The Rangers fell 4-0 to the Hurricanes on Tuesday. Carolina capitalized on each egregious New York mistake, notching all four goals in that matter. The Rangers surrendered goals in the first minute of the first period and last minute of the second, then allowed a pair of tallies two more in the first 2:30 of the third to salt away the contest. New York is off until Saturday when they face the Bruins in Boston.
A few thoughts:
1) Turnovers: Carolina lives off their forecheck, turning defense into offense. Tuesday was no different. Each big mistake ultimately landed in the Rangers net. In hockey, it’s not an aberration that turnovers create goals, but yesterday, it just seemed like there was a constant parade of them resulting in tallies by the Canes.
Goal 1: Artemi Panarin, who was the goat Sunday, tried to skate through the neutral zone one on two which led to, no surprise, a turnover. The Canes went from D to O as Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Taylor Hall combined to find Andrew Svechnikov open in the slot for a wrist shot that beat Igor Shesterkin top shelf 56 seconds into the game.
Steve Valiquette was right, coach Peter Laviolette should have benched Panarin for a shift. A message needed to be sent and wasn’t. That was a failure by Lavy. In addition, Bread right now looks like a shell of the player we saw last year.
Goal 2: Igor kept them in the game in the second period and New York finally had turned the tide a little bit. At worst, we expected the score to be 1-0 after two periods. But that ended up not being the case.
Vincent Trocheck stripped Shayne Gostisbehere at the blue line and pushed the puck ahead for a shorthanded breakaway. Ghost was right behind him with K’Andre Miller trailing the play closely. Trocheck commented after the game that he felt that he couldn’t go the forehand and didn’t think he had much room to try and beat Frederik Andersen, feeling that a back pass to Miller was the better option.
The puck deflected off Miller’s skate, creating a turnover. Once again, Carolina went D to O. Ghost moved it to Jackson Blake, who got the puck up to Mikko Rantanen, who then fed Svechnikov for the easy tap in goal on what was a 2-on-1 down low. That goal was the killer as it made it 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the second period.
Goal 3: Chris Kreider, who missed a golden opportunity in the second to make it 1-1, fumbling a cross-ice feed that left with a wide open net, back checked to thwart a chance. However, his weak clearing attempt off the boards was stopped at the blue line by Svechnikov. Puck gets to Sebastian Aho and it’s 3-0 just 1:04 into the third.
Goal 4: any thoughts - remote as they might have been - of a comeback, ended 1:26 later. Mika Zibanejad was outmuscled behind the goal by Jordan Martinook, who then found a wide open Seth Jarvis in the slot and it was 4-0. Getting outmuscled happens, though Carolina makes an art form out of it. But Zib ended up on the wrong side of Martinook, as he wasn’t on the strong side but weak side, allowing room behind the net. Plus who the heck was to have Jarvis, as the net front defense was weak again.
For good measure, Zib was stoned in the third on another breakaway. If I heard correctly, I believe that’s a dozen times this has happened this season. Confidence begets confidence, and right now, he has none, which is bleeding into and contributing to his poor play overall
2) The good vibes and hope created by the 7-0-3 streak looks to have dissipated. Sunday’s loss was a crusher, as the team should have earned at least one point. Yesterday was worse as it showed the wide gap between the Rangers and Hurricanes. Laviolette needs to kick a little rear end.
Shuffling the lines to start the third did nothing. I get the attempt, but that doesn’t send a message. Benching a player for a shift or two. Taking them off the power play when warranted. Those have an impact and is needed. With three days off before Saturday’s game, own zone coverage better be a focus in this period.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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