The Rangers came out of the gate like gangbusters Saturday, grabbing a 3-0 lead before seven minutes had elapsed with all three coming in a 3:17 span. From then on, the game was all Minnesota's and you can argue a banged-up New York team was fortunate to earn a point in the 5-4 shootout loss. The Blueshirts now play three straight games at home starting Tuesday against the Red Wings.
A few thoughts:
1) Hot start then fizzled: what we learned Saturday, or at least what was made apparent once again, is that you can never ever take your foot off the gas. Once you get a team done, don't let uo. New York had control of the game - or least appeared to - with a 3-0 lead, all three of which came 5x5, which was shocking in its own right.
But a desperate Minnesota team got a major bump in switching from Filip Gustavsson to Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes. Then, the Rangers added to that momentum shift by taking three straight penalties, allowing the Wild to find their sea legs.The end numbers were not pretty. Minnesota ended up outshooting New York, 40-18, and out-attempting them, 98-41, staggering numbers. They also generated 20 high-danger scoring chances and allowed only seven. This is why I say that even though the Rangers were up 3-0, they were lucky to get a point.
2) Blended lineup - the Rangers were missing several regulars due to injuries. Adam Fox is on LTIR, meaning he will miss 10 games and 24 days. Filip Chytil is out at least a week as he is on IR. igor Shesterkin is nursing some soreness due to the collision with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and may miss Tuesday's game. On top of that, Barclay Goodrow was out due to the pending birth of his son. As a result, the bottom six and defensive pairings were a mish mash. I would love to lay all the blame there but that's too easy of an argument.
You can pretty much go line by line and find problems. The first line isn't generating enough offense with the spotlight on Kaapo Kakko. Vincent Trocheck slid up a line but that trio allowed way too many chances. The bottom two trios were okay, not great.
However, the Zac Jones-Braden Schneider pairing was not good. All the gains we saw Schneider make the last few weeks seem to go out the window. Vince Mercogliano noted just how rough of a game that duo had. The Jones-Schneider pair was outshot, 10-3, while allowing seven HDCF and two costly goals. Schneider, in particular, was charged with being on ice for 20 of Minnesota's 33 five-on-five scoring chances and struggled on breakout attempts.
New York has to find out what they have in Jones or else, he becomes Libor Hajek 2.0. This means coach Peter Laviolette and associate coach Phil Housley have to protect and shelter that pairing and try to have most of their starts in the O- rather than D-zone. If Jones continues to struggle, look for Mac Hollowell, who was impressive in camp and continued that fine play into the year at Hartford, to be promoted.
3) Chris Kreider moved into fourth place on the Rangers' all-time goal list with his 273rd career goal pushing him past Andy Bathgate. The goal came on CK20 specialty, a deflection in front. Evidence of how good Kreider has been lately can be seen in his numbers the first seven years and last three-plus years of his career. From 2013-14 to 2019-20, Kreider scored 155 goals in 500 games. Since then, CK20 has 116 tallies in 221 games with 50 of those markers on the power play.
As mentioned in my comments to my prior blog, this will likely be my last blog for a little over a week. My dad unfortunately passed away this morning and the funeral is likely Tuesday am followed by a week of shiva for me. My dad instilled the love of sports and rooting for the Rangers in me, setting me up for a lifetime of pain with short bursts of joy with this team. May his soul ascend to heaven.
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