Rangers’ show some flaws in tough 4-2 loss to Avs

The New York Rangers played a better game against the Avalanche than they did in New York last week, but they didn’t have the same excuses that made that game a “schedule loss.”  They had yet another slow start and took too many penalties and were never able to gain and hold momentum.  Still, it was a one-goal game until the last minute and the Rangers were inches away from tying the game.

They played a road game against one of the best and hottest teams in the NHL.  After being embarrassed on home ice last week, it was a much closer game and if the Rangers had just a little more discipline, they might have been able to sneak away with a point.   There was a little bit of everything in this game including a disallowed goal on a coach’s challenge by Gerard Gallant that gave the team a life.

The good news was the penalty kill was able to stop one of the league’s best power plays five of six times.  The Rangers outhit the Avalanche and finished with 28 shots to 31 for Colorado.  Possession-wise, the Rangers played the Avs even.  They also won a challenge for goalie interference.

The bad news was the Rangers got off to an awful start yet again.  While they were able to kill five of six penalties, they lost all momentum and then compounded it by taking two penalties in the last 13 minutes when they were desperate to tie.  The worst news was that the desperation and passion came much too late, when they were down 3-1 with only four minutes left.

It’s going to be a “I told you so” game for the doubters as the Rangers have lost eight of 12 games against playoff teams.  They will tell you that the Rangers have been feasting on the wannabes and don’t have what it takes to beat the “really good teams.”

Don’t tell that to Gerard Gallant.  He was pleased with the effort. “I  thought we played a good, hard game against a real good hockey team that played really fast. I liked our effort.  We made a couple mistakes, but overall we played a good game.”  He continued, “I thought we had a gutsy effort.  We played 60 minutes…they’re a good team, they made some good plays.  We battled back and we never quit.”

That was echoed by Ryan Strome. “There’s a lot of nights when we’ve had a win and we’re not happy with the effort, I think tonight it was a pretty good effort. If we play like that in a majority of our games you’re gonna be be successful in this league.”

This game does expose some flaws that have been masked so far this season.  So far, the Rangers have succeeded behind a potent power play and superlative goaltending.   Now, the lack of scoring from Mika Zibanejad is becoming a problem, especially now that Chris Kreider is in his first slump.  The team has a real depth scoring issue that must be resolved.   And there is a lack of skill in some key roles with few options to increase it.

About the game

The Avalanche came out like a house on fire, getting two shots on goal and six shot attempts in the first minute and a half before the Rangers had a shot attempt.  When the Rangers got their game going and looked good, Patrik Nemeth took a bad holding penalty.  Though they didn’t score, the power play flipped the momentum and that resulted in the first goal by Colorado.  Mikko Rantanen was able to get free in front of Georgiev and score unimpeded on a nice feed from Nathan MacKinnon.

Late in the period, Kevn Rooney tripped Rantanen and the power play went to work with Cale Makar scoring his 13th goal on a shot from the blue line that Georgiev never saw.

Down 2-0 going into the second period, things looked bleak and looked even worse when the Rangers couldn’t take advantage of two Colorado penalties.  45 seconds after a heavyweight bout between Ryan Reaves and Kurtis McDermid, Ryan Strome scored on a nice pass from Adam Fox and it was a game.

Of course, any momentum from that goal disappeared when Mika Zibanejad took an unecessary offensive zone penalty just one minute later.

The Avalanche scored a third goal after a turnover when the fourth line got caught hanging by the blueline leaving Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren outnumbered in front of the net.  Valeri Nichushkin was able to poke the puck home with just 1:15 left in the period.  It was a crushing goal.

The Rangers played well in the third period, but again, were stymied by penalties.  The first was a slashing penalty on Kaapo Kakko and the second was when Libor Hajek put the puck into the stands.  On that penalty, J.T. Compher was able to get to the rebound of a Makar shot and put the game out of reach, 4-1.  But Gerard Gallant, after much thought,challenged for goalie interference and after a long delay, the goal was disallowed.  Georgiev had protested immediately after the goal and in slow motion you could see that Compher had hit the goalies’ mask as the shot was taken by Makar,  It was the right call and it gave the Rangers life.

They still had to kill off most of the Hajek penalty, but when it ended they had six minutes left to get back into the game.  They pulled Georgiev with almost four minutes left and it paid off when Julien Gauthier put a backhand past Darcy Kuemper off the rebound of a Dryden Hunt shot from the slot.

It looked like the Avs’ Nazem Kadri was going to ice the game with an empty net goal, but he lofted a lazy shot towards the net that Alexis Lafreniere was able to deflect to the corner, saving a sure goal.

That looked like a huge play when the Rangers mounted a spirited attack with just two minutes left.  This time it was Chris Kreider who had the game on his stick, but he couldn’t elevate the shot over Kuemper’s pad and he made the save.

With a minute left and with a faceoff in center ice the Rangers put Georgiev back in goal.  The Avalanche won the draw and Valeri Nichushkin had a breakway and he put the puck past the goalie and the game was over.

Here’s a video recap of the game.

Once again, the Rangers didn’t put together a full 60 minute effort and they took some egregiously bad penalties.  Yet, with two minutes left in the game they came an inch from tying the score.  You have to chalk this up as a learning experience for this young team.  While they are losing to the good teams now, the hope has to be that they will turn that around as the season progresses.   Will they?  Only time will tell.

Notes on the game

• The Rangers have now lost two games in a row in regulation for the first time this season.  Don’t feel bad, the Oilers have dropped six in a row and the best team in the league, the Florida Panthers, have dropped two in a row including an 8-2 shellacking Tuesday at the hands of the Ottawa Senators.
• In the vaunted Adam Fox vs. Cale Makar showdown, the end result was pretty even.  Makar scored a goal while Fox got an assist, exactly what you would expect.  Makar led all Colorado skaters with 27:33 minutes.   Adam Fox led all Rangers, playing 27:22.  Makar had one shot on goal, blocked two shots and finished with a plus/minus of -1.   Fox had one shot on goal, blocked one shot and was a -1 on the night.  A Ranger fan would give Fox the nod since Makar played almost seven minutes on the power play while Fox had less than three minutes with the man advantage.  With those numbers, Makar should have had a better night offensively. Oh yes, Fox finished the evening as the leading scoring defenseman in the NHL with 30 points.
• Ryan Reaves had his second fight of the season, taking on Kurtis McDermid in the second period.  McDermid had been the Avs player who had chased Jacob Trouba all over the ice after his big hit last week on Nathan MacKinnon.   Hockeyfights.com had McDermid the overwhelming winner, though it looked like neither player landed any punches that hurt.  McDermid did get the takedown. It did serve as a wake up call for the Rangers and they scored shortly after the tilt.
• Chris Kreider has now gone four games without a goal and has one goal in his last seven games.   He has one powerplay goal in his last nine games.  The Rangers have to pray that he is not going into another one of his lengthy scoring slumps.
• Mika Zibanejad’s scoring slump is getting ridiculous.  He has scored one goal in his last 17 games, though he has contributed 10 assists in that span.  Is he snakebit?  Well, his shooting percentage is an abysmal 6.9%.   Last season it was 14% and the year before it was 19.7%.
• Alexis Lafreniere played 11:50 and got a regular shift in the third period.  He made the defensive play of the game, batting away Kadri’s shot at the open net.
• Julien Gauthier’s goal was his first in 12 games and his second of the season in 19 games.  An eight goal pace over a full season is not going to cut it. He works hard, but still has issues finishing.
• Fiilp Chytil has one goal and two assists in his last 14 games. Those are not good numbers for a top nine center.
• Patrik Nemeth had a pretty dreadful game.  He took a bad penalty in the first period and ws beaten several times later in the game.  His partner, Libor Hajek looked fine except for his delay of game penalty late in the third.
• When Gallant challenged the Compher goal in the third period, it was a risk.  If not overruled the Rangers would have been penalized and would have had to kill another two minutes.   But, the score would have been 4-1 and the game would have been all but lost, so why not.
• The ESPN+ telecast was adequate, but barely.  Hulu was supposed to stream the game, but it didn’t show up until the second period.  Play-by-play man Bob Wischusen clearly needs to brush up on his hockey.  He’s most a football and basketball announcer and it showed.   He didn’t know a team cannot take a time out after an icing and he repeated misidentified players on the ice (Strome for Trouba etc.).  Brian Boucher was an improvement on Ray Ferraro and between the benches reporter A.J. Mleczko didn’t talk as much in this game.  That helped. There was a disturbing lack of replays in favor of ESPN promos, especially during the “commercial free” third period.  They never showed a replay of Kakko’s slashing penalty instead promoting a vodka.  The one good element was the use of a behind the net camera during power plays.  It’s an effective way to follow play in the offensive zone..
• Alexandar Georgiev  played well again, stopping 27 of 31 shots including one breakaway.  He wasn’t quite as sharp as he has been and it’s a question of who will get the start Wednesday in Arizona. Keith Kinkaid is with the team and is the favorite to start.
• The Avalanche swept the two-game series against the Rangers, their first sweep since 2017-18.