Friday, special teams play killed New York, Saturday, they saved the Rangers. On a weekend where the Blueshirts earned three out of a possible four points, that Jekyll-and-Hyde performance was the key driver. The Rangers lost 3-2 in overtime to the Bruins on Friday, then came back 24 hours later to shut out the Devils 4-0. The Rangers next take on the Golden Knights at home on Monday.
Friday's game recap:
Saturday's game recap:
Friday, the Rangers, after a slow start, carried play much of the remainder of the first period and through the majority of the second. New York wasted 62 seconds on a 5-on-3 power play in the second stanza, after which Boston took control of the game. Sean Kuraly tallied late in the period and Boston carried that momentum into the third. The B’s got the equalizer on yet another goal by David Pastrnak 4:27 into the period after Boston lost Brad Marchand, likely due to an elbow hurting Jacob Trouba late in the second. Late in the game, New York had a four-minute power play and did nothing on it. In overtime, Pasta undressed Buchnevich, splitting Buch and Fox. Threw it back to where he was and Strome/Buch didn’t get back to the high slot area. Goal Krejci, game over.
The main culprit in the loss was the powerless power play. Going 0-for-6, including blowing a 62 seconds 5-on-3 and four-minute power play that began with seven minutes left in the third sealed the loss. Not scoring would be half bad, but to not even really threaten is another matter altogether.
Colin Stephenson summarized the issues well in Saturday's Newsday. I hope the issue is as Quinn said, practice time is needed. But I do think a change is required, at least to balance out the units and provide a lefty shooter on the first unit. Move Kakko up and slide Strome down as a center on the second unit:
While Mika Zibanejad was out for 13 games with an upper-body injury, coach David Quinn used Ryan Strome in Zibanejad’s place on the first power-play unit, with Artemi Panarin in his preferred spot on the left wing, Chris Kreider in his preferred spot in front of the net, rookie Kaapo Kakko on the right wing and either defenseman Adam Fox or Tony DeAngelo as the point man.
With Zibanejad back, Quinn kept Strome on the first unit and dropped Kakko to the second unit, and all was well Wednesday in a 3-2 victory over Carolina, with Zibanejad scoring a power-play goal.
But the power play went 0-for-6 against Boston on Friday, failing on a five-on-three in the second period and on a four-minute advantage late in the third. And it’s possible Zibanejad’s return had something to do with it.
Dropping Kakko from the first unit means that unit has four righthanded shots (Kreider is the only lefty) and no lefthander set up to take one-timers from the right-wing circle. And the second unit suffers, too. Kakko and Buchnevich are lefthanded shooters who set up in that right circle, and having both on the same unit forces one of them to do something different.
It also forces Quinn to remove either Brendan Lemieux or Filip Chytil from the second unit, meaning the group is either without a net-front man (Lemieux) or a centerman (Chytil).
“Yeah, that does change [things],’’ Quinn said when asked about Zibanejad’s return affecting the power play. “And we haven’t had a chance to practice since he’s been back so, you know, I think once we get a chance to maybe have a few practices, we’ll have more synergy and more continuity on both units.’’
Quinn changed up the lines Saturday. Lemiuex and Buch flanked Zib. Fast skated with Kreider and Chytil. Kakko played with Panarin and Strome while Howden was joined by Haley and Smith. The move of Kakko to play with a scoring unit resulted in a much more engaged and physical Kakko, who was strong throughout the contest.
if Friday, the issue was the power play.
Saturday, the savior was the penalty kill along with the play of
Alexandar Georgiev. New York stoned eight Devils' power plays totaling 15 minutes of action, one-quarter of the game. Georgiev stopped 11 saves in the first, 10 in the second and 12 in the third to notch his third career shutout after allowing 10 goals on 69 shots his prior two games.
Jacob Trouba saw nine minutes of shorthanded playing time in his 24 on the ice in total. He, Brady Skjei - who notched the empty-net goal - Libor Hajek and Ryan Lindgren, with six blocked shots of the Rangers' 11 for the contest, were the defensive pairings against New Jersey's man-advantage. Trouba was a beast in this game, playing like a true top-pair defenseman. The power play, woeful Friday, went 1-2 with Adam Fox scoring on a beautiful back-door feed by Kakko.
Not only did the Rangers kill off eight power plays, New York tallied twice shorthanded. Both tallies came on odd-man rushes. On the first, Zib and Lemieux combined on a 2-on-1, with Lemiuex feeding Zib who beat MacKenzie Blackwood. On the second, Trouba stole the puck in his own zone and carried through neutral ice before dishing to Zib, Trouba drove hard to the net, creating a ton of space for Fast to receive the puck from Zib and score.
We gave Lindy Ruff a lot of rightful grief earlier in the season. But it's only right to give him some praise now. The penalty kill, which struggled mightily for a while, including the Florida trip where they allowed seven goals in 10 attempts, has killed 20-of-21 in the last five games. A gutty effort 24 hours after a disappointing loss.
New York has won four of five and is 10-4-2 in their last 16 games. The Blueshirts are in a stretch of eight games in 13 days. Monday is the last game in that run; they are 5-1-1 in the first seven. Pretty darn good.
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