with a four-game point streak (2-0-2) and a seven-game road point streak (5-0-2) end into the finale of a four-game road trip. Part of the collapse might be attributed to the psychological impact of losing a pair of third period leads and also being at the tail end of the Western Canada swing. But to me those are all convenient excuses. The Isles are in the midst of a 13-game road trip to start the season and we haven't seen these type of games for the most part. The Flames had a long road trip and they too plowed through it. Good teams find a way to dig deep and put aside the noise. This team has yet to do that and looked soft yesterday. Until they show again they can consistently hold third period leads and find a way to maintain their level of play, questions will remain.

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