New York Rangers: Unanswered questions after a dreadful night

Forgive us if we do not dwell on the absolutely dismal night for the New York Rangers in New Jersey.   There were hardly any positives that came out of that 7-1 loss.   Julien Gauthier was the best Ranger on the ice and is making a case to stay with the team.  Mika Zibanejad connected on a one-timer for a power play goal. Here is the one highlight of the game.

Other than that?  Bleh.

Coach Gerard Gallant started his postgame remarks by dismissing the result as part of the exhibition process.   “Again, it’s preseason and we’ll work those things out…definitely disappointed in the group effort.”

But then he focused on the unit that had played against the Islanders without positive results. “It’s not good.  This group played the first game and they didn’t play very well”   He said that some players from this game will play again in Boston and issued a word of warning about the consequences. of a lack of effort. “You’ve got to be ready to play these games.  They don’t mean a lot in the standings obviously, but they mean a lot when we’re evaluating players.”

For players like Jarred Tinordi, Zac Jones, Braden Schneider, Morgan Barron, Nils Lundkvist, Dryden Hunt and Greg McKegg who were hoping to stick with the Rangers, their work in this game didn’t help.

By the conclusion of his remarks, Gallant was clearly unhappy and summed up the game pretty well, saying “Exhibition games are to get ready for the regular season, but tonight wasn’t acceptable”.

While the players on the cusp weren’t great, some of the guaranteed  roster players were pretty awful.  Let’s just lump Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller,  Chris Kreider, Igor Shesterkin, Sammy Blais, Filip Chytil and Barclay Goodrow into that mix.

As for Adam Huska and Mason Geertsen, they will be off to Hartford as soon as it makes sense roster-wise.

Questions for the Boston game

We will see the Rangers’ “second” exhibition unit in Boston with some holdovers from New Jersey.  Gallant has maintained that he wants to see the “final” squad in action over the last two preseason games so this is the last game for experimentation.   After today, the Rangers have three days of practice before they take on the Devils on Wednesday night.  That’s when the tough decisions will be made.

Here’s what is still unresolved as they head to Beantown.

1. The third defense pairing –  Patrik Nemeth has apparently won a full time job based on his preseason performance.  Braden Schneider was challenging for a job…until last night.   Nils Lundkvist and Zac Jones both played in New Jersey and with Lundkvist in the lineup in Boston, it may be the game that decides who goes to Hartford.
2. The seventh defenseman – Jarred Tinordi hasn’t shown a lot to earn the right to stick around as the seventh d-man, but he may get to stay by default in order to get the kids more playing time in Hartford.  Better for him to be riding the press box in New York while Schneider and Jones or Lundkvist play regularly in the AHL.
3. The wingers on the Zibanejad line –  We should get to see Alexis Lafrenière on the left side of Mika Zibanejad when the season starts.  That means Chris Kreider moves to the right side, an experiment that Gallant talked about on Friday.
4. The real fourth line – We’ve all been enamored of Ryan Reaves and what he brings to the locker room. He’s effective in the offensive zone, but the Rooney-Reaves-Blais line was exposed in the defensive zone against the Bruins on Tuesday.  In reality, Reaves should be the 13th forward. In that case, who is the right winger on the fourth line?
5. The penalty kill – It wasn’t very good last night, allowing two goals on four power plays.  Gallant still needs to figure out who the top penalty killing forwards will be. Against New Jersey it was Goodrow and McKegg.  Rooney should play tonight and kill penalties, the question is who he will be teamed with. Gallant has said that he wanted to see Kaapo Kakko on the PK.  If they are a pair, keep an eye on them.  Kreider got 1:06 of PK time and his most noticeable contribution was when he cleared the puck (under no pressure) from the defensive zone, but shot it into the Rangers bench.  P.K. Subban got a good point shot off after the Devils won the ensuing faceoff.  Why not just flip it towards the Devils’ zone?
6. Faceoffs were back to normal – After two games with a percentage north of 50%, the Rangers lost 30 of 57 draws.  While that doesn’t look that bad, the alarming statistic is that they lost nine of 11 faceoffs in their own zone while shorthanded.
7. Kravtsov’s role – Vitali Kravtsov played just under six minutes before going out with a lower body injury in the first period.  His role on the team is still to be determined and his injury didn’t help.  Gallant said that it was not serious, but where he fits is still a big question and we didn’t get any answers in New Jersey.
8. Where’s the grit?  – So much has been made of the Rangers’ addition of sandpaper and grit.  But last night they were the opposite of a team that is hard to play against.   The Devils wanted the puck more, won the puck battles and supported each other.  That was with Barclay Goodrow and Sammy Blais in the lineup and those two are supposed to be the mainstays of the new philosophy.  True, they outhit the Devils 23-14, but on Tuesday they had 37 hits against Boston and won. In the postseason opener, they had 23 hits against the Islanders (and lost).
9. The Zibanejad extension – The single biggest question facing Chris Drury and the Rangers is whether to extend Zibanejad with a big contract.  Last night was a conundrum.  He scored their only goal on a fantastic one-timer on the power play and hit the crossbar on another.  He wasn’t the primary penalty killer, but he couldn’t lift the team by himself like Panarin can.  There’s no rush to make a decision, but the longer they wait, it cannot help the collective psyche of the team nor that of Zibnejad.
10. Oh captain, my captain – Trouba, Kreider, Fox?  There wasn’t a lot of leadership in New Jersey last night with Trouba and Kreider in the lineup.  Is Fox the guy?

Tonight

So who will play?   Here’s the list of players who definitely will not play:  Chytil, Fox, Goodrow. Jones, Kravtsov, Kreider, Miller, Panarin, Shesterkin, Trouba and Zibanejad.   USA Today’s Vince Mercogliano had this nugget about the defense.

So,  that leaves the 12 forwards as  Barron, Blais, Cuylle, Gauthier,  Hunt, Pajuniemi,  Kakko, McKegg, Strome, Lafreniere, Reaves and  Rooney.

Here are the six defensemen: Hajek, Nemeth, Lindgren,  Lundkvist, Robertson and Schneider.

Matthew Robertson hasn’t seen any preseason action due to a lower body injury and is this is his first game.

Georgiev will be in goal with Tyler Wall as his back-up.  If Wall plays well, it could be that Huska will be ticketed for Jacksonville after last night’s debacle.

Mason Geertsen and Jarred Tinordi are also not in the lineup.

The Bruins lineup

The Bruins released their lineup for tonight’s game.  It’s a lot different from the team we saw in New York on Tuesday.

Forwards: Samuel Asselin, Patrice Bergeron, Trent Frederic, Jesper Froden, Taylor Hall, Karson Kuhlman, Curtis Lazar, Tomas Nosek, David Pastrnak, Zach Senyshyn, Craig Smith and Jack Studnicka

Defenseman: Brandon Carlo, Derek Forbort, Matt Grzelcyk, Brady Lyle, Charlie McAvoy and Mike Reilly

Goaltenders: Kyle Keyser and Linus Ullmark

The Rangers will be facing some of the best players on the Bruins roster including Bergeron, Pastrnak, Hall and McAvoy.   It will be a tall order for the Rangers to win without Panarin or Zibanejad in the lineup.   If the Rangers take Gallant’s words to heart, they will have to be competitive against this Boston lineup.  It will be a good test.

About the game

The game starts at 7pm and will be televised on the MSG Network.  National television will be on the NHL Network.   There will be no pre or post game coverage on MSG.

Blue Line Station will have it’s live conversation up during the game if you’d like to join in and talk about the game.  Thanks to the diehards who stuck with the live thread last night. Hopefully, there will be more positives to discuss tonight against the Bruins.

Editor’s note: Updated with the list of players in the game tonight.