Rangers blown out by the Flyers 5-1 on four third period goals

The New York Rangers played a great road game for two periods.  They completely collapsed in the third period and were badly beaten by the Flyers 5-1.

The New  York Rangers needs to play well and come home from Philadelphia with some points.  They failed miserably, but it was due a very good Flyers goalie and a disastrous third period.  The Rangers actually had the lead going into the last minute of the second period on a Jesper Fast   shorthanded goal, but gave up a crushing equalizer with only 1.7 second left in the period.

Seven and a half minutes into the third period, Kevin Hayes scored and after that, it was an onslaught.  The Flyers added three more goals and the Blueshirts went down meekly.  It was a demoralizing way to start the Christmas break and the team will get to think about their performance until play resumes on Friday.

The game

The first period was scoreless as both teams exchanged stellar scoring chances that were stymied by Henrik Lundqvist and Carter  Hart.  Each team had two power plays, but the Flyers outshot the Rangers 12-6 and had 24 shot attempts to the Rangers 15.

Things looked bad at the start when the Flyers  got off to a quick start and Lundqvist had to be sharp stopping attempts by Claude Giroux and Ivan Provorov.   Pavel Buchnevich followed with a tripping penalty, but the Rangers’ penalty killers held the Flyers to only one shot on net.

The Rangers had a golden opportunity to get on the board when Phillippe Myers was called for tripping Mika Zibanejad while Travis Sanheim was in the box.  The Rangers had a two man advantage for 1:04 , but got only one shot on goal as attempts by Artemi Panarin and Buchnevich were blocked.

The second period was much better for the Rangers as they took the play to the Flyers.  Although the Blueshirts were dominant, they scored while they were shorthanded.   Jesper Fast was able to one-time a pass from  Brady Skjei past the Flyer goalie.  The play had started with a two-on-one break by Greg McKegg and Fast.  McKegg got the puck to a trailing Skjei who took the shot.  Hart made the save, but Skjei got to the rebound and passed to a wide open  Fast in front of the net.

The Rangers really did play well in the second period, outshooting the Flyers 15-6.  The Rangers had the advantage on shot attempts 23-18 even though they were shortanded three time compared to the two penalties taken by the Flyers.

Lundqvist and Hart stood on their heads on numerous occasions  with both making glorious stops.

Philadelphia made a rush as the period wound down and Travis Sanheim put the puck past Lundqvist with only 1.7 second s left.

It was a complete defensive breakdown as Kreider turned away from Sanheim and couldn’t get back to stop the shot and the defense let Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny camp in front of the net.

The third period was a battle for the first seven minutes when Kevin Hayes made a great shot and beat his old teammate. The Flyers broke in on a three-on-two and Hayes beat Lundqvist over his glove to give the Flyers the 2-1 lead.

The Rangers came close to tying when Mika Zibanejad hit a post, but then with five minutes left , Sanheim scored again as the Blueshirts pressed for the tying goal.  With a 3-1 lead, it was open season for the Flyers.  Hayes scored again and Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored his first  NHL goal with a one time from the slot while on a power play.

David Quinn didn’t mince words after the game. “We made it to easy for them. We sell out for offense.”   He also was very critical of the power play “It’s really hurt us lately. It’s a team-wide problem. Slowing the play down and not shooting pucks…every time we slow it down and look to make a pretty play…it’s killing us now.”

The Rangers ended up 0-4 on the power play including that two man advantage.  That was the seventh five-on-three this season and they have no goals to show for it.  They are now 0-18 on the power play over five games, four of them losses.

While Carter Hart didn’t steal this game, he was outstanding and was the reason the Flyers won.

Notes on the game

It’s not like the Rangers did take shots.  They actually had more shot attempts than than the Flyers, 59-57.

The Rangers played a very disciplined game in their own end, with only three giveaways compared to seven for Philadelphia.

The Flyers lead the league with a 52.4% faceoff winning percentage, but won 34 of 67 faceoffs for a 50.7% percentage.  Ryan Strome had a great night on draws, winning 15 of 18.  Zibanejad had a tough night winning only 10 of  26.

As noted, the power play was awful, going 0-4 including the two man advantage. Meanwhile, the penalty kill was 5-6 with the shorthanded goal.

That was Fast’s second shorthanded goal of the season and the Rangers’ eighth, tying them for the league lead with Carolina.

Kevin Hayes finished with two goals against the Rangers in his first game against his former team.  He played 18:14 and won only two of 11 faceoffs.  He was named the game’s first star, an honor that should have gone to Carter Hart.  Those Philadelphia writers love to stick it to New York.

After stopping 18 of 19 shots in the first two periods, Lundqvist allowed  four goals on 11 shots in the third period. He made some vintage stops early in the game.

After 36 games, the Rangers are 17-15-4 with 38 points.  Last season at the same point, they were 15-14-7 with 37 points.

Pavel Buchnevich had a tough night.  He finished with a minus two on the night and was stopped on four sterling scoring opportunities.   Jacob Trouba had a pretty awful game on the blueline, though he played the most minutes of any Ranger with 23:25.

Kaapo Kakko missed his second straight game after blocking a shot against Toronto on Friday night. he was replaced in the lineup by Micheal Haley who 5:36.

This was the sixth set of back-to-back games and the Rangers have won half of the second games.

This was one of the few games when both Mika ZIbanejad and Artemi Panarin were shut out, a sure recipe for losing.

The Rangers are now eight points out of the wild card.  They are also eight points out from the third worst record in the NHL.