The New York Rangers were beaten by the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in a game that was close in spirit to the opening night loss. The team showed little cohesion or emotion in a loss that was really a total failure of their special teams. In a 56 game season, winning one out of the first six is not going to cut it.
Coach David Quinn said the team was completely deflated when the Sabres tied the score. “Boy, did our bench get demoralized, you could just feel it. There wasn’t any life to our bench. we were lucky to get out of that period only down by one…you’re not going to win games like that. ”
It’s hard to believe that the Rangers were competitive in this game, but they played the Sabres even at 5v5. Two of the Sabres goals were on the power play while a third was a shorthanded goal since it came two seconds after a penalty expired. Meanwhile, the Rangers were 0-3 on the power play including a two man advantage for the final 1:37 of the game when they pulled their goalie.
Statistically, the game was fairly even except in one area, faceoffs. The Sabres won 39 faceoffs to the Rangers’ 17 and including a 12-3 advantage in the third period. The Sabres iced the puck at will, knowing that they wouldn’t get hurt by losing draws. Zibanejad was an abominable 6-15 on draws and Strome was 4-11.
“We were abysmal on faceoffs. It’s incredible how bad we were on draws”
David Quinn pulled no punches talking about draws. “We were abysmal on faceoffs. It’s incredible how bad we were on draws. It was a huge issue tonight. I think we were 30 percent and it felt like 10 percent…it was a microcosm of what crept into our game tonight. Faceoffs are a battle, not only the centerman, but the wingers and too often we weren’t ready to compete in these battles.”
David Quinn shuffled all of the lines partially as a result of the injury to Filip Chytil, but it didn’t do much. The forwards who are playing well like Pavel Buchnevich, Kaapo Kakko and Colin Blackwell played well. The forwards who haven’t done well continued their slump. Even a slump-proof player like Artemi Panarin is beginning to show signs of getting frustrated.
On defense, the one bright spot was K’Andre Miller who scored his first NHL goal, but it was another undistinguished performance by Jack Johnson and Tony DeAngelo. Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren were their usual solid selves.
Something is definitely wrong with Mika Zibanejad. In a post game interview Zibanejad gave an honest assessment of a team in trouble. “We’re making it too complicated at times…we want so much, when you do that you start making those risky plays a little more often trying to get something to happen, instead of staying patient. We have to figure a way out of this and do it real quick.”