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Game 5: EDM 2 NYR 1, Offense invisible again, officiating hurts in loss |
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The Rangers fell 2-1 to the Oilers on Saturday. New York jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on Mika Zibanejad's first of the season, after a beautiful cross-ice pass by Marc Staal. But Ryan Nugent-Hopkins outmuscled Adam McQuaid in the slot a few minutes later to tie the game at one. Then in the third, after a horrific no-call costing NY a PP and then penalty against the Rangers, Connor McDavid's shot across the crease hit the inside of Henrik Lundqvist's right pad and went into the net for the game-winner. Rangers next face Colorado at home Tuesday.
Game recap:
Lines:
Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jesper Fast
Mats Zuccarello-Brett Howden-Pavel Buchnevich
Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-Ryan Spooner
Vlad Namestnikov-Filip Chytil-Vinni Lettieri
Brady Skjei-Adam McQuaid
Fredrik Claesson-Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal-Brendan Smith.
Henrik Lundqvist
Buch was moved back to the right side after trying the left side Thursday, placing him back in his comfort zone. Unfortunately, as noted by Larry Brooks, that did little to jumpstart his game. He struggled again to have an impact on the outcome, then earned a seat on the bench for the final 8:35 (and all but three shifts worth 1:28) of the third.
On D, Friday, Skjei was with Kirk, Staal with McQuaid and Claesson with Smith. For the game Saturday, Kirk was moved down, McQuaid up, while Claesson was paired with Kirk and Staal played with Smith, so Pionk was out again as was DeAngelo, as many of us expected would be the case after Thursday's so-so game by him. Based on what coach David Quinn said post-game, I would expect Pionk back in Tuesday against Colorado.
Quinn Post-Game:
A few thoughts:
1) Offense - decent in first 20 minutes but little generated in the last 40. Very odd to see the kind of struggles we have so far. Just look at who leads the team in points and that tells you all you need to know.
2) Filip Chytil - needs to play more than 10:19, which is something Quinn touched on in his post-game comments. Good that he recognized this. The more interesting sound bite is when Quinn responded in the affirmative if that meant possibly moving Chytil to wing. Maybe move Nam, who played well in the third, to C, Spooner or Vesey down and Chytil up.
3) Referees - ick again. How many times will calls hurt the Rangers this year? No guarantee they would have scored on the PP, but Edmonton quite possibly wasn't scoring again unless they ended up on the man-advantage. Steven Valiquette very nicely summarized the issue with the referees:
"No call on Hayes, brutal call against Vlad on a 50/50 battle and McDavid wins a game for The Oilers that The Rangers played well enough to win. The video doesn’t lie."
4) Henrik Lundqvist - good again, yet nothing to show for it. Unlucky on McDavid's goal, hurt by McQuaid on first one. Faced 27 shots, allowed two goals, hard to blame him at all. Per Carp: Lundqvist has stopped 93.8 percent of the shots he’s faced (122 of 130) — and 96.3 percent (104 of 108) at even strength in his four games, allowing two goals in each, pretty, pretty good. Jimbo had it right, maybe he is Jacob deGrom this year; has to pitch a shutout to possibly win.
5) Zib - nice to see him shoot. Could have had three goals, the second post was on the inside of the post and kicked out. Needs to use that hard shot move, since we see what can happen when he does.
6) Frustration - I don't think it's set in, even though the team could be 4-1 rather than 1-4. As long as they keep playing hard, that's honestly all we can ask for nightly. That and continued improvement by the kids. I want to see more from Buch, same with Vesey, like we have with Howden, but other than that, besides the losses, I don't have a ton on which to criticize. You could argue line and blue line combinations, but Quinn is mixing and matching to find ones that work, which likely will be the case for a bit longer.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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