The New York Rangers saw their offense sputter once again on Monday night. The Blueshirts dropped a 3-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild at home.
The Rangers opened the scoring less than a minute into the game. But that was all the offense the club could muster. Moving forward, the Wild gradually took the game over, scoring twice to open up a 2-1 lead.
Kirill Kaprizov added an empty-netter and that was all she wrote.
But when digging a little deeper, Mike Sullivan’s approach showed just how much he’s losing faith in his bottom six. Five of the Rangers’ bottom-six forwards played less than 10 minutes on the night. Taylor Raddysh hit the ice for 8:09, Noah Laba 7:19, Juuso Parssinen 7:23, Matt Rempe 9:27, and Adam Edstrom 9:49.
Edstrom, in particular, looked pretty bad on the Danila Yurov goal. That goal started with Sam Carrick losing a critical defensive zone face off, much the same way J.T. Miller did during the sequence that led to Jonas Brodin’s game-tying goal.
So, as the Rangers looked to tie the game, Sullivan shortened his bench. Unfortunately, the strategy was to no avail. The Rangers could not close the gap despite deploying Miller for 23:41, Artemi Panarin for 21:43, Mika Zibanejad for 22:07, Alexis Lafreniere for 18:26, and Will Cuylle for 19:08.
The Rangers managed just seven shots in the third period. The Wild shut the game down, grabbing the W.
Sheary getting some playing time with Rangers
One of the most interesting names to emerge this season for the New York Rangers has been Conor Sheary. Sheary joined the Blueshirts on a PTO. While he wasn’t a lock to make the team, his familiarity with Mike Sullivan opened a door for him.
Sheary has made the most of his opportunity. The veteran winger made the team out of camp, and has gradually won Sullivan’s trust. It’s worth pointing out that Sullivan and Sheary go back to the early days of the Pittsburgh Penguins championship runs. But it had been a while since the two of them were on the same team.
Thus far, it seems like old times for Sheary and Sullivan. On Monday night, Sheary hit the ice for 18:10 across 26 shifts. Sullivan is deploying Sheary as a defensively responsible forward, who can play a gritty game.
That grit and determination is what makes Sheary such a valuable piece moving forward. Sheary has cracked the top six, and, judging from the way things are going, could be a mainstay for the Rangers in that role.
The Rangers will have a chance to turn things around as they face the San Jose Sharks next Thursday. While there are no easy opponents in the NHL, facing one of the league’s bottom-feeding clubs could be the right way to spark a turnaround led by gritty players like Conor Sheary.