Rangers claw back, but too little too late & lose 5-4

Notes on the game

The Rangers penalty kill was perfect again, though they had to kill only three penalties. They held the Capitals to only five shot attempts and two shots on goal in six minutes.  In their five games against Washington, the Rangers have killed all 16 penalties.  That’s remarkable considering the Caps have the second best power play in the East Division.

The team penalty kill improved to 85.2%, fifth overall in the NHL.   However their net penalty kill percentage is 88.9%, second best in the entire NHL with only Boston ahead of  the Rangers. Net penalty kill takes into account shorthanded goals and with their four shorties, their percentage takes a jump.

We mentioned that this was one of the few games that Panarin and Zibanejad didn’t notch at least a point. In fact, the three Rangers even strength goals came from the bottom six.  Still Zibanejad led all skaters in ice time with Panarin close behind. The combined ice time total of Colin Blackwell, Alexis Lafrenière and Phil DiGiuseppe didn’t equal the amount of ice time for Zibanejad. .

Colin Blackwell turned 28 and celebrated his birthday by scoring two goals. It was the first two goal game of his career and gives him eight goals on the season, fifth most on the team in just 25 games. In a postgame interview, Blackwell admitted that he knows that his place in the lineup is precarious.  “I’ve been playing for my job since day one so that’s kinda how I approach every single day…continue to do the right things to gain everybody’s trust and continue to stay in the lineup.”   Today, he did a good job o fit.

Chris Kreider made quick work of a third period power play with an excellent deflection to draw within one goal.  It was Kreider’s 17 goal, five off the league lead and second to Ovechnkin in the division. It was his ninth power play goal, second most in the NHL and the most in the East.

Adam Fox has assists in seven straight games. No, he is nowhere near the franchise record.  That’s 15 straight games, set by Brian Leetch in 1991-92.

Fox now has 26 assists on the season, 11th most in the league and the most in the East, one ahead of Sidney Crosby.  He is one assist behind Victor Hedman and Tyson Barrie for the assist lead among defensemen.

This was the third set of back-to-back games for the Rangers and they are 1-2 in the second games.

The comeback was nice, but the Rangers have gone into the third period trailing ten times and have not won once.  They are one of seven teams that have not come back to win, but they are one of three to not even force an overtime.

Alexis Lafrenière played only 8:13 despite scoring a third period goal.  When he scored 12 minutes into the third period he had played 6:41.   Quinn said that he had spoken to the rookie who was frustrated.  He is 12th among rookie forwardss with five goals and 14th with 10 points.  He is averaging 14:11 minutes of ice time per game, tenth most among rookie forwards who have played in at least 25 games.

The Rangers lost 55% of the faceoffs and their inability to win crucial draw is a problem.   When they had pulled their goalie they lost the last two faceoffs in the Capitals’ zone after they had iced the puck.  Knowing that the Rangers are not good on draws, teams can ice the puck at will knowing it won’t hurt them.

The first game post-Brendan Lemieux didn’t see the Capitals taking too many liberties.  Colin Blackwell went to Kevin Rooney’s defense after an iffy hit  by T.J Oshie and was given a roughing penalty.

Before the game David Quinn spoke about the Lemieux trade and said that it was a situation there there was no room for him on the roster.   He cited the arrival of Kravtsov and the fact that there are some players in Hartford who are playing well.  That could be a hint that we may see Morgan Barron sooner than later.  Barron has seven goals and 10 points in 12 games