Boy, was that a disaster or what?

The New York Rangers thought they could coast their way to a win against a non-playoff team and they were taught a lesson, administered a thorough 7-4 beating by a Devils team that wanted the win and were willing to work to get it.  It was as ugly a game as the Rangers have played all season and all of the good will that was built up by their successful weekend along with the excitement about their deadline day acquisitions disappeared in a nanosecond.

Why did they lose?  Mika Zibanejad scored just seven minutes in to the game. He put in the rebound of a Chris Kreider shot after some great work on the boards by Alexis Lafrenière.

Adam Fox potted his 10th of the season about seven minutes later.

So, after building a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Rangers thought they were in for an easy night.  They were deceived by the first period, a period that they dominated on the scoreboard, but not on the ice.  They outshot the Devils 14-11, but the Devils led in nearly all other statistics.  The Rangers had four high danger chances while the Devils had three.

They came out in the second period and lost all structure.  They made stupid pass after stupid pass, losing the puck and turning it over in the center ice.  The Devils counterattacked and piled on, scoring six straight goals.  The Blueshirts were lucky that one goal was disallowed on an offside challenge.

Gerard Gallant was blunt.  “We had very few turnovers the first period, played a really good game. All of sudden we started trying to make plays that weren’t available and then they came at you.”

For once, the goaltending let the team down.  Igor Shesterkin was merely okay and he was the victim of a barrage of excellent chances by the Devils.  It was embarassing. That was the night for Shesterkin as Georgiev took over in the third.

Gallant didn’t blame the goalies, putting responsibility on the players in front of them. “We weren’t mentally sharp.  Those turnovers turned the game around for them.”

Down 5-2 after two periods, the Rangers began their comeback when Ryan Strome tipped in an Artemi Panarin shot.

It didn’t last.  After Panarin collided with Yegor Sharangovich in center ice and Strome took an ill-timed unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that deflated the Ranger comeback and that’s when the Devils scored on the power play. Even worse, it came seconds after a botched shorthanded two-on-one when Chris Kreider tried to pass to Mika Zibanejad instead of taking the shot.  The Devils blocked the pass, turned the puck around back to the Rangers’ zone and scored.

Chris Kreider took the blame. “I certainly made some boneheaded plays, especially on that one play…he gave me nice pass and I didn’t shoot it.  Every practice whever he (Zibanejad) gives me that, I have no idea why I tried to give it back…it was the difference between a one goal game and a three goal game.”

The Devils added one more goal, but the closest the Rangers could come was 7-4 when Kreider scored on the first power play of the game for New York.

So, what the heck happened?  Was it the fact that there were three brand new faces in the lineup?  Gallant said that had nothing to do with it, but the duo of Justin Braun and Patrik Nemeth had a challenging night.    Was it the fact that it was the third game in four nights after an intense weekend?  There’s probably some truth to that and the Devils were due to win after eight straight losses to the Rangers.

What really happened was the Rangers took the night off and against a motivated Devils team, that was a fatal mistake.

Chris Kreider reinforced that. “We just got away from the things we’ve done well the last couple of games.  We had a good first period,  just fell asleep at the wheel, which is unacceptable. Frustrating considering how well the road trip went up to that point. Could have played simple, simplify the game, we just got completely away from that.”

Here is a video recap of the game, if you can stand watching the Devils score seven goals.

The Rangers have a chance to show some moxie and rebound against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, a very important game.  The Blueshirts have shown that they can learn from their mistakes and rebound after tough losses.  They will need to be at their best Friday night.

Notes on the game

• The Penguins beat Columbus so they moved into second place, two points up on New York.  The Capitals lost to 5-2 to St. Louis so they remain five points behind the Rangers.
• The Rangers have only six road games left this season with 12 games at Madison Square Garden. It’s a favorable schedule and the Blueshirts need to take advantage.
• The seven goals were the most allowed by the Rangers in a game, equaling the seven that they gave up to Colorado in December.
• The entire Rangers lineup contributed to this loss. The Fox/Lindgren tandem were on for four goals against while Patrik Nemeth, Dryden Hunt, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider were on for three goals.
• The three newest Rangers made their debuts.  Andrew Copp was noticeable. He had two assists as he played 17 minutes and won eight of 15 faceoffs. Tyler Motte had four shots and three hits in just over 12 minutes while Frank Vatrano was not much of a factor in his fourth game.
• The Rangers killed two of three penalties with one power play goal overturned when the Devils were offside.   The Rangers scored on their only power play of the game, late in the third period.
• Igor Shesterkin’s hold on the Vezina Trophy got a little looser in this game.  He allowed five goals on 24 shots.  He still leads the league with a .936 save percentage, but his goals against average jumped to 2.14, fourth best in the NHL behind Frederik Andersen, Jacob Markstrom and Jeremy Swayman.
• Chris Kreider scored his 42nd goal of the season, tied for second with Leon Draisaitl.  It was his 22nd power play goal, five goals more than Draisaitl.  That’s the third most power play goals ever by a Ranger, one behind Marcel Dionne and two behind franchise record holder Jaromir Jagr.
• When Adam Fox scored his 10th goal, it game the Rangers two blueliners with 10 goals (Jacob Trouba has 10 goals).  The last time the Rangers had two defensemen with 10 goals was 2007-08 with Michal Rozsival (13) and Dan Girardi (10).  The Rangers have had three defensemen with 10 goals or more three times in their history.