Rangers vs. Sabres: Are we desperate yet?

About the Rangers

The Rangers revamped their forward lines last game and the question is whether David Quinn will stick with it.  He restored Pavel Buchnevich to the top line and it paid off when he created a goal for Chris Kreider.  He put Phil Di Giuseppe with Strome and Panarin in an effort to channel Jesper Fast, but he was replaced by Colin Blackwell later in the game.

After practice Wednesday, Quinn gave no hints about the lineup and the issue of the constant juggling of the forward lines did not come up.  A question has to be what is the best way to get his top two lines going. So far, it has been constant change ranger than working through the issues.

“Every team goes through a stretch  we’re going through right now, ours happens to be right now and we’ve got to get out of it. ” – David Quinn

Quinn said that the team worked on their issues at practice saying “Obviously we addressed a few things as a group.  I think a lot of our guys are pressing.  It  was a frustrating and I think what happened was the frustration from the previous three games boiled over and after we gave up that shorthanded goal we stopped doing the things we need to do to claw back into it.  We were fortunate to get out of that second period 3-2.”

What defies explanation is how a tying goal could have such a devastating effect on a team.  And it begs the question, if Quinn saw the impact that the shorthanded goal had on the team, why not call a timeout and remind them that the game was still tied, they had not fallen behind.

Igor Shesterkin will be in net for the Rangers and he needs a boost in confidence.  A solid outing, even stealing a game, would go a long way as a confidence booster for the Blueshirts.  You cannot imagine the impact that knowing that Henrik Lundqvist would be back there to make up for their mistakes had on the Rangers for the last 15 years.

Who will be in goal is the only question answered at this point. Will there be lineup changes for the Rangers?  Will Julien Gauthier get out of the doghouse?  Will it be Brendan Smith or Jack Johnson teamed with Tony DeAngelo?   Will Mika Zibanejad get out of his funk?  Will Lafrenière pot that first goal as he gets closer and closer?

One thing the Rangers should stop doing is trotting Chris Kreider out for the post game interviews. When asked what happened in the second period, he said he was getting medical treatment in the locker room for both of the Buffalo goals so he couldn’t say.  He wasn’t asked about the undisciplined boarding penalty he took late in the second period.

Then he said “We’ve got to hate losing in that room and we’ve got to nip it in the bud right now and we’ve got to come out and play a no-doubter next game against Buffalo, a full 60 minutes.  We have to show in fact that we hate losing. We can talk all day about it,but we have to put it out there for a full 60.”

To imply that players on this team don’t hate to lose is a pretty damning statement from one of the team leaders.  Perhaps it’s time for the man who says that captains are named to satisfy the the fans to step up and show that he can “put it all out there for a full 60.”

One bright spot for the team has been the play of Adam Fox.  He is one player who has picked up from where he left off last season

After practice Wednesday he responded to the issue of hating to lose. “People aren’t happy with losing, especially the way we have, but it’s still early and we can’t lose control, not stick together and not stay the course. We not getting blown out, but everyone in the room realized you have to come away with wins…keeping the same attitude we’ve had and find ways to win these games.”

That’s a very rational response from a 22-year-old who is fast becoming a team leader.

As for David Quinn, his recipe for success is simple.  “We’ve got to get better play out of a bunch of people, we’ve got to make more timely plays, we have to be mentally tough when things don’t go well.”