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Rangers fall 3-1 Sunday to Oilers, face Flames tonight |
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The Rangers played a solid game in their 3-1 loss to the Oilers on Sunday. A chance to create a little distance between themselves and the Blue Jackets went by the wayside in the loss. New York received a gift Monday with New Jersey defeating Columbus 2-1 keeping the Blueshirts on the second Wild Card spot. But Montreal, Detroit and Columbus all are on their heels with Boston, the Islanders and Pittsburgh not much behind. The Rangers face the Flames at home tonight.
Rangers lineup vs. Edmonton:
Panarin-Trocheck-Cuylle
Lafrenière-Miller-Zibanejad
Kreider-Carrick-Berard
Othmann-Brodzinski-Rempe
Miller-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Fox
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches: Soucy, Pärssinen, de Haan, Kaliyev (upper body) IR: Edström (lower-body)
A few thoughts:
1) Overall: I didn’t find much fault in New York in the game. For the most, they shut down Connor McDavid, limiting him to one shot, although that one hit the net. On that play, which is the one time McDavid had a little time and space through the neutral zone, you could nitpick the defense. Maybe K’Andre Miller should have played McDavid to his forehand and make him go to the backhand, but that’s grasping at straws a little.
The second goal, which was the killer, came when Viktor Arvidsson’s shot was slightly ticked by Zac Jones’ stick, changing the velocity and direction on his shot. On that one, given the distance, you almost preferred Jones let the shot go, giving Igor a clean look at it.
Several have been ripping Igor on line. His salary comes up every time a save isn’t made. On the one, you can certainly make a case the shot should have been stopped. But the puck changed trajectory and moved on the way in, making it harder to track and stop. The McDavid goal was a pure snipe. Edmonton’s first goal was a scramble play on the power play after the first save was made. The call against New York was a bad one as Miller had his stick held, yet had the call go against him.
Offensively, Edmonton also clamped down defensively. New York didn’t generate much. This was especially so after they fell behind 2-1. I thought the fourth line had another solid game while the top six was muted somewhat by the Oilers top six, though they had a handful of decent looks.
2) Power-less play. For years we have been saying if only the 5x5 could match the power play. Now, it’s been the reverse. The lack of a potent power play is killing the Rangers. How many games might have turned with a man advantage tally?
New York is 1-for-22 on the man advantage. Go back further and it’s a nightmarish 2-for-31. Part of that might have been due to the absences of Adam Fox and Chris Kreider. Now, both are back, yet the PP continues to struggle.
When it’s going well, we see lots of puck and player movement. I think the puck movement has been okay but they aren’t creating angles and open space with player movement. It’s a bit too stagnant again, which is when problems exist.
3) Scoreboard watching: As mentioned above, NJ beat CLM. Each day we will be looking at the schedule, watching the scoreboard and rooting against those battling for the wild card spot. First and foremost, New York has to take care of their own business. Tonight, it’s Calgary. Thursday, it’s Toronto, who waxed the Flames 6-1 on Monday. Saturday, on Sam Rosen day, the Rangers take on the Canucks, who will likely be without Filip Chytil. When the week ends, only 11 contests remain in the regular season.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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