Rangers lose to Flyers 4-3 despite Kreider hat trick

This was one of those games that if you win, you just accept your good fortune and go home.  But if you lose, it’s a case of getting what you deserve.  It was a sloppy game for both teams and despite being sorely undermanned, the Rangers could have escaped with at least a point.

How sloppy was it?  The Rangers took two too many men on the ice penalties and they put two pucks into the stands.  They allowed numerous odd man rushes and breakaways.They made mistakes all over the ice.  It was ugly, but despite all of that, they could have won.

The fact that they almost stole a point with a lineup that included six players who were not in the starting lineup when in the season opener is either a condemnation of the effort by Philadelphia or a compliment to the Ranger wannabes.  It was a little bit of both.

Coach David Quinn spoke repeatedly about overcoming adversity and they almost did it, but losing K’Andre Miller to COVID protocol just before game time was the final blow. The Jack Johnson-Brendan Smith tried very hard, but Smith had a few of his patented brain farts and while Johnson was effective, he is slow.

Igor Shesterkin is making a habit of allowing one questionable goal each game, this time the game winner by Kevin Hayes.  It was a great shot by the ex-Ranger and despite that goal, Shesterkin was challenged repeatedly from the opening minute. Without him in net it could have been a blowout.

Chris Kreider got a hat trick on three goals scored from the crease.  They were classic “garbage goals,”  but they are precisely the kind of goals he should be scoring  and it came on the anniversary of his signing a $45.5 million contract.

Veteran Brian Elliott kept the Flyers in the game especially when the Rangers mounted a furious push in the third period.  He was very, very good.

Mika Zibanejad doubled his assist total on the season, getting two.  He played a dynamic game in all three zones and when asked if he thought it was one of his better games of the season he was measured in his response. He said “I feel better,but it’s kind of hard to look at that coming off a loss. We’ll recap tomorrow…for my own sake, I just keep working, trying to get better and help the team to win.”

David Quinn spoke after the game and was very critical of the team defense.”I thought our D tried to do too much. I thought we were out of position.  Guys that should just be keeping it simple, playing simple hockey, I thought we got too out of control at times..it was really disappointing…it was way too sloppy, way too loose.”

He did see some positives in the game, saying “I like how we battled back.  I thought we did a really good job staying in it, giving us a chance.”

He was asked if players were trying to do too much in light of the many regulars out of the lineup, but said that it was just sloppy play with too many unnecessary penalties.