New York Rangers lose Mika Zibanejad in deflating loss to Bruins

The New York Rangers’ usual struggles continued in a 7-4 loss to the Boston Bruins, and losing their key asset on offense did’t help the situation.

Mika Zibanejad left with an upper-body injury after the first period, and the New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 7-4 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.

Zibanejad took a hit from Patrice Bergeron in the first period, however he still finished the first 20 minutes of play despite the hit happening in the early minutes of the game. The good news was that David Quinn said that it was not a concussion that forced him from the game.

Not even a minute into the third period, Zdeno Chara ripped a slap shot from the blue line past Alexander Georgiev, who started the third period in net for the Rangers. That made it a 5-1 game.

But Pavel Buchnevich gave the Rangers some life with 8:15 into the third, as he scored his second goal of the year with helpers from Tony DeAngelo and Artemi Panarin.

With just over eight minutes to play, Jacob Trouba lost the puck to a hard-forechecking Marchand who dished the puck to Bergeron for the goal that made it 6-2.

Oddly enough, with just over two minutes left, Chara was called for holding the puck in his glove. He grabbed onto it while it was high in the air. The power play led to this Chris Kreider power-play goal, which led to a Brady Skjei goal 11 seconds later.

The Rangers then pulled Georgiev, only to see Bergeron score his hat trick.

In the first period, the scoring opened with a Brendan Smith shot rebounding to Micheal Haley who got the puck past Jaroslav Halak to put the Rangers up 1-0 at 10:19 of the first. Despite winning the scoring battle, the Rangers were outshot 10-7 in the first period. After an initial save from Halak, Haley chipped the puck past the Bruins keeper for the score. The Smith shot came at 10:17 and was the first Ranger shot on goal.

Then came the gruesome second period.

11 seconds into the period, Bergeron chipped the puck past Henrik Lundqvist, who was flat on his back after contact with David Pastrnak. The Bruins were credited with a goal as an irate Henrik Lundqvist went  ballistic.  The Blueshirts did not challenge for goaltender interference. The explanation was that Pastrnak was upended by Libor Hajek‘s check and since a Ranger caused the collision, it wasn’t goalie interference.

Less than a minute later, Pastrnak caught a quick pass from Brandon Carlo and advanced up the ice with Brad Marchand on his left. Pastrnak took a quick shot on Lundqvist, but missed, but it allowed Marchand to take possession. And with three stand-still dekes right in front of the net, Marchand scored to put Boston up 2-1.

Kaapo Kakko took a high-sticking penalty just past 1:30 into the period, which the Rangers eventually killed, but Lundqvist had to stop a quick shot from Sean Kuraly to keep it a one-goal game as soon as the penalty expired.

It was announced in the second period that Zibanejad would miss the rest of the game. After the first 12:49, the Rangers were being outshot 9-2.

Long Island-native Charlie McAvoy found Charlie Coyle on the other side of the offensive zone, and with 9:27 to play in the third, Coyle buried it past Lundqvist to put the B’s up 3-1. Zdeno Chara got his first assist of the year on the goal.

What happened immediately after was the beginning of possibly the key three minutes of the game. Lundqvist went to play the puck behind the net, and threw a shoulder into Pastrnak on the play.  Lundqvist was called for roughing and in the extracurricular activities behind of the Rangers net minder, Marchand was assessed a minor penalty for roughing as well.

The Rangers forced a turnover mid-way through the 4-on-4 segment in which Brady Skjei was in possession on a wide open net. However, he tried execute a give and go, but ended up turning over the puck on a long Bruins 2-on-1 sequence.

The Bruins didn’t score on that turnover, however, as Brad Marchand resumed the scoring as soon as the penalty expired for his seventh score of the young season and a three goal lead.

The Rangers were outscored 4-1, and outshot 21-5 in the second.

That’s right. 21-5.