Kaapo Kakko scores but flaws exposed in 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers

Notes on the game

It was interesting that David Quinn gave Marc Staal and Tony DeAngelo the responsibility for playing against the McDavid line.  It would make sense for Jacob Trouba to have the role of shutdown defenseman, but it’s clear that Quinn has a lot of faith in Marc Staal.  They held their own until the third period when they had to open up after falling behind. Staal finished minus two and DeAngelo was minus three.

Quinn was asked about the defense assignments and didn’t want to single out anyone for blame.  He said that  he thought Staal had been playing well and that DeAngelo’s puck moving would help, but that the whole  lineup wasn’t very good.  The obvious fact is that the coaching staff is still figuring out what the defense pairings should be and they will continue to experiment in the coming games.

The Rangers knew that they had to stay out of the penalty box and for the most part, they did taking only two minors.  The Oilers scored on their second power play and that was the game.

It feels like Chris Kreider hasn’t started playing yet this season.  He blocked a shot in the first period and went to locker room.  He ended with no shots on goal (he missed two) and was not that much of a factor on the power play.

The more you watch Adam Fox, the more you appreciate his passing skills.   He never seems to panic and is always looking to make a pass instead of just getting rid of the puck.

Lundqvist is now 5-3-2 in 12 games against the Oilers. He was good when he needed to be.  He had no chance on the Klefbom or McDavid goals and he thought he had stopped the Draisaitl goal, the only one that he could be faulted on.  He made some excellent stops including one on Zack Kassian in the second period.

The Oilers outshot the Rangers 27-21, but that’s not the whole story.  The Rangers had only 14 shots at even strength compared to 22 for the Oilers. They were able to come up with only six shots in the third period after their early power play.  That’s not enough.

Predictably, David Quinn was very unhappy with the way the team played. Again, he brought up the team’s reluctance to shoot the puck saying  “I can think of five instances off the top of my head when we had incredible chances to shoot the puck and we don’t.  And off of them may come four other shots…if you get a loose puck sitting in front of the net you better get rid of it in a hurry…we just didn’t have that shooting mentality.”

The Rangers’ timing was definitely off with imprecise passes and missed shots prevalent. It was noticeable on the power play and it cost them.

In the battle of the top lines, the McDavid line won big. Zibanejad, Buchnevich and Panarin all finished minus three for the game.  It’s interesting that the Oilers have Draisaitl taking faceoffs instead of McDavid.

Speaking of faceoffs, the teams split them with each winning 28 draws. Zibanejad was 17-12, but lost the faceoff in the second period that led to the Klefbom goal. Howden won seven of 12 and Strome won only three of 10 draws.

It will be interesting to see how this team does when the big line doesn’t score. Also, to see how the team does when they don’t score on the power play.  It’s worth keeping track.

Brendan Lemieux didn’t see much ice time after taking his interference penalty in the third period.  He saw two shifts the rest of the game on the fourth line. Prior to that he had played a physical game and got some power play time in the first period.

Greg McKegg made his Rangers debut and didn’t have much of an impact.  He played a team low 13 shifts and had 7:13 minutes of ice time.

The Rangers lack of success in day games carries over from last year.  Last season they played 11 matinees and won only three of those games going 3-3-5.

With the goal, Kakko became on the second player in NHL history to score who was born after the year 2000.  Ville Heinola of Winnipeg was the first when he scored earlier this week.