The New York Rangers could not exit Buffalo fast enough after being embarrassed Saturday night
BUFFALO, NY—The New York Rangers were back in action Saturday night after a two week break for the 4-Nations Tournament, but it wasn’t the type of start the blueshirts were hoping for if they want to make the playoffs.
The Rangers gave up five goals in the first, and then three more goals in the third period in a 8-2 rout on the road.
Game Notes
Not the type of re-start to the season the Rangers were hoping for to say the least. I’ll talk more about what went wrong in the Game Analysis section, but for right now here’s what you need to know about this game.
The Rangers were down 1-0 early in the first, when Jack Quinn scored his 10th goal of the season on a misplayed wrist shot. Igor Shesterkin looked like he needed to shake off the cobwebs, since he did not play any hockey over the last two weeks.
But after giving up the first goal, New York began to play better defense for a short while. And then at 11:58 of the first, Buffalo Captain Rasmus Dahlin scored his 8th of the year as he tipped in a shot from Jordan Greenway from the point.
Three minutes later, Tage Thompson would score his 27th goal of the season to give Buffalo the commanding 3-0 lead. But the Rangers implosion didn’t stop there. At 17:33 of the first Ryan McLeod scored his 13th goal from Dahlin and Jason Zucker and then 48 seconds later, Rasmus Dahlin scored his second of the game on the power play.
New York allowed 16 total shots on net in the first period, gave up five goals and forced Head Coach Peter Laviolette to pull Shesterkin from net with just over one minute left in the period.
The second period was better for the Rangers, but not great. New York was finally able to get on the scoreboard when Chris Kreider scored his 17th goal of the year on the power play at 5:29. But it would take the Rangers another five minutes to score their second goal at 11:25 when Mika Zibanejad knocked in his own rebound shot right out of mid-air.
Even though the blueshirts didn’t give up any goals in the middle period, they did allow 10 more shots to be taken on Jonathan Quick, who was still in net for the Rangers.
Going into the third, Rangers fans might have been hoping for the inspirational comeback win that turns this season around, but those hopes were dashed at 3:47 of the third when Tage Thompson scored his second of the game to extend the lead back to 6-2.
And then the pile on began. Ryan McLeod scored his second of the game at 5:40 and Henri Jokiharju added the last nail in the coffin at 19:24 to seal the 8-2 victory for Buffalo.
Game Analysis
Before the start of this game, the entire world was buzzing about the 4-Nations Tournament. And the reason everyone was talking about an exhibition tournament was because of the intensity of the games.
When you watch Rangers games this season, there is zero intensity.
More so than that, I’m starting to believe that the Rangers bench no longer believes in this team. It looks as if they don’t believe they can beat their opponents any longer, so the Rangers are just going through the motions.
If I were the General Manager, I would be looking at the trade deadline as an opportunity to try and set my roster up for next season. This might be the only time that I could trade Mika Zibanejad. This might be the only time I could trade Ryan Lindgren.
This might be the only time I could move Reilly Smith.
I don’t like throwing in the towel, but the Rangers have not looked good since November. New York got off to a hot start to this season, but then quickly fell apart. With the addition of JT Miller, there are three players on this roster who play with intensity every single game.
Miller - Vincent Trocheck and Matt Rempe.
Where are the other 20 players on the bench?
Meanwhile, the roster is being plugged up with mediocre talent.
Fan Question: With how the Rangers played, should the Rangers be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?
Game Stats
This game did not have a lot of stats to report. Shesterkin was pulled with just over a minute left in the first period. JT Miller had assists on both goals in the game. And Chris Kreider not only scored his 17th of the year on five shots, but he tied the New York Rangers all-time power play goals list (116 career power play goals).
Next Game
There is no rest for the weary, as the Rangers are back in action again this afternoon at 3:30 pm EST in Pittsburgh. Despite the loss, New York is still only four points out of the next wild card spot.
The problem is time is running out.
The Rangers desperately need two points against the Penguins, so we shall see if New York can bring more intensity and desperation to their game play.
Can New York bounce back? Will the Rangers stop being an open funnel for goals? Or will Pittsburgh be the season spoiler for the Rangers?
Stay tuned…