Rangers choke a two goal lead in defeat to the Islanders

With two of the three games between the two New York City rivals already in the books, there is a clearly dominant team in the City that Never Sleeps. It is not the New York Rangers. Despite getting a big performance from Vincent Trocheck, the Rangers could not hold onto a 3-1 lead entering the third period as they lose 4-3 in regulation to their bitter rivals. This game is a perfect example of the Rangers’ season so far.

Although the New York Rangers finally finding a way to get the puck past the persistent pucktopper that is Semyon Varlamov, the original six franchise couldn’t hold the lead. This was another performance that faltered in the third period of a game the Blueshirts could have won easily. A single poor display for 20 minutes showed the Rangers up, and they only have themselves to blame for that bad result they earned last night.

Despite scoring three times on a netminder that had won his last four games at Madison Square Garden in shutouts, the Blueshirts couldn’t hold a lead at home against their bitter city rival. This raises a lot of questions about what’s going wrong. It it the coaching staff? Is it the roster construction? Is it the locker room? Something has gone badly for the Rangers this year so far and they need to correct it fast.

One of the few silver linings in this game was that the powerplay seemed to wake up. Two tallies on the man advantage gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead in this one. You may ask what happened to that lead and alright, fair point, but there is no doubt that Gerard Gallants club needed their powerplay to start clicking before they were too far behind the eight-ball heading into Thanksgiving.

This loss drops New York Rangers to 6-5-3 on the season and with 15 points from 14 games, they’re two spots outside of the playoff places having played more games than all the other teams around them. This is an awful position to be in regarding the standings. These early season losses need to become wins and two points in the bank sooner rather than later or there may not be playoffs in Manhatten this year.

With the Detroit Red Wings next on the schedule for the Rangers, that game has the feel of a must win. Detroit beat the Rangers in overtime just a few days ago and revenge needs to be had. Every loss is pushing this franchise further behind the playoff line. It gets more and more difficult to reach the postseason the further back you fall. You can’t win the cup in November, but you can lose it.