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Kids carry play for Rangers, who fall 3-2 in overtime to Isles

April 11, 2021, 11:51 PM ET [496 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers lost the first period, won the second, was relatively even in the third and surrendered the winning goal in overtime. End result was a 3-2 loss to the Isles during which the team gained a point. Boston was blown out 8-1 by Washington, so New York lost a chance to gain another point on the Bruins, who now are four points ahead of the Blueshirts with a pair of games in hand.

A few thoughts:
1) Igor Shesterkin - kept the Rangers in the game in the first while the team got their sea legs. Was solid throughout the contest while matched up against his countrymate Ilya Sorokin. Shesterkin starred for SKA St. Petersburg while Sorokin started for their rivals CSKA Moscow in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League. They faced each other 11 times in the KHL, with Shesterkin taking seven wins and Sorokin earning four. In round one in the NHL, Sorokin, who was very good in the contest, gets the lead with the OT win.

2) The Kids are Alright:  the Rangers' best players by far in this game were the kids. Vitali Kravtsov was brilliant, despite moving up and down the lineup. He created room and space with his strength, his playmaking was evident throughout the game and forecheck resulted in several turnovers. Alexis Lafreniere continued his fine play, building on the gains he has made lately while also winning 75% of his draws, Filip Chytil, until the last sequence, earned the ice time he received, same for Kaapo Kakko. On the blueline, Libor Hajek had a solid contest, paired with Brendan Smith, who was the team's best d-man with each scoring a goal. In terms of the veterans, the best forward was Pavel Buchnevich, followed by Mika Zibanejad.

3) Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin were horrific. Kreider was rightfully moved down to the third and fourth lines and likely shouldn't have seen 15 minutes of ice time. Panarin was unable to handle the puck cleanly throughout the game and lacked his usual jump. Ryan Strome was average at best as well. But the good news is even with the vets scuffling, they got a point. The downside is they lost a point because the vets scuffled bailed out by the kids.

Larry Brooks posted the following on Kreider:
Kreider, who historically has been streaky, has failed to score a five-on-five goal over the last 14 matches, dating back to March 13. He does have three power-play goals in the interim, but not one over the last seven contests. As the scoring has dried up, the rest of Kreider’s game has suffered as well.

“He’s at his best when there’s simplicity to his game and there’s no hesitation to what he’s doing,” said Quinn, who did move Kreider back up for a couple of shifts at different times and sent him out as the net-front guy on the first power-play unit. “Right now there is a little bit of hesitation in his game.”


4) Communication - always key but especially so in overtime. The Rangers won the draw, K'Andre Miller and Chytil had some miscommunication. Miller or Chytil should have taken the puck around the net rather than Miller putting it up the boards to Chytil, who was double teamed and lost the puck to Mathew Barzal. Chytil didn't put up much of a fight, turned his back on the play and didn't give Miller much room, but Miller should have gone around the net with the puck. Ryan Strome had peeled off to head up ice and was late getting to Ryan Pulock coming down the wide side wing. Pulock had enough space to release the puck just before Miller's stick got there, beating Igor for the win.

I thought Laf and Kravtsov deserved to be on in the overtime. Maybe they would have gotten on ice for the next shift. Was okay with Chytil on, but thought those two were good all night. 

5) Trades - Boston got Mike Reilly from Ottawa for a third and are about to acquire Curtis Lazar from Buffalo. Jeff Carter looks to be heading from LA to Pitt, which makes me wonder when Evgeni Malkin is back if Carter is the 3C or moves to wing. Islanders acquired Braydon Coburn from Ottawa for a 2022 third-rounder, yet the Sens did not retain salary, so the Isles took on $1.7 million. Toronto received David Rittich from Calgary for a 2022 third rounder, which is a decent indication that Frederik Andersen may not be back this season. 

The big deal goes down. Does it make Boston better? We shall see. Not a big return for him and Kevyn Adams did a lousy job here but maybe no one else wanted him. Hall needs to show he is worth the big money he wants and he gets the chance in Boston.










6) Schedule: four against NJ, followed by one versus the Isles, two at home with Philly and a pair against Buffalo. The month ends and May begins with a contest against the Isles. Following those two games, it's a pair at home versus Washington and two in Boston.

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