Rangers vs Habs: Time to play a full 60 minutes
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers travel to Montreal for their third game of the season, still looking for their first win. It won’t be easy for the Blueshirts. It’s the Canadiens’ home opener and they are also looking for their first win of the season after two losses including an embarrassing 5-1 decision to the lowly Buffalo Sabres. The Canadiens have not lost the first three games of a season since 1995-96 when they dropped their first five. Since 1917, Montreal has started the season with three losses in a row only five times.
95. MSG Network . 0-2-0. 0-1-1. 152. . 7 PM. Saturday, October 16
The Rangers will have to do it without center Ryan Strome who was left home due to COVID protocols. The good news is that Sammy Blais, who missed the last game with a lower body injury, is good to go.
It will take a full 60-minute effort for the Rangers to win this game, something that they have not done in their first two games.
Oh yes, one more thing. The Montreal Canadiens were Stanley Cup Finalists last season.
About the Rangers
The Rangers made the announcement about Strome called it a “COVID-19 protocol-related absence” and there is no word of what that means. There’s no way to know if he tested positive for the virus or if this was just precautionary due to symptoms. There are very stringent pandemic rules about traveling to Canada and that could also be a reason. We’ll see if he is in Toronto on Monday.
To replace him, the Rangers called up Greg McKegg from Hartford. He didn’t play in Hartford’s season opener on Friday, a 2-1 win over the Bridgeport Islanders. There’s no word on how the lines will be realigned with Strome out. The assumption is that FIlip Chytil would move up to center Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko, but it’s also an opportunity for Gerard Gallant to team up Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on the same line.
No matter what, losing Strome will allow Gallant to experiment with his lines. There have been some issues with chemistry on the newly configured lines so far this season. When Chytil had a prominent role in the last exhibition game he had a hat trick.
The Rangers have failed to win at least once in their first three games only twice since the lockout in 2004-05. This game is the start of a four-game road trip for the Blueshirts so it’s an early bonding opportunity, but also a challenging schedule.
The biggest issue for the Rangers in their first two games has been an inconsistent effort. In Washington, they played well for 33 minutes, then their game plan fell apart and they were trounced. Against Dallas, they came alive midway through the second period and dominated a game that they should have won.
As a result, Coach Gerard Gallant has been uniformly optimistic about the team and its play. He has lauded the good stretches and has spoken about the need to play like that for the full 60 minutes. You can tell when the Rangers get in trouble by a lack of focus in the faceoff circle and multiple turnovers in the neutral zone.
The swings in these games have been dramatic. Halfway through the Caps game the Rangers were outshooting them 13-6. They were outshot the rest of the way 21-11.
Against Dallas it was the opposite. The Stars had a 13-5 shot advantage six minutes into the second period. The Rangers outshot them 28-11 the rest of regulation time.
It’s a tiny sample size, but the Rangers are averaging 29.1 hits per game, fourth most in the NHL. Last season the average was just under 23, 13th most in the league. With the increase in physicality there is the risk of more penalties and the penalty kill has not been good so far this season, allowing four goals in eight chances.
It would be easy to find answers if they had gotten off to bad starts in both games, but the two efforts were so different it’s impossible to pinpoint a specific issue except to say that the team needs to play the entire game.