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Game 8: PIT 5 NYR 4, OT, structure and defense out the window in loss |
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The Rangers blew a third-period lead to a Pittsburgh team that has notched all five of their victories coming back from deficits in the final stanza. New York earned a point in the 5-4 loss, but played not to lose rather than win in the last period. After a strong enough first two frames, the Blueshirts were outshot 19-8 in the third period and overtime, the latter period seeing the team get pinned in their own zone with all their three players stuck on the ice while the Pens were able to change twice before the winning goal.The same two teams meet again Monday.
Condensed game:
David Quinn Postgame
Lineup:
Julien Gauthier on bench again, fifth straight game, sure looks to be in the doghouse. Jack Johnson missed his second straight contest with a slight groin injury, Brendan Smith in for him. Alex Georgiev in net, as coach David Quinn said they will rotate goalies early on and then decide on a starter.
A few thoughts:
1) Georgiev - not at fault for all the goals, but not a great game. Made a few nice saves, but needed to stop the game-winner. Plus, the miscommunication with Anthony DeAngelo behind the net in the overtime allowed Pittsburgh to retain possession, as ADA had the puck or would have at least cleared the zone. Putting to the boards where no one was, enabled Pitt to keep possession, leading to the goal. I disagreed with Quinn's decision to play Georgiev last night.
I understand the rationale to rotate goalies. But Shesterkin had likely his best game of the season Thursday, making several key saves, so I would have rolled with him again. Rotate, yes, especially if off a so-so game, even in a win. But off a solid game, play Igor, who will be between the pipes Monday.
2) Defense - I thought the blueline was piss-poor. Unsure any of them had a good game. K'Andre Miller had a pair of assists, but wasn't particularly great all night in front of his goalie. But he is growing game by game with way more good moments than bad and is developing into a first pair blueliner. Jacob Trouba actually had a decent game, showing some jump, but more is needed. The Adam Fox-Ryan Lindgren pairing might have been the team's best but unsure they stood out. Brendan Smith was benched in the third period, which was deserved, after misplaying the first goal and turning the puck over resulting in the third goal. ADA also was not great, on ice for a pair of goals against in regulation, including a deflection in front by Brandon Tanev, who came from behind the net. Who would have thought the team might miss Marc Staal as a stabilizing force for DeAngelo.
Playing with five D in the final stanza meant some mixing and matching. Plus the forwards were not great in providing support. Quinn summed it up well: " They were smarter and looked like a hungrier team than we were in the third, they won a lot of foot races to loose pucks, battles, we were very soft around our net. We haven’t said that an awful lot this season, but it certainly was the case in the third period. Give them a ton of credit, they upped the ante in the third and we weren’t able to match it.”
Maybe Libor Hajek gets a look. Would love Vince Dunn, who went unclaimed and scored a goal for St. Louis last night. Something has to be done on the bottom pairing and fast.
3) Turnovers and failure to get puck deep All game long, the Blueshirts turned the puck over at the blue liner or inside the zone, leading to a breakout. Same with not getting pucks deep allowing a quick transition from defense to offense. Quinn: "We were always chasing the play because of our turnovers, inability to play a patient game, it just caused a lot of problems tonight and it’s been the number one problem, at least since I’ve been here, our lack of patience offensively and us forcing things offensively cause us a lot of problems.”
Facing a Pitt team that was without Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson and Mike Matheson, though the latter being out might have been a good thing for the Pens, and lost Kris Letang in the first, New York failed to take advantage. They scored four goals but didn't really pressure as much as they could have and should have. Casey De Smith was fine but few cross-ice passes and a lack of the type of structure they had against Buffalo allowed Pittsburgh to make the game a messy one to watch with turnovers and sloppy play all over.
As Carp noted, after eight games, New York has led going into the third period five times. They are 2-1-2 in those five games. You need to find a way to close out those games and win in regulation. Granted, won't happen every game, but 2-1-2 is unacceptable.
4) Power play: came into game 0-for-8 in the last three games. Quinn changed up the lines, moving Buch up and Strome down, plus placing Kaapo Kakko on the second unit. End result was 1-for-5 in the game and lots of great looks on the second power play that failed to convert.
PP1 Fox, ADA, Panarin, Zib, and Buch
PP2 looks like Trouba, Strome, Kakko, Laf and Kreider #NYR
5) Forwards Colin Blackwell got hurt in the first period, creating some line juggling. I thought the fourth line with PDG, Kevin Rooney, who scored shorthanded, and Brendan Lemiuex, was the team's best. Lemiuex was hard on the puck all night and probably deserved even more ice time. If Julien Gauthier gets back in for Blackwell, figure Kakko or him is on the second line.
Zibanejad has been horrific. He has no juice or legs. This may be the COVID aftereffects, but he looks like a shell of the player he was the last two seasons. I really wonder if he needs time off to fully recover since he rushed back to rejoin the team late in camp and is trying to get into shape during the regular season. Chris Kreider played like he was shot out of a cannon. Scored the one goal off a rebound but was dangerous all night. Artemi Panarin is starting to put it together. Amazing that I think he really hasn't played well, or more precisely, carried action as he did last year, yet he still has four goals and five assists in nine games. Kakko saw an uptick in ice time while Brett Howden was under nine minutes and unsure either was great, so Howden deserved what he got and Kakko saw just under two minutes on the man advantage and was moved up when Blackwell went down.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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