Rangers vs. Flyers: Quite a ride but the wrong finish in OT

Notes on the game

The Rangers were 0-3 on the power play and the Flyers were 2-5 with a goal disallowed. The Blueshirts haven’t allowed two power play goals in a game since February 24 against you know who…the Flyers.

The Rangers penalty kill was without Adam Fox and Pavel Buchnevich who are both on the top PK unit.  Buchnevich in particular has become outstanding defensively and he was missed.

The Flyers are one of the best teams in the NHL on faceoffs and they showed it. They won 39 of 67 draws or 58% and it cost the Rangers, especially on the first power play goal and the third period tying goal.

All in all, Keith Kinkaid played pretty well, but did allow a couple iffy goals.  His pass in overtime was well intentioned, but disastrous.  He stopped several breakaways and made some fine saves, especially in the first period and the end of the second period.

K’Andre Miller had a very rough outing.  His pinch led to the first Flyers goal and he made some bad passes under pressure.  This after perhaps his finest game of the season against Boston on Saturday.

Miller wasn’t the only Ranger to have a bad follow up game.  Count Mika Zibanejad in that group as he had several high danger chances and was unable to convert or even get a threatening shot off.

Artemi Panarin looks determined to wrest the team scoring lead from Buchnevich as he finished with a goal and two assists and was the Rangers’ best player.  Whether it was directing traffic on the power play or controlling the puck in overtime, it wasn’t like he missed any time.   He still needs to get the team’s power play going.

We wouldn’t be talking about a bad power play if Chris Kreider had been able to convert a couple times when he had excellent scoring opportunities. One point blank shot was stopped by Carter Hart’s pad when Kreider couldn’t elevate the puck.

Tarmo Reunanen made his NHL debut and he did well in 8:57 minutes of playing time.  He got the primary assist on Panarin’s goal with a very nice cross ice pass and he also had one shot on goal.<

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Julien Gauthier had two breakaways, the first on an excellent feed from Kaapo Kakko which was stopped and the second on a pass from Filip Chytil that he took past Carter Hart and scored on the backhand.  As positive as the goal was, he also took six minutes of high sticking penalties and the Flyers scored twice.  The stick fouls were avoidable and if he wants to continue to play, he needs to learn to control his stick.

On the second Gauthier foul, Claude Giroux went down like he was shot and was rewarded with a four minute power play when he displayed a bloody nose.   Saturday, Alexis Lafreniere was bloodied by a high stick and didn’t get the second minor penalty.  There is a reward to  being a veteran over a rookie.

Jacob Trouba led all skaters with 27:23 of ice time and 34 shifts.

The last eight goals scored by the Rangers have been scored by eight different players.

This was the 10th time the Rangers have fallen behind by two goals in a game and the first time they have come back to tie the score. The haven’t come back from a two goal deficit to win a game, gaining just the one  point from this overtime loss.

The Rangers won the possession battle with a Corsi For above 50% in all three periods and overtime. The Rangers had 29 scoring chances to 19 for the Flyers in all circumstances and each team had 11 high danger scoring chances