The NY Rangers blow a 2-goal lead, lose 5-3 to the Devils

The NY Rangers blow a two-goal lead, losing to the New Jersey Devils by the score of 5-3. This is the Rangers’ third straight loss, while the Devils are on a tear, winning their third straight and 16 of their last 17 games. This game was hard to watch for Rangers fans.

Great early start

Things were going great for New York after scoring two goals early in the first period. The first goal gave Artemi Panarin his sixth of the season when Panarin and Filip Chytil (7) came into the offensive zone on a 2-on-one. Panarin made it 1-0 Rangers after a nice pass from Miller only 1:20 into the period. K’Andre Miller (7) also assisted in the play.

Mika Zibanejad added another goal on a wrist shot. Chris Kreider (9) and Jacob Trouba (6) assisted on the play as well. Zibanejad leads the team with 11 goals.

Where was the defense?

After the first two goals were scored, it all went downhill for the Blueshirts. The Devils scored four straight goals, two each in the first and second periods. It was looking pretty bleak for the Rangers, especially after Jack Hughes (12) made it 3-2 at the 5:44 mark in the second period. It didn’t get any better after Michael McLeod (3) scored almost halfway through the second. Were these goals scored because the Devils are just that good? Were the Rangers just not defending? A little of both.

The Devils have capitalized on the Rangers’ mistakes, so that can make a good team look great, which it did. I am not knocking the Devils because they lead the Metro division and have won 16 of their last 17 games. That takes skill to do that. I am just saying that the Devils took advantage of the Rangers’ failure to defend. Good teams can do that. Good teams WILL do that.

The Rangers have to take a look at this game and correct their errors. If this happens, as well as their PP doing better, although Vincent Trocheck (8) got a PPG, things will work out better for the Rangers. They definitely need to defend better and also not force plays, but make them. I can’t say that enough.

The light at the end of the tunnel

There is good news after this atrocious game, believe it or not. The Blueshirts have only played 23 games. There are still 59 games left in the season. With that said, the team still has a lot of work to do and they need to figure it out rather quickly.

The Rangers go back on the road to play the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday and then come back home to face them again. The bright side to this matchup is that they are both 4-5-1 in their last 10 games. The Rangers have won their last two games against them. The bad news is that the Senators hope to extend their winning streak to three after winning two straight.

The game will start at 7:00 PM ET in what Ranger fans are hoping will be the start of their own winning streak.