The bad and good Rangers show up in 4-3 shootout loss

The New York Rangers have been one of the least predictible teams in the NHL this season. They constantly fall behind early and have to come back to win.  They are an analytics nightmare.   They have dominated teams like Florida and Tampa and lost to teams that they should have beaten.  This game was the perfect example as the Rangers came dangerously close to being beaten badly by the Philadelphia Flyers.

Coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period to salvage a point is admirable, but they shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.  True, they had an incredible 86 shot attempts to only 37 for the Flyers.  True, they outshot the Flyers 46-26.  But they also gave up three goals and numerous prime scoring opportunities including four breakaways.  Despite the three goals allowed, Igor Shesterkin had to stand on his head to save the game.

Coach Gerard Gallant was clearly not happy with the prime chances that they allowed.  “We made some bad mistakes. We didn’t give them a whole lot of chances, but we give them grade A breakaways and two on ones, that’s what really hurt us tonight.  I thought we played a pretty good game overall, besides giving them, I dunno, seven or eight,  three breakaways, a couple two- on-ones, but it wasn’t for those plays we would have had  a perfect game. You can’t win a hockey game playing loose like that.”

The third period comeback was something special, but they also did their utmost to halt the momentum, taking two early penalties in third period after scoring their first goal.  A Panarin hooking penalty was a bad call, but Ryan Reaves took a careless high sticking penalty just a minute after they scored their first goal. No matter how you look at it, the Rangers tried their hardest to lose this game.

On the optimistic side of things, the Rangers had absolutely no puck luck.  Martin Jones made some excellent stops and did well controlling rebounds, but the Rangers hit posts, crossbars and had numerous prime scoring opportunities stopped.   You don’t have 86 shot attempts without some of them being pretty good.

Andrew Copp had the tying goal and spoke about how games like this will help when the playoffs start.  “The confidence gained from the way we played the last two periods and being to come back from something like that…is something that is going to happen in the playoffs in my experience. I’ve seen it a lot, so to be able to stop the momentum going the other way and turn it in our favor.”

Copp has been in the playoffs the last four seasons with Winnipeg, playing 34 games.

A loss is never good, but as far as they go, the Rangers showed something in this game.  Gallant put it best when asked about the result, “I’m a little torn, but it was a good point, no doubt, being down three nothing.”

About the game

As far as games go, this was as weird a game as the Rangers will play all season.  The Rangers came out fast, with seven of the first 10 shot attempts.  The game as playing out just as you would expect when Cam York scored a totally unexpected goal, 5:54 into the game.  Nate Thompson won the faceoff getting the puck to York to whose one-timer from the point that eluded Shesterkin over his glove hand.  It was a shot that Shesterkin normally handles with ease, but it appeared to knuckle a bit on the way in.

Shesterkin hadn’t recovered from the goal when the Flyers struck again just 50 seconds later.  It was another bizarre play.  Martin Jones made a good save on Alexis Lafrenière and they got the puck to center ice where the Rangers recovered it. Jacob Trouba tried to move the puck forward but it hit Julien Gauthier’s skate, bouncing right to Kevin Hayes who passed to Owen Tippett.  He tried to get the puck back to Hayes driving to the net, but it hit K’Andre Miller and Tippett recovered and snapped a wrist shot past Shesterkin.

That was two lucky bounces for the Flyers and the stunned Garden crowd was looking at a 2-0 deficit.  That’s how the first period ended.

The Rangers offense picked up in the second period, aided by two power plays, but despite outshooting the Flyers 19-8, the period was scoreless, primarily thanks to Martin Jones.

Things looked very bad in the third period when the Flyers added a third goal by Joe Farabee on a two-on-one just 44 seconds into the period. It was a total defensive breakdown that allowed Travis Sanheim and Farabee to break in with the Rangers caught up ice.  Both Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren turned the wrong way and the other Rangers were caught up ice.

The Rangers answered right back when a Jacob Trouba point shot was deflected by Artemi Panarin just 38 seconds later.

That ended over five straight periods of scoreless hockey for the Blueshirts and they continued pressing only to have Ryan Reaves go off for high sticking just about a minute after scoring.  Talk about buzzkill.   Things went from bad to worse when Panarin was called for a phantom hooking call leaving the Rangers only 13 minutes to mount the comeback.  The Rangers had no less than two breakaways during the Panarin penalty with Copp stopped by Jones and Kreider missing a set-up from Zibanejad.

The Blueshirts didn’t give up and they finally scored their second goal when Zibanejad was able to tap in the rebound of a blast from Frank Vatrano.

The shot hit Jones in the mask, knocking it off his face after Zibanejad had put in the rebound.

Just 12 seconds later, it was Artemi Panarin on the break-in who fed Andrew Copp for the typing goal on a bang bang play as Copp drove to the net.

Tie game and the Garden crowd was totally berserk.

They went absolutely nuts when Ryan Lindgren was tripped, giving the Rangers their third power play with just 3:11 left in the game.  The power play couldn’t come through and the game went to overtime.

The overtime was predictably wild with both teams exchanging prime chances.  Igor Shesterkin stopped three point blank shots from Morgan Frost while Martin Jones stopped shots from Barclay Goodrow and Vatrano.

It went to the shootout and Shesterkin made saves on Cam Atkinson and Owen Tippett before allowed Kevin Hayes to beat him on an off speed shot lifted over him into the top of the net.  On the other end, Jones stopped Mika Zibanejad while Panarin couldn’t get a shot off due to a rolling puck.  It came down to Filip Chytil and he almost scored on Jones’ five hole, but the Flyers’ goalie was able to close the gap and that was the game.

Here’s a full video recap of the game:

Notes on the game

• The Rangers record is 44-20-6 for 94 points with 12 games left.  The Penguins are 41-19-10 for  92 points with 12 games left.  The Rangers are within four points of first place Carolina though the Hurricanes have a game in hand.  The Rangers hold the ROW tiebreaker with Pittsburgh.
• With 93 points, the Rangers moved into 17th place all-time in franchise history. Only ten teams in team history have finished with 100 points or more.
• The Rangers magic number to clinch a playoff spot is seven. The magic number to clinch at least third place is 16 points.
• The shootout loss gives the Rangers a record of 11-7-1 against teams from the Metropolitan Division. It was their first loss in three games against the Flyers.
• The Rangers are 4-3 in shootouts and are 4-3 in overtime.  Shersterkin’s record is 3-2 while Georgiev is 1-1 in shootouts.
• This was the 10th time this season that the Rangers have come back after trailing in the third period to get at least a point.  They’ve won four games in regulation, two in overtime and two by shootout. The only points that they have lost when coming back are two shootout losses.
• The Rangers failed to score on the power play for the second straight game. They are 0-6 in those games.  They are still in second place in the NHL with 26.2%, but are now tied with the Edmonton Oilers.
• The penalty kill is making a comeback, stopping all three Flyer power plays after killing four on Friday night. They have now killed eight in a row and moved back into a tie for 10th best in the league at 81.1%.
• Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist and is tied for ninth in the NHL with 82 points. His 63 assists is third most in the league.
• Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves and is still the league leader in save percentage at .933.  His 2.14 goals against average is second best in the NHL.  The Flyers had four clear breakaways in this game and he stopped them all, keeping the Rangers in the game.
• Andrew Copp is looking more and more like a great acquisition. He has three goals and five assists for eight points in seven games.
• The Rangers have been on national television 15 times this season and have lost only four times in regulation with a record of 10-4-1.
• The 46 shots by the Rangers was a season high, topping their previous best, 41 shots, reached twice before. It was the fourth most shots in a games over the last six seasons.
• Panarin’s third period goal ended a five period shutout streak, tied for the longest this season for the Rangers.