The New York Rangers lost a game that they could have won, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Los Angeles Kings. It was a 2-1 game until the Kings scored into an empty net. Despite being badly outplayed at times and outshot 39-23, the Rangers were in the game until the last two minutes.
The Rangers got a jolt just before game time when Barclay Goodrow had to go on the COVID protocol list, joining Igor Shesterkin, Julien Gauthier and Ryan Reaves. Coach Gerard Gallant was also in the protocol so Hartford Wolf Pack coach Kris Knoblauch was behind the bench. It really didn’t matter.
The Kings are another one of those teams with an excellent transition game and that gave the Rangers fits throughout, but it was two bad defensive miscues that led to the two L.A. goals scored early in the second period. The Blueshirts had their chances, especially Ryan Strome who had five shots on goal including at least three prime opportunities. If Strome scores and K’Andre Miller doesn’t have an absolute brain fart, it’s a 1-1 game.
The Rangers should be unhappy with their effort. They didn’t turn it around until there was just nine minutes left in the game. Kevin Rooney led the way with a big hit that kept the puck in the Kings zone and they had one long shift that finally led to a goal by Mika Zibanejad. All you could ask was why they couldn’t do that for the entire game as they did in Anaheim.
The good news is the Rangers didn’t play well, but they could have won. Keep in mind that this lineup included Jonny Brodzinski, Tim Gettinger, Greg McKegg and Morgan Barron, the Hartford Wolf Pack’s four best players.
The defense included the pairing of Jarred Tinordi and Patrik Nemeth and they looked slow against a very speedy transition team. The belief that the Kings are a “heavy” team is no longer true. They’ve gotten younger and fast this year and it showed.
Chris Kreider summed it up perfectly, saying “Getting through that 1-3-1 (neutral zone defense), we decided to work hard not smart…walking out of the zone, trying to get our feet going a little bit too late, getting beat and giving them rushes and letting them advance the puck up the ice.”
Mika Zibanejad echoed the sentiment. “The neutral zone gave us trouble…we don’t get it in and we just play in our d-zone and try to get it out, can’t really get that momentum. It’s frustrating obviously.”
Coach Kris Knoblauch talked about shots and quantity vs quality, something that Zibanejad mentioned, “We need to have more of a shooting mentality.” There’s no doubt that one of the Rangers biggest issues is the tendency to overpass, especially lateral passes and also the fact that they are slow to take shots. Anyone who has watched this team knows it has been an issue for years.