Another blown lead in 5-4 OT loss to the Penguins

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.

The game

The Rangers got off to a bad start when Adam Fox was called for a holding penalty just 12 seconds into the game, but they were able to kill of the penalty and dominate play early .  They had five of the first six  shots on goal including an excellent chance by Colin Blackwell, but it was the Penguins who got on the scoreboard first. Jason Zucker crashed the net and redirected a shot by Pierre-Olivier Joseph.  Georgiev had no chance on this one.

After a penalty to Sidney Crosby that restored the Rangers’ momentum, it was the fourth line’s turn to produce.  Phil Di Giuseppe took the shot and Brendan Lemieux crashed the net (literally), getting the puck past Casey DeSmith.

The Penguins thought about disputing the score for goalie interference, but thought better of it.

The final minute of the first period blues struck again when Brandon Tanev score with only 40 seconds left.  For the second straight game the Blueshirts gave up a goal in the last minute of the first period.  Against Buffalo, it was an ill-advised rush.  This time it was an icing that led to a lost faceoff.  The icing shouldn’t have happened as the Rangers had won the draw and had possession, but Brendan Smith failed to connect on the clear and iced it.  Pittsburgh scored on a deflection by Chris Tanev of a point shot.  It was a stoppable shot, going through Georgiev’s legs.

Down 2-1  going into the second period, the Rangers couldn’t convert on a power play when John Marino shot the puck into the stands.  When Brendan Smith took an unnecessary tripping penalty, it didn’t look good for New York especially when Pavel Buchnevich failed to score on a shorthanded breakaway. Lo and behold, seconds later the Rangers had another breakway, this time with two players and Kevin Rooney finished off a beautiful give and go with K’Andre Miller.

Of course, instead of riding the momentum from the shorthanded goal, it was the Pens who scored when Kaspari Kapanen beat Georgiev on a breakway.  It was Brendan Smith again, giving the puck to Evgeni Malkin in the offensive zone who fed Kapanen .

Trailing 3-2,  the Rangers didn’t fold and came back in less than a minute with a Chris Kreider goal off the rebound of a Trouba shot that was actually on net.  It came about because of some good board work by Brett Howden and Kaapo Kakko who won the puck battle and got the puck to KAndre Miller who fed Trouba for the shot.

The Rangers took the lead on a power play goal on a penalty you rarely see.  As Alexis Lafrenière drove into the zone he “helped” John Marino lose his helmet.  Under NHL rules, if you lose your helmet you have to go right to your bench, but Marino played the puck and got a two minute illegal equipment penalty .

Artemi Panarin hammered home a shot from the slot 59 seconds into the penalty and the Rangers had a 4-3 lead.

We’ve discussed the third period.  The only goal was scored by Jake Guentzel and it was after Georgiev had made two point blank saves on two shots by Guentzel.  The Penguins had six of the last seven shots on goal, but the Rangers hung on to get to overtime.

After Adam Fox, Chris Kreider and Ryan Strome started the OT and were replaced after 30 seconds  by Anthony DeAngelo, Mika Zibanehad  and Artemi Panarin.  That trio was stuck on the ice for almost two minutes  as he Penguins changes lines three times with Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal, past the exhausted Ranger players and through Georgiev’s legs.  It was a goal he could have stopped.

There appeared to be some miscommunication between Georgiev and DeAngelo when the goalie  could have frozen or cleared the puck.  He didn’t and Crosby was able to score.

Notes on the game

• The Colin Blackwell injury happened in the first period and was described as upper body.  David Quinn said it happened in his second to last shift, but the only thing that happened on that shift was he blocked a shot with his foot.  On his last shift, he was upended in against the boards and went to the bench pretty quickly.  It has to be a concern as Blackwell has a history of concussions.
• The penalty John Marino incurred when he played the puck without a helmet was put into the rule book last season and has rarely been called. This was the first time it was called in a game involving the Rangers.
• Brendan Smith had an awful game and found himself riding the bench in the third period, playing only 10 minutes the entire game.  He took a bad penalty, took an icing that led to a goal and his giveaway led directly to Kapanen’s goal. Jack Johnson is still injured so Quinn may go to the taxi squad and activate Libor Hajek or Tony Bitetto.
• Chris Kreider had his most involved game of the season. He scored a goal and led the team with five shots on goal and four hits.
• Kevin Rooney was signed to help on the penalty kill and he certainly did this game, scoring a shorthanded goal. In 101 NHL games he has scored 11 goals with four of them shorthanded.
• It was not a good night for the plus/minus ratings for the top lines.  Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin were -3 as was Tony DeAngelo who was on ice for four Penguins goals.
• Panarin and ZIbanejad each took five shots, four on goal for each of them.
• DeAngelo finally got his first point of the season, an assist on Panarin’s power play goal.
• How well is K’Andre Miller playing?  His plus/minus rating of +7 is tops among all rookies in the NHL.  He is second among rookie defensemen with four points, fifth among all rookies.  He’s averaging 18:07 minutes of playing time per game, sixth most among all rookies in the NHL.
• Phil Di Giuseppe notched his fifth assist of the season on Lemieux’s goal.  He is tied for the team lead in helpers with Artemi Panarin.
• The Rangers won nine of 19 faceoffs in the first period.  They won only 14 of the next 35.  Strome was worst, winning 37%  while Zibanejad won 44%.   Rooney and Howden were at 50%.
• David Quinn said before the game the he will alternating goalies so Igor Shesterkin will get the start on Monday.
• Last season the Rangers went into the third period with a lead 27 times  They won 24 games, lost one and lost two in overtime.  Just eight games into this season, they have equaled last year’s total of three games  lost
• The Rangers have scored seven goals in the first period, 12 in the second and only two in the third period. Last season they were second to Washington with 89 third period goals.
• The Rangers have not been playing smart. The icing by Brendan Smith was a bad play, but Chris Kreider took an absolutely needless cross checking penalty at the end of the second period while on a power play.   There was only 7.9 seconds left in the period when a penalty was called on Cody Ceci.  When Pittsburgh won the draw in their end the teams got into a scrum along the boards and Kreider took the penalty.  They should have let the Penguins hold onto the puck for the last seven seconds and they would have started the third period with almost two minutes of power play time.  Dumb.