OIL SPILL: Rangers in trouble after latest collapse.

Through 40 minutes on Saturday, the Rangers understood the assignment. The pregame chatter about them standing up to the “Added challenge” that comes with defending Connor Mcdavid and the high-octane Edmonton Oilers across 60 minutes was 2/3 of the way completed, and the team also enjoyed a 3-0 lead, one that felt bigger in the gameplay due to a couple of disallowed goals.

But in the third period, the Blueshirts took their foot off the gas and began leaking oil, which allowed Edmonton to rally for a 4-3 victory in front of a stunned 18,006 at Madison Square Garden.
We got put on our heels,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “I don’t think we got off them.”
That bodes as the sentiment for a defensive unit this season that has struggled to step up whenever they’re without top stalwart Ryan Lindgren, who left in the middle of the matinee due to injury.

At the outset, the Rangers, wearing their reverse retro jerseys, looked like a team excited to return home after a four-game west-coast trip.
New York scored three minutes into the contest when Adam Fox threw the puck at the net, which Alexis Lafreniere tipped in for his third goal of the season giving his team a 1-0 lead.

The Blueshirts continued to dictate play and were rewarded for their efforts when Mattias Janmark tripped Vincent Trocheck, sending them to the power play. Artemi Panarin, who entered the contest without a goal in 11 straight games, ripped one past Jack Campbell on the ensuing man advantage. Unfortunately, it was called back after a successful Edmonton challenge due to Panarin not getting the puck into the offensive zone before Trocheck entered, rendering it offsides.

In the second, Edmonton generated pressure, but Shesterkin stonewalled them as part of a 14-save frame.
Meanwhile, after Campbell robbed Panarin’s one-timer at the goal line side, and Kappo Kako missed a wide-open net, the Rangers finally proved opportunistic on their side of the ice, as Libor Hajek fed Sammy Blais, who made a strong move around the goal and found Braiden Schneider who scored to double the New York lead. However, the Blueshirts were victimized by the situation room for the second time on the day, as it was ruled Ryan Carpenter interfered with the Oilers goalkeeper, keeping what should’ve been a 3-0 game by now, 1-0.

Luckily as the period wound down, the puck finally bounced the Rangers’ way. A stopped Ryan Lindgren chance came out to Chris Kreider, who banked it off of Campbell before Julien Gauthier won a net-front scramble 32 seconds later to officially make it a 3-0 hockey game.

When the frame ended, the crowd saluted their heroes for their resilience in overcoming those two prescribed tallies. They were poised to enjoy the last 20 minutes of what would go down as a fundamentally good win.
After all, it was 3-0, and New York had the reigning-Vezina winner in net who was on the top of his game with an inspired defense in front of him, putting on a spirited performance against one of the league’s best scoring threats, who entered losers in 7 of their last 10. What could go wrong?

Signs of trouble arose when Edmonton’s league-best power play received a snipe from Evan Bouchard, whose first goal of the season just 4:40 into the period spoiled Shesterkin’a shutout bid.

Moments later, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins caught Lindgren high with a big hit, sending NO55 to the locker room, and he wouldn’t return to the action, later being listed as “day-day.” Seeing as their opponent was down their enforcer, Edmonton pressed and used their breakneck speed to wear down the New York defense.
With 12:28 left, they pulled a goal closer when the defenseman Bouchard snapped his second past Shesterkin less than three minutes later to cut the visitor’s deficit to 3-2.

The Rangers were reeling, and the Oilers knew it, continuously putting the Blueshirts on their heels before eventually evening things when a Trouba turnover was all 21-year-old rookie Dylan Halloway, the 14th overall pick of the 2020 draft, needed for his first NHL goal, beating Igor short side to tie it.

With 2:26 to play, Lafreniere was boxed for roughing, eliciting what was reportedly a “Loud thump” from the Rangers GM booth (Maybe Chris Drury?), who could only dread what was about to happen next. All it took was 24 seconds on the man advantage for Leon Draisatil to put the home fans out of their misery, as he outmuscled Kreider in the slot and slid  Mcdavid’s pass into the net to give Edmonton a 4-3 lead, one they wouldn’t relinquish to complete a euphoric victory.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We talked about it in between periods. We talked to the players. Sometimes it just happens. We had a couple of timeouts. We tried to reset and (say), ‘Let’s get going again.’… But they get four goals in the third period for no reason besides us giving them opportunities and two bad penalties. It’s embarrassing.”

The loss was New York’s 7th in their first 11 games at home this year, one that dropped them to 10-8-4 overall, and the fact it’s the white-hot New Jersey Devils(18-4-0) who enter MSG on Monday night doesn’t make this one feel any better. It wasn’t the first time the Blueshirts had choked a multi-goal lead at home this season, for it happened on November 6th in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Red Wings and two days later, where they squandered a 3-1 lead to the rival Islanders. But Saturday’s postgame show was the first time you could feel as if doubt on how they’ll fair over the rest of the season had crept into the dressing room.

“I don’t know,” a despondent Mika Zibanejad responded when asked postgame how the team moves forward from this. That line echoed what perhaps the fanbase is thinking as everyone searches for answers as to why a team that was two wins shy of a Stanley Cup finals berth last year is suddenly struggling to put wins together.

It’s often been said in this space that the Rangers have been playing well but haven’t received fortuitous puck luck yet.
But on an afternoon when they had just about everything going for them, they failed to capitalize. Their latest fall from grace means when they gear up for practice on Sunday morning, the New York Rangers will find themselves out of the current Eastern Conference playoff picture.

LIBERTY CURSE:
The Rangers have yet to record a win while wearing their reverse retro jerseys, falling to 0-3. Their next tilt with them will be on December third against the Chicago Blackhawks.

KRAVTSOV OUT YET AGAIN :

Vitali Kravtsov was left out of the Rangers’ lineup for the seventh straight game which has kickstarted some trade rumors. The 22-year-old forward selected ninth overall in 2018, has only appeared in six games this season and has largely been held out due to multiple injuries. The team says he’s been cleared, yet he’s been listed as a “Healthy Scratch” over the last four games. Something has to give.