New York Rangers vs Calgary Flames: More defensive breakdowns in a 4-3 loss
By Steve Paulus
The game
The key question was how long it would take for the Flames to get on the scoreboard after the Rangers gave up early goals to Edmonton and it didn’t take long, only four minutes and 15 seconds.
Of course it was was classic defensive breakdown that led to a breakaway. Probably the last person you would want to see get a breakaway is Johnny Gaudreau and sure enough he broke in and beat Lundqvist.
The irony is that the Rangers had the puck deep in the Calgary zone, but it was a bad pass by Artemi Panarin to
at the point that led to Gaudreau’s break.
Things were looking up when the Rangers drew two penalties on Calgary, resulting in five on three advantage for a full 1:11. So what happens?
For a full 20 seconds the Rangers played catch with the puck, looking for the perfect pass. Then, with all five Blueshirts past the hashmarks in the offensive zone, Anthony DeAngelo tried to hit Panarin for a one timer, only Michael Backlund intercepted the cross ice pass and had a clean breakaway to beat Lundqvist.
The only good thing was that the Rangers had a full 44 seconds of the two man advantage left and they made Calgary pay when Jacob Trouba fired home a shot from the faceoff circle.
25 seconds later and still on the power play, the Rangers tied the score. It was the second power play unit on the ice when Kaapo Kakko took the shot. Cam Talbot made the save, but it popped into the air and Filip Chytil was able to bat it in.
Five minutes later the Flames took the lead back on a Derek Ryan goal that was nothing but bad luck for the Rangers. First, Brady Skjei had the puck deep in the Rangers end and gave it away. To make matters worse, Derek Ryan took a shot that was destined to miss the net by five feet, but it glanced off Skjei’s skate and right into the net.
In the second period, it was the Rangers’ turn to tie the score when Kaapo Kakko took a shot from near the blue line that eluded everyone for his first goal in 20 games.
That was it for the good news for the Rangers. Three minutes later at 8:22, Sean Monahan finished off a fantastic passing sequence to score from the slot. This wasn’t an absolute breakdown of the Rangers defense, but they did allow the Flames to walk into the zone unimpeded.
The game got a lot tighter after that and the Rangers were hard pressed to generate any offense. In fact, they were able to muster only nine shots on goal in the third period, not helped at all by the three penalties. Chris Kreider took a clear tripping penalty while Brady Skjei was caught with a high stick and Kaapo Kakko was called for holding Rasmus Andersson when going for the puck in the offensive zone.
Quinn was clearly perturbed by the penalties. Skjei didn’t see the ice at all after his penalty, a period of over 14 minutes. Kakko saw only two shifts after his penalty at the 52 minute mark. Only Kreider’s ice time didn’t suffer after he took his tripping penalty to start the third period.
Statistically, the game was fairly even. Calgary outshot the Rangers 29-27, but were close in hits and blocked shots. For the second game in a row, the Rangers won the faceoff battle 26-22.
They have now allowed 15 goals on this three game road trip and it was the 11th straight game that they have allowed three or more goals. It seems that every brutal mistake results in a goal against and that is a trend that needs to be reversed sooner than later.
This game was also an example of what happens when the Rangers’ top two lines are shut down.