A bad 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils

The New York Rangers dropped a 5-2 decision to their cross Hudson River rivals.  It was the first win for the Devils and a frustrating loss for the Blueshirts.

Leave it to the the New York Rangers to lose decisively to a winless and fragile New Jersey Devils team. It was a frustrating night for the Blueshirts as they had numerous scoring opportunities and were dominant when on the power play, but couldn’t take advantage.

The Rangers actually scored first when Anthony DeAngelo put in the rebound of a Brady Skjei shot.  It was a nice goal with Lias Andersson in front of Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood, causing all kinds of trouble.

After the goal, play was mostly even although the Devils had a disturbing number of odd man rushes.  It finally paid off for them when Blake Coleman recovered the puck off an Adam Fox turnover and scored.   It was a goal that Alexandar Georgiev would want back as it hit his mask and bounced down and between his legs into the net.

The first period ended with the teams knotted at 1-1 with the Devils outshooting the Rangers 13-10.

It all went south for the Rangers in the second period.  After Georgiev robbed a wide open Wayne Simmonds,  Brady Skjei took an interference penalty at the 2:13 mark.  It took the Devils all of five seconds to score, their first power play goal in 21 attempts.  It was an unassisted tally for Kyle Palmieri who got to the puck even though the Rangers won the draw.   This was one of those faceoffs that was moved at the coach’s request to the opposite faceoff circle.

The Blueshirts could get nothing going as Panarin took a holding penalty a minute later.  The turning point of the game came at the 6:49 mark when Taylor Hall hit Adam Fox behind the Rangers net, a hit that David Quinn felt was a high hit that deserved a major penalty.  Instead, it was a two minute elbowing penalty and a trip to the locker room for Fox as he had to go through the concussion protocol.

Again the power play failed to connect although they had numerous opportunities including a fabulous stop on a Zibanejad one-timer off a pass from Panarin.

At 12:25 it was the Devils’ fourth line that crashed the net and Miles Wood put a puck past Georgiev in a play that was thisclose to goalie interference.  Jack Hughes got the assist for his first NHL point.

The Devils took a 3-1 lead into the third period although the Rangers outshot  them  15-9.

The Blueshirts had to know that the Devils had blown leads of 4-0 and 4-1 in two previous home games, so when Jesper Fast scored 2:22 into the third period, it looked like a chance to repeat history.  The goal came off a Brady Skjei pinch in and off the rebound of a Ryan Strome shot.

Any momentum was negated two minutes later when Tony DeAngelo took a cross checking penalty when he knocked down Wayne Simmonds in front of the Ranger net.  The Blueshirts killed off the penalty and actually had the best scoring opportunity when Mika Zibanejad just missed on a shorthanded break-in.

Frustration mounted throughout the third period.  After the power play, the Rangers put on a tremendous push, but couldn’t score.   Taylor Hall put the puck into the Ranger, but the goal was immediately disallowed for goaltender interference as Georgiev had control of the puck.  John Hynes then made the boneheaded call to challenge the call.  Of course it was not overturned and the Rangers were awarded their fifth power play.

It was another futile man advantage and then Jesper Fast took a dumb boarding penalty that just killed the Blueshirts momentum.  Seven seconds after the penalty ended Nikita Gusev scored the Devils fourth goal on a play that was a perfect illustration of the Rangers’ evening.  The Blueshirts killed the penalty and Panarin took the puck and looked to make a headman pass to Fast, all by himself just out of the penalty box.  Of course, as he is making the pass, his stick breaks and the puck goes right to Gusev for an unassisted goal.

Chris Kreider drew a hooking penalty on Simmonds with 3:40 left and the Rangers pulled Georgiev, but they couldn’t get a shot on goal as the Devils were blocking everything.  After the penalty expired, P.K. Subban threw the puck from deep in the Devils’ end and it made it into the Rangers net for the final dagger.

David Quinn will not be pleased that the Rangers were outshot 15-9 in the third period, when they were supposed to be making their big push.  The lack of discipline that led to seven Devils’ power plays was a big issue, as well as their failure to score on six man advantages.

The recipe for success the Rangers followed in their first two games didn’t work for the second straight game and the result was to be expected.