A disappointing 4-1 loss to the Bruins

Notes on the game

Call it bad luck or timing as Igor Shesterkin took the loss because he allowed the Bruins’ second goal that turned out to be the game winner. It dropped his record to 4-7-1.  If the Rangers had been shut out or had gotten one more goal, the loss would have been pinned on Georgiev.

The Rangers did a good job staying out of the penalty box, giving up only one power play in the first period which they killed.

The Blueshirts were 0-3 on the power play. They had their second five-on-three of the season and failed to score.  The first was 35 seconds and this one was 13 seconds.

The Rangers have not been able to score when they have pulled their goalie, something they have done six times this season.

We’ve talk about faceoffs being a good indication of how sharp the Rangers are. Friday night, the Blueshirts won 50.8% of the draws against the best faceoff team in the NHL.  In this game the Rangers had won 10 of 19 in the first period.  They went 13-19 the rest of the game.

This was the first time in franchise history that the Rangers have played the same team four times at home in one month.  Due solely to the COVID-19 realignment, that kind of record is being set all over the NHL this season.

The Rangers travel to Boston for two games in mid-March and then do not play the Bruins again until the last two games of the season the second week of May, a span of eight weeks.

Colin Blackwell’s goal was  his fifth of the season. He led all Rangers with eight shot attempts and five shots on goal.  Blackwell is leading the team in goals per 60 minutes (1.52) and points per 60 minutes (2.54) even better than Artemi Panarin’s 2.05.   He has scored over 10% of the team’s goals. You’d hate to think where the Rangers would be without him.

Isn’t it curious that since Alexis Lafrenière has been moved into a top six role he has one goal and two assists in his last four games?

The Mika Zibanejad situation is becoming untenable.  Despite some encouraging signs, he is a shell of himself and his issues with timing on shots has become noticeable. We are now 19 games into the season and he has yet to score an even strength goal and of his two goals, one was into an empty net.  He has he same number of points as Phil Di Giuseppe and only one point more than Kevin Rooney. Even with Panarin out of the lineup, David Quinn has been cutting down on his ice time. It’s an explicable decline unless it is related to COVID-19.

You have to give Bruce Cassidy credit for going back to Tukka Rask after a tough outing Friday night.  With Jaroslav Halak’s record against the Rangers, it would have been easy to switch.

Two ex-Rangers made their season debuts for the Bruins. Defenseman Steven Kampfer and forward Greg McKegg both were in the lineup for the first time with Kampfer replacing another ex-Ranger, John Moore.

Perhaps the Rangers should decline nationally televised games.  They are 0-2-1 in three tries.

Last season after 19 games, the Rangers had 20 points with a record of 9-8-1-1 and were four points out of a wild card spot.

The Rangers are now 1-2 in their third “Liberty” jersey.  They beat Washington and lost to the Islanders wearing them.

The game ended with a fight between Bendan Lemieux and Nick Ritchie, probably more payback for Ritchie’s getting tangled up with Georgiev.  Both player got five minutes for fighting and they tacked a misconduct on Lemieux.  From what you could see on the NBC telecast, Lemieux score a decision over Ritchie who had two inches and 25 pound on him.