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New York Rangers win a sloppy 2-1 game over the Flyers by shootout

By Steve Paulus|
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 26: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers celebrates his game winning shoot-out goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on September 26, 2019 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 2-1 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 26: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers celebrates his game winning shoot-out goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on September 26, 2019 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 2-1 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 26: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers celebrates his game winning shoot-out goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on September 26, 2019 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 2-1 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 26: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers celebrates his game winning shoot-out goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on September 26, 2019 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 2-1 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The New York Rangers took on the Flyers in the penultimate preseason game that featured completely new forward and defense combinations as David Quinn looks for some chemistry on the team.  They won, but it wasn’t pretty.

If anyone thought the New York Rangers would use the last two preseason games to tune up the lineup that will face the Winnipeg Jets in the season opener in a week, think again. Coach David Quinn completely shook up his lines in an effort to jump start his team.  It really didn’t work that well.

The game itself was a sloppy, raggedy mess.  Passes weren’t crisp, shots missed the net and defensive zone coverage was missing.  Henrik Lundqvist had to stand on his head (again) to keep the Rangers in the game.He finished with 32 saves.

The Rangers finally showed some defensive responsibility in the third period, played the Flyers fairly even in the overtime and then won in the shootout when Mika Zibanejad scored and Lundqvist stopped all three Flyers.

The lone Ranger goal was scored by Lias Andersson in the last seconds of the first period. All the work was done by Andersson whose hard forecheck sprung the puck loose to Vladislav Namestnikov who got the puck to Anthony DeAngelo who took the shot.

Travis Konecny scored six and a half minutes into the second period on good work by Kevin Hayes and that was it for the scoring until the shootout.

The overtime was evenly matched until Ryan Strome took a tripping penalty and the Blueshirts had to kill a four on three for the full two minutes.

In the shootout, Tony DeAngelo and Kaapo Kakko were unsuccessful, but Zibanejad put the game away on a nice backhand  over Carter Hart.

Here were the forward lines that started the game for the Blueshirts:

Kravtsov – ZIbanejad – Chytil
Lemieux – Andersson – Namestnikov
Kreider – Strome – Kakko
McKegg – Nieves – Lettieri

Here were the defense pairs:

Hajek -Trouba
Skjei – Smith
Staal – DeAngelo

The Rangers came into the game with a lot of questions.  Not many were answered.

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