New York Rangers vs Islanders: It was too good to be true after 4-2 loss

The game

The Islanders came out knowing that they were risking a fourth straight loss for the first time this season.  They put a lot of pressure on the Rangers, throwing hits at will.  Nothing came of it and after about five minutes, both teams settled down.

The Rangers took over at that point, helped by an Eberle penalty for slashing eight minutes into the game. Buchnevich was stopped by an outstanding Greiss glove save as his stetch of tough puck luck continued.

The Rangers got some luck of their own when Barzal hit the cross bar at 11:45.  At that point the Rangers were outshooting the Isles 8-1.

The game changed at 12:19 when Strome took a  high sticking penalty in the offensive zone and Josh Bailey scored.  It was a lucky goal as Noah Dobson‘s shot was deflected by Josh Bailey and Georgiev made the stick save, but the puck hit Ryan Lindgren‘s leg and trickled into the goal.

At 15:20, Brady Skjei took a bad hooking penalty and Ranger killer Anthony Beauvillier was able to score.  It came right after a shorthanded chance for the Rangers.

It was a classic case of going for offense on the penalty kill and it costing them.  Jacob Trouba and Brett Howden had an odd man rush, but when Greiss made the save, the Isles turned the puck up ice and ended up with a three on two and Beauvillier, the trailer on the play had an open shot.

The first period ended with the Isles up 2-0, although they were outshot 14-8.

The second period was more of the same as the Rangers dominated territoriality.  However, it was the Islanders who got on the board when Anders Lee shot from the blue line was deflected in off Ryan Lindgren.

Poor Georgiev had no chance on the shot and he found himself on the short end of a 3-0 score, the first time he has given up that many goals to the Islanders.   At that point, the Rangers really turned it on and it was Greiss’ turn to be the hero.   The Blueshirts got the crowd back into the game with just over two minutes left in the period when Strome scored.  Only, the Islanders challenged that the play was offside.

The play was indeed called offside as Brock Nelson lifted Jesper Fast‘s skate so it wasn’t in contact with the blueline.  After the game, David Quinn called it a “gray area” and it many ways it was, but the ruling held and a deflated Ranger team was back to a 3-0 deficit.

The Rangers held a 30-13 shot advantage after two periods and had 45 shot attempts to the Islanders’ 29.  The Blueshirts really did dominate the second half of the period and Greiss was very, very good.

When Brock Nelson scored  three minutes into the third period, it looked like it was going to be an early night.  Brady Skjei made an ill-advised attempt to deflect a pass with  his skate, but missed and it left the Isles with an odd man opportunity that they cashed in on.  From that point it was very quiet, boring game and it looked like both teams were taking early trips to the All-Star break.

That is until 12:39 when Brendan Lemieux and Scott Mayfield got into a shoving match that ended with Mayfield spearing Lemieux right in the midsection.  Lemieux went down, but didn’t need to since the penalty was so blatant.  Mayfield got a double minor for spearing and the power play went to work.

Pavel Buchnevich finally got some puck luck about a minute into the power play when he deflected an Adam Fox shot and it eluded Greiss.

With the Rangers back in the game and a full two minutes of power play time left, the Blueshirts pulled Georgiev as soon as Zibanejad won the neutral zone faceoff. With 5:32 left and trailing by two goals, the Rangers had a two man advantage and scored.

It was Chris Kreider who buried the rebound of a Mika Zibanejad shot from the blue line.

The game got even crazier one minute later when the Islanders iced the puck and the Rangers called a timeout to talk strategy.  After the timeout, with Georgiev pulled, the Islanders put the wrong players on the ice and after a warning, were called for a delay of game penalty to the dismay of Barry Trotz.

So, the Rangers had another two man advantage with 3:26 left.  This time, the Rangers played the advantage like it was a one goal lead, with no sense of urgency and they failed to score. In fact, during the full two man advantage, they passed the puck 27 times and had only four shot  opportunities with only one requiring a save.

The gamed ended with the Islanders repeatedly trying to score into the empty net with Tony DeAngelo playing goal and stopping shots by Josh Bailey and Matt Martin.

The Rangers ended up outshooting the Islanders 42-18 and the Rangers finished with 73 shot attempts to the Islanders 40, one of the widest disparities of the season. But it was all for naught as the Islanders went into the break with the good feelings and two badly needed points.