The New York Rangers were pretty solid in their two losses to Boston. They played the Bruins even and except for failures on the power play, they could have won. Not tonight. In this 5-2 loss to the Devils they were outplayed, outworked and outscored. Did they deserve to lose? Absolutely.
Before we jump out windows, it’s worth noting a few things. Two Devils goals were deflections, one off Jacob Trouba‘s leg and another off a Devil’s stick. The Rangers were without their best player in Artemi Panarin and when he is not there, the Rangers will have even more trouble scoring. Jacob Trouba didn’t come out in the third period with an undisclosed injury and his loss was devastating. They were already down K’Andre Miller so their best defensive pair was not playing, putting a heavy load on the remaining five blueliners, a group that included Brendan Smith, Tony Bitetto and Libor Hajek. Mackenzie Blackwood is fast becoming a Ranger killer with 82 saves in two games against them.
Not that the Devils didn’t have their own problems. The Devils were missing Nico Hischier, Nikita Gusev and Travis Zajac. The Devils hadn’t played a game in two weeks and had their first full team practice yesterday. Their goalie hadn’t played a game since January 19. Mikhail Maltsev was playing his second NHL game. Nick Merkley was playing his ninth NHL game. Will Butcher was playing his first game in almost a year.
The game was actually predictable, to a point. You knew that the Devils would come out fast playing their first game in ages. The Rangers weathered that storm and stood toe to toe with them in the second period. It was the third period that was the surprise. It was supposed to be the Devils who came out flat and without energy but the opposite was true. They came out to play in the third and the Rangers mailed it in.
When David Quinn was asked about the third period, he wouldn’t talk about it specifically, he just said that “we weren’t good enough.” He did say that while losing Trouba hurt, and resulted in a lot of shuffling of assignments, he said “our defensemen weren’t the problem in the third period.”
Finally, Quinn was asked how he would deal with the lack of effort. “it will be addressed tomorrow in practice, and before practice and after practice and before we play Philly.” Quinn looked angry and deflated and didn’t have much to say.
The lack of production from their top players is getting scary. Mika Zibanejad was shut out once more on four shots on goal. He took a offensive one penalty that led to a Devils power play goal. Chris Kreider got his first assist of the season (yes, you heard that right), but had only one shot on goal and gave the puck away with the goalie pulled, leading to an empty net goal.
Kreider spoke to reporters after the game and it was the same old story. “They outhit us, outskated us, outworked us, won more battles…we got away from the things we were doing well. They flat out wanted it more and that’s unacceptable.”
Kreider admitted that the lack of power plays didn’t help saying, “to go a full 60 minutes without drawing a power play, that to me just screams we’re not doing the right things away from the puck to support each and to put ourselves in a position to draw penalties.”
In his postgame analysis, Steve Valiquette also pointed to the lack of power plays as a problem but he laid the blame on the players and the coaching staff. He asked why Kreider, Lemieux and Di Giuseppe are not driving to the goal three times each a game. Those are the plays that draw penalties and cause havoc in the offensive zone and if the players aren’t doing it, the coaches need to guide them.
Kreider, as the senior most player on the team (and one of the highest paid) needs to stop talking about the lack of doing the right thing and to start doing it.
You have to give Zibanejad credit for talking after the game and he was honest about the game. He said “The whole game we didn’t get up to the level of play that we need to. It wasn’t good enough for 60 minutes. We’re lacking a little bit of desperation, we need to find a way to get it done.”
About his own issues, he said “It is frustrating when the puck doesn’t go in. We’ve been creating good chances, we haven’t been able to convert them. We just need a little more desperation and to get in for second and third chances.”
With the season one quarter over and the Rangers slipping further in the playoff race, desperation is exactly what the team needs.