A better effort from the Rangers in a 3-2 preseason win over Boston

It was a different New York Rangers team on the ice versus the Boston Bruins and they came away with a 3-2 win.  Well, it really was a different team as the only Ranger to play in both games was blueliner Tony Bitetto.  This game was the essence of the preseason as they faced a Bruins team made up mostly of prospects.  With  number of regulars in the lineup for New York, it was a game they should have won and they did.

After the first game Coach Gerard Gallant spoke about a need for puck support and this game, they were much better.  The forwards didn’t abandon the defenders to get the puck out of the defensive zone and there were far fewer turnovers that resulted in good scoring chances for the Bruins.

The Rangers goals came from Bitetto, Kaapo Kakko and Artemi Panarin and there were a number of excellent efforts.  Braden Schneider and Sammy Blais never failed to take the body the entire game.  Artemi Panarin was in mid-season form and scored on a breakaway and was star of the game.

Zac Jones had a fabulous game and is making a good case to stay with the team.

Kaapo Kakko spent his first game on the right side of Strome and Panarin and came away with a goal and an assist and was named second star.  He also spent time on the penalty kill.

The new fourth line of Blais, Ryan Reaves and Kevin Rooney had some excellent shifts in the offensive zone, exactly what they are supposed to.  They were not as good in their own zone.

Lauri Pajuniemi made his debut and showed a wicked shot, stopped twice on the power play, once by the crossbar and once on a fantastic save by Kyle Keyser.

Both Ranger goaltenders were solid.  The only goal surrendered by Shesterkin came he was using Brennan Othmann’s stick and he stopped a shorthanded breakway.   Tyler Wall looked very, very good, stopping 15 of 16 shots.

Overall, there was nary a bad effort by any Ranger player and the score could easily have ended 5-2 if Keyser had not been so sharp.

Here is a five minute video recap of the game.

Notes on the game

Tony Bitetto scored the Rangers first goal of 2021-22.  It came 3:35 into the second period on a fantastic cross ice pass from Artemi Panarin. Bitetto played 14 games for the Rangers last year and scored one of the prettiest goals of the season.  He had a tough night paired with Jared Tinordi in the preseason opener and fared much better with Libor Hajek as his defense partner.   He led all defenders in shorthanded ice time, playing three minutes on the penalty kill.

Artemi Panarin led all forwards,but with only 17:36 of ice time, including 2:57 on the power play.  While Gallant definitely wants to see all of his players in these games, he has made it clear that he is determined to spread ice time more evenly.

Kaapo Kakko  played with Strome and Panarin and assisted on the Bitetto goal and then scored from in front of the net to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. He also played 1:58 on the penalty kill, a first.  That was 1:58 minutes more time on the penalty kill than he spent the entire last season.  He led the team with five shots on goal.

The Strome line had a very good outing, with a Corsi For rating of 72.73%.  When they were on the ice 5v5 there were 16 shot attempts by the Rangers compared to six against.

Sammy Blais led the team with eight hits and Braden Schneider had seven as the Rangers outhit the Bruins 37-20.   If Blais keeps this up, he will be a fan favorite.

K’Andre Miller led all defensemen in icetime, playing 22:53 and looked very comfortable with Jacob Trouba.  Their familiarity showed throughout the game and Trouba threw some big hits.<

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Zac Jones was very noticeable and led all blueliners with three shots on goal.

The Rangers won the faceoff battle with a 55.8% winning percentage.  Justin Richards led the way , winning seven of 10 draws.  Kevin Rooney and Greg McKegg won five of eight. The only downer was Ryan Strome who won 10 of 23 faceoffs.  A Strome faceoff win led directly to the Kakko goal, but he won only two of 11 draws in the defensive zone. That needs to get better.

Justin Richards had a good game on the dots and played a solid defensive game and drew a penalty in the third period.

Boston goalie Kyle Keyser kept the game close, robbing Pajuniemi on a power play one-timer and Panarin on a breakaway.

Brennan Othmann played well,but will mostly likely find himself bound for the OHL’s Flint Firebirds before the end of the week.

The Rangers had a power play negated after six seconds when Blais was called for goalie interference. On replay, it was the Boston goalie who initiated contact and it was out of the blue paint.  It hurt when the Bruins scored on the subsequent 4v4.

The Rangers had a two man advantage for 1:41, but couldn’t score.  Last season they scored on only two of seven 5v3 power plays.  The season before was even worse when they were successful once in 11 tries.

Both teams ended up 0-5 on the power play, though the Rangers had the better chances especially during the 5v3.

For the most part, Gallant stayed with the four forward, one defenseman scheme for the power play with Zac Jones, Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller splitting the PP time.

What we learned

The most important factor to come out of this game was that the Rangers brain trust will have a really difficult time deciding which defensemen to carry this season.  While the Adam Fox/Ryan Lindgren and Jacob Trouba/K’Andre Miller pairings are seemingly set, the third pair right now is completely up in the air along with the question of who will be the seventh blueliner.

Nils Lundkvist is the default pick for the right side on the third pair.  However, Zac Jones certainly made a case in this game as did Braden Schneider.  After this game, a defense pairing of Jones and Schneider would make a lot of sense, perhaps better than Lundkvist and Nemeth.

Tony Betitto made a case for him filling the seventh defense role, but Libor Hajek also played well enough for consideration. One thing about Bitetto, he can shoot the puck.

Another lesson was that the Rangers new fourth line is a line to be reckoned with on the forecheck, but they can be exposed in he defensive zone.  While they did a good job hemming the Bruins in the offensive zone, they had a tough time getting the puck out of their own zone several shifts.

Looking at the faceoff numbers, it’s apparent that this will be an issue for the team again this season.  While Mika Zibanejad has been plus .500 in the past, Strome is an issue on draws.  He won one draw in the offensive zone that led to the Kakko goal, but lost two crucial offensive zone draws while on the power play.   Filip CHytil had another dreadful effort on Sunday so the fact remains that their second and third line centers are mediocre on draws and that hurts.

The next game

The Rangers have two days with no games to work on Gallant’s systems.  They play the Devils on Friday in Newark, a game that will televised at 7pm on the MSG Network, but with the New Jersey broadcast team instead of Sam and Joe.