The Rangers went toe-to-toe with the defending champs before falling 3-1 to the Blues on Tuesday. New York was much better defensively than recently, giving up just 22 shots in the game, aided by a shift in the D-pairings during the contest. But a weak goal and inability to score - the latter a pattern since Chris Krieder went down - resulted in the loss. The Blueshirts take on the Capitals at home on Thursday.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
A few thoughts:
1) At this time of year based on where the Rangers are in the standings and what they are playing for, there are
no moral victories. It’s wonderful they gave St. Louis all they can handle, but expectations has been raised by the five-game win streak and nine-game road win streak. They are ahead of where we thought they would be, which makes these losses even tougher to stomach.
Coming into the season, we didn’t expect this to be the case. Because of the recent run and improvement in the New Year, our hopes were raised as New York started to play “meaningful games.” I have to remember that they look to be ahead of schedule and what we get now is gravy. Psychologically, that is the case, but in your heart, that view goes out the window when you are knee deep in living and dying with every game. However, when you pan out and look at it objectively - if that’s possible - you can see just where this team is going and could get to in the future.
2)
Kaapo Kakko - snakebit. Had a chance to tie the game late in the slot off a rebound from a Tony DeAngelo shot and was stoned by Jordan Binnington pad save. If there is a silver lining, he is right in the mid to score and eventually he will. But right now, he could have an empty net and hit the post. With New York playing for the now but especially looking to the future, Quinn needs to keep running Kakko out there in all key situations so the growth continues, especially in terms of his decision making.
Skjeistadium posted this in the blog comments last night and I am including it here since it’s worth a read. The column is form the Athletic and Skjeistadium’s really good summary is below. Thanks to him for including it originally.
https://theathletic.com/1641222/2020/03/03/the-video-room-breaking-down-kaapo-kakkos-struggles-this-season/
This was a great article. I know it's paywalled but for those who have a subscription it's worth a read. Essentially the reasons they give for Kakko's struggles (backed up by some good video breakdown) is that he doesn't have that next gear of speed to get by defenders. This is mostly because of an inefficient stride. He also has an incredibly low shooting percentage which is unsustainable. On the bright side, his puck possession for a 18/19 year old is close to unmatched and he's still seeing the ice well and is starting to make better decisions with the puck. I'd imagine a full offseason with an NHL skating coach can help fix that stride and give him that extra step. The good news is this kid will be a ranger for the next 10+ years so we have plenty of time to watch him become a star.
3)
Line combinations - I understand why Quinn has Di Giuseppe on the top line, since he has some Kreider-like qualities. But it may be and likely is time for that to be changed. While Julien Gauthier hasn’t shown the ability to finish in the NHL, his size, skill and minor-league pedigree as a scorer warrants giving him a shot on the top line. Quinn moved Panarin up to play with Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich in the third period, which should continue to be the case when needed moving forward.
Buchnevich has really been very good recently. Engaged, physical, playing in all three zones. The narrative of him being soft has been shown lately to be nice rhetoric.
On defense yesterday, Quinn moved Marc Staal up time play with Jacob Trouba to match up with the Blues big first line. That pairing had a fairly solid game. It’s not a duo to use against a real fast team, but a squad like St. Louis is the perfect squad against whom to use that pair. Brendan Smith lined up across from DeAngelo and that pairing looked pretty solid. The play of both duos gives Quinn options to use in the future.
4)
Georgiev - a fairly solid game. The one mistake was glaring as Zach Sanford’s shot went in off Georgiev’s skate. Yes, a shot he should have stopped but really hard to pin this loss on him. If Georgiev plays like this in the rest of his games until Igor Shesterkin is back, the Rangers should win nearly every contest.
5)
Special teams - good and bad. With the goal by Zibanejad, the Rangers are a league-best 32.1 percent on the power play since Dec. 27 (27-for-84). On the flip side, whoever, Colton Parayko’s PPG continues the team’s recent slide on the penalty kill. New York has given up at least one power-play goal in six of the past seven games, including three to the Flyers on Sunday.'
6)
Playoff race - three straight losses have not helped the Rangers' chances by any stretch of the imagination.
Tuesday, the Islanders lost again and very could be without Johnny Boychuk for a period of time. After he took a skate blade to face. Hopefully the injury is not serious, but it looked very scary. He joins several other Islanders on the sidelines.
As Rick Carpiniello noted in his game recap, we knew the Rangers were hitting a very tough part of their schedule beginning with the home-and-home against Philly. That has proven to be the case and then some. Carp’s listing below of how those teams have played recently makes the Rangers’ task that much harder.
The Flyers have now won six in a row. The Blues have won eight in a row. The Rangers’ next opponent, Washington on Thursday, had been slipping a bit but has now won three of four. Then it’s the lowly Devils, who entered Tuesday 4-0-2 in their previous six, 9-3-5 in 17. Then it’s on to Dallas (7-2-2 in its previous 11) and Colorado (winner of seven in a row and 15-3-1 in 19).
Games that matter today: Philly at Washington, Columbus at Calgary. Thursday: Montreal at Tampa Bay, Boston at Florida, Carolina at Philadelphia, Islanders at Ottawa.
Toronto - 78 points - 67 games
Philly - 83 points - 65 games
Pittsburgh - 82 points - 65 games
Islanders - 78 points - 65 games
Columbus - 75 points - 67 games
Carolina - 75 points - 64 games
Rangers - 74 points - 66 games
Florida - 73 points - 66 games
Montreal - 71 points - 68 games
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