This is fast becoming a broken record. The New York Rangers blew a lead for the fifth straight game. They’ve gone into the third period with a lead in five of eight games and have won one of those games in regulation. They salvaged a point, but gained no ground on any other team in the division. It was an undisciplined game against a decimated team and they should have won.
Their old nemesis, Sidney Crosby, scored the winner in overtime on a shot that Alexandar Georgiev should have stopped. They’ve scored two goals in the third period this season, a trend that is absolutely killing them.
It would be easy to blame the referees. They called an iffy cross checking penalty on Chris Kreider at the end of the second period that negated a Ranger power play. They missed a high stick against Jake Guentzel and he scored the tying goal seconds later. But, the way the Rangers were playing, they were destined to lose.
This would not be a game you would want to put in a time capsule. Play was sloppy and it resembled pond hockey at times. The Rangers started off well, but their play deteriorated and by the third period, it was a horror show. David Quinn described it as “as bad a period as we’ve played all year…they beat us to every lose puck, they won every battle, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
For Quinn it was a turnaround from the start. “I thought we got off to a good start, I really liked our energy, our pace. For the first 15-16 minutes good things were happening, we’re playing practical hockey and then as the game went on, the game was sloppy both ways and then they were smarter, they looked like a hungrier team than we were in the third period.”
Considering that the Penguins didn’t tie the game until the nine minute mark, the question has to be why Quinn would not call a time out when he saw play was deteriorating.
It was a classic Ranger third period. They would get the puck into the offensive zone, turn it over without getting a good shot and then go on the defense in their own zone against the Penguins who held the puck in and had excellent scoring chances. It happened over and over and over. It’s a recipe for losing.
Other than the disastrous third period, it was the same old story. Another excellent outing by K’Andre Miller. Artemi Panarin tried to do it all himself. Georgiev gave up two goals he should have stopped. Brendan Smith made two bad plays and was benched. Mika Zibanejad still cannot get going. Tony DeAngelo was on for four goals against. The Rangers couldn’t win key faceoffs. Yadda yadda yadda.
The crime was that the Penguins lost Kris Letang to an injury in the first period and they finished the the game with a blueline corps that included only two defensemen who were in the starting lineup on opening night. The Rangers did nothing to push this no-name defense.
The Rangers lost Colin Blackwell to an injury in the first period, right after he had one of the team’s best scoring opportunities. The penalty kill was flawless and actually had two breakaways on the same penalty, scoring shorthanded on the second. The power play was 1-5.
Regardless, the story of the game was the third period, a period the Rangers had to win and they didn’t. With the loss goes all of the good will and positives from the Buffalo overtime win and it makes Monday’s rematch with the Penguins much, much more important.