Rangers outplayed by shorthanded Blue Jackets, drop first of season

Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

The Rangers followed up their strong effort in St. Louis with a relatively poor showing in Columbus, falling to the Blue Jackets by a score of 5-2. The Blue Jackets were able to take advantage of a lot of Ranger defensive zone breakdowns, and dominated the play for the most part. It’s worth noting that some were upset that the Rangers didn’t dress “toughness” when Chris Kreider dropped the gloves with Jack Skille. Honestly, that’s pretty irrelevant. It didn’t have an impact on the game.

Cam Talbot didn’t exactly have a strong game, but the defense in front of him was of almost no help. Kevin Klein had a particularly rough game, but only Lee Stempniak and Anthony Duclair were really noticeable in a positive way. This game highlighted how the Rangers really need their top-four defensemen to stay healthy, as Dan Boyle sits for 4-6 weeks. Will be an interesting few weeks as the Rangers deal with this.

On to the goals:

Blue Jackets 1, Rangers 0

This was a pretty sloppy shift by the Rangers, getting pinned in their own zone. Eventually, Derick Brassard was out of position, as Chris Kreider was covering the weak side point, and Mats Zuccarello was covering the strong side point. Brassard’s man was Artem Anisimov, coming off the bench, who blasted the Scott Hartnell pass by Talbot.

Blue Jackets 2, Rangers 0

Nick Foligno beat Kevin Klein on a move that saw him take the long route to the puck while Klein took the short route. Klein’s ensuing dive to stop Foligno took himself out of the play, allowing Foligno to bang home his own rebound. Marc Staal is out of position here as well on Ryan Johansen way up at the half boards, forcing J.T. Miller to take the man in front.

Rangers 1, Blue Jackets 2

The third line here of Miller, Duclair, and Stempniak worked the strong side overload to perfection. Stempniak drew Johansen and Foligno to him before passing to Duclair down low. Right after the pass, Stempniak cut to the open ice as Johansen and Foligno got mixed up on their coverage. Stempniak wasn’t missing from there.

Blue Jackets 3, Rangers 1

I have no idea what Klein was doing here. It looked like he was trying to join the rush before the puck left the zone, leaving Cam Atkinson all alone in front. This was an easy goal for Atkinson once the puck got to him.

Blue Jackets 4, Rangers 1

Tanner Glass was out of position here, as his job is to cover the weak side point (Dalton Prout). The puck got to him and he had a clear line of sight to the net. Marc Staal, who was on Marko Dano initially, got caught watching the shot for a split second, and that was enough time for Dano to spin away and get to the rebound for the easy tap in.

Rangers 2, Blue Jackets 4

Duclair was a one man show on this goal. After forcing the turnover, he tried to get the puck to Rick Nash, but it was initially blocked. So Duclair simply re-collected the puck, kept his cool, and slid a nice pass to Nash on the back door for the goal.

Blue Jackets 5, Rangers 2

Empty netter.

Shift Chart (NEW FEATURE!):

Courtesy of war-on-ice

The guys at war-on-ice have a nice little nugget called the shift chart. This shows us how the Rangers were matched up all game. From this, we can see that Todd Richards, with the last change, routinely sent out the Johansen line against the Zuccarello/Brassard line. That duo struggled last year in the defensive zone, and it’s certainly something that Richards picked up on. That line pinned the Rangers in their zone almost all game.

Richards also kept the Johansen line away from Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh, instead getting them up against the Staal/Klein pairing. These are two great examples of coaches using last change to get the match ups they prefer.

Fenwick Chart:

Courtesy of war-on-ice

As you remember from last year, this chart depicts all situations. The major factor is Fenwick Close (+/- 2 goals, +/- 1 goal in the third), in which Columbus had a 75/25 advantage. When the game was close, they were the ones driving the offense. It’s worth noting that winning the Fenwick battle basically gives a team a weighted coin flip advantage in terms of winning the game. There’s not much of an advantage on a game-by-game basis, but in larger samples, those that have better FenClose tend to be playoff teams.

The Rangers have their home opener against a Toronto team that has been a bit disappointing through two games. The good teams beat up on the bad, so I’d expect the Rangers to right the ship and not let this hit two losses in a row.