New York Rangers: A disappointing 3-2 OT loss, but a valuable point in the standings

The New York Rangers don’t have anything to be ashamed of.  Although they lost 3-2 in overtime to the Avalanche, they played an excellent road game and came away with a point.

Going into this game, the odds were stacked against the New York Rangers.  It was the second game of road back-to-back games.  They were playing one of the best teams in the Western Conference.  They had to deal with little rest and the high Rockies altitude.  Their third line center was out of action.

The Rangers played an excellent road game and had numerous scoring chances, but were stymied by a brilliant Pavel Francouz in goal for Colorado.   It looked like a total loss until they scored with 13 seconds left to force overtime.  Cale Makar won the game for the Avs, but the Rangers got an important point in the standings so the evening wasn’t a total loss.

After the game David Quinn made a brief statement that the team was remaining in Colorado instead of flying to Arizona.  They will wait until the NHL decides what action to take regarding the Coronavirus.

With the NBA suspending play and numerous sporting events being cancelled, the NHL is under huge pressure to take some action regarding COVID-19.   The Penguins and Blue Jackets were already scheduled to play on Thursday in an arena with no fans because of a ban in Ohio on large gatherings.

If this was the last game the Rangers will play for a while, it was a memorable one.  Mika ZIbanejad scored again and hit two crossbars.  Ryan Strome missed on three golden opportunities and Kaapo Kakko missed scoring for lack of elevating the puck.  Alexandar Georgiev stopped a third period penalty shot.  The Rangers failed again on a five on three and gave up two power play goals.  It had a little of everything.

The game

The first period was evenly played with the Rangers getting on the scoreboard first.  Of course, who else would it be but Mika Zibanejad who scored the goal, breaking past the Colorado defense and putting a laser past Pavel Francouz.

ZIbanejad took a pass from Di Giuseppe and just exploded with a burst of speed past Erik Johnson and then shot using Ryan Graves as a screen.

The Blueshirts had the better of the play, but took a too many men on the ice penalty that turned out to be costly when Tyson Jost scored on a break in with Gabriel Landeskog.  There might have been a screen in front, but Jost cleanly beat Georgiev over his glove hand with a wrist shot.

Later in the period Colorado thought that had put the puck in the net off a scrum in front, but the referee ruled that the whistle had blown before the puck cross the goal line.

There was a worrisome moment late in the first period when ZIbanejad took a puck in the face, but he was fine.

The second period was much like the same except for special teams.  The Rangers started the period with 1:57 of power play time, carried over from the first period.  After Francouz stopped  excellent chances by Panarin and Anthony DeAngelo the Avalanche took another penalty when Tyson Jost slashed Panarin.  The Rangers had  43 seconds of a two man advantage.  Of course, they didn’t score with Ryan Strome missing a wide open net  and hitting the post.

Strome actualy had two other opportunities to score and failed each time. Once with Francouz down in a scrum in the crease Strome had a wide open net and missed.  His third chance was a shot from the “royal road” that he shot into Francouz.

At 3:43, Brendan Smith took an unnecessary tripping penalty and the Avalance scored within 12 seconds.  Of course, it was Vladislav Namestnikov who put the puck past a screened Georgiev.

It was a lost faceoff in the defensive zone that led to the goal as the Avalanche controlled the puck in the Rangers zone.  Namestnikov took the shot from the top of the faceoff circle and Georgiev never had a chance as he was screened.

Before the period ended, ZIbanajed almost cashed in on a breakaway when he put a backhand shot on net.  Francouz got a piece of the shot and it went off him, hit the crossbar and went out of bounds.

There was no scoring in third period despite lots of action.  At the 4:43 mark Matt Nieto had a breakaway and was fouled by Brendan Smith who then took Nieto into the boards.  Martin Kaut hit Smith and they both took roughing penalties and Nieto was awarded a penalty shot.

Georgiev gave Nieto nothing and he stopped him with a pad save.  That was followed by two minutes of exciting four-on-four hockey.

Kaapo Kakko had a great opportunity when Zibanejad fed him in front of the net.

Kakko need to elevate the puck into the open net, but he couldn’t do it and the game remained 2-1.

Things looked grim for the Rangers when they had to kill penalties to Panarin and Brendan Lemieux .  The Rangers tried for offense and Zibanejad had yet another breakaway, but his backhand was stopped by Francouz.

The Rangers got  back to even strength with only a minute left in the game.and pulled Georgiev.

With 19 seconds left, Fox started the rush with an outlet pass to Buchnevich who went for the give and go with Panarin.  The Breadman threw the puck in front of the net and Buchnevich was able to deflect it off the shaft of his stick by Francouz with only 13 second left.

The overtime was as frustrating as regulation as the Rangers almost won when Zibanajed hit the crossbar.  The Avalanche went the other way with Makar carrying the puck.  He crossed through the Rangers zone past Buchnevich and Lemieux who tried to stick check him and he flung the puck at the net where J.T. Compher was able to deflect it past Georgiev for the win.

Coming after the dramatic game tying goal, it felt like the Rangers were destined to win this game, but it wasn’t so.  In many ways they were lucky to escape with a point, though it was Pavel Francouz who prevented this from being a 4-2 game in the Rangers’ favor.

Notes on the game

• When the Rangers took a too many men penalty in the first period, it was their eighth of the season and it was the third time they have been scored on.  Last season they took 14 too many men penalties so they have improved in that department.
• The Rangers had a five on three for 43 seconds in the second period.  It was their 10th five on three this season, but the eighth longer than 30 seconds and they have one scored on only one of them.
• That was the second penalty shot faced by Alexandar Georgiev  in his career and he has stopped both of them.  His first was in 2018 against Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins.
• Mika Zibanejad scored his 41st goal of the season and a dream of hitting the 50 goal mark is not out of the questions.  He became the first player in franchise history to score 12 goals in 13 games.   He tied  his career high set last season by notching his 75th point of the season.
• Artemi Panarin has failed to score a goal in 12 games, the longest streak of his career.  He had two 12 game goal-less streaks with Columbus last season.
• Panarin and Zibanejad were paired together for the third period and the overtime.  Panarin played 25:59 and ZIbanejad played 26:24, the most by far of any forwards.
• Tony DeAngelo led all defensemen with 25:16 of ice time.
• In the battle of top rookie defensemen, Cale Makar won out over Adam Fox.  He finished with three assists and a plus one rating.  Fox ended with two assists and was even for the game. This was Makar’s first game back after missing five games with an upper body injury.
• The overtime loss means they have lost only one game of their last twelve road games in regulation.
• This was the fifth “loser point” registered by the Rangers this season, the fewest of any team in the NHL.  It’s one reason they are on the outside of the playoff picture.  Columbus has an incredible 15 points gained from losses and the Islanders have 10.
• One scary element of the Coronavirus pandemic is how it can affect people with chronic medical conditions.  Kaapo Kakko has diabetes and celiac disease and it is possible that he may be more at risk though the nature of that risk is unknown.  It’s certainly one of the factors the Rangers and the league will have to be considering as they decide how to move forward.

My three stars of the game

1. Mika Zibanejad scored again and could have had five goals this game.  There is no doubt that he is the team’s best player and he always comes through.  Another brilliant effort.
2. Artemi Panarin played a dynamic game and would have scored except for the fact he is snakebit and passes too much.  His passes are amazing, none more so that his feed to Buchnevich that resulted in the game tying goal.
3. Pavel Buchnevich was finally rewarded after played a tough, physical game.  He was another Ranger who could have had several goals.

The official three stars of the game

1. J.T. Compher
2. Pavel Francouz
3. V.Namestnikov

Editorial note:  These three stars are ridiculous.  Francouz deserved the top star and Zibanejad should be in there in place of Namestnikov.

What’s next

Another must win game, Saturday night in Arizona against the Coyotes.  Of course, we will have to see what the NHL announced regarding the Coronavirus and what action the league will be taking.