Fresh off a five-game win streak, including a California sweep, the New York Rangers came home to MSG to face the Metro Division leading New York Islanders. It was the first meaningful game these two have played this late in the season in a long, long time, and the Isles took full advantage of a jet lagged Rangers team.
You had a feeling this game would go this way when the Rangers hit three posts in the first period. Mats Zuccarello hit the post early, followed by Rick Nash and Derrick Brassard hitting the same post twice in the same sequence. The worst part was that Brass had an empty net and still hit the post. The Rangers were riding a PDO SH% wave in the last 15 or so games, and that shows where puck luck can be taken away so cruelly. Once those posts were hit, you knew what was going to happen.
On to the goals:
Islanders 1, Rangers 0
Dan Girardi did a pretty terrible job of clearing Anders Lee from the front of the net. He’s a big body, so you can’t push him out. Tie up his stick so he can’t get to the rebound. But one has to wonder why Ryan McDonagh was out at the point trying to block Calvin deHaan’s initial shot. Even in man-to-man, that’s not his guy.
Islanders 2, Rangers 0
J.T. Miller had a double whammy on this one. First his blind, backhand pass to the middle was promptly taken away. Then he failed to cover Nikolay Kulemin in front, who rifled a one timer over Hank.
Islanders 3, Rangers 0
Derek Stepan turned the puck over to Frans Nielsen on the powerplay, who took the puck up on a two-on-one rush. Nielsen took the shot from the top of the circle, and it went through Hank somehow. He wants this one back, and it eventually chased him from the game.
Fenwick Chart:
This is pretty accurate with what we saw throughout the game. It was close in the first, the Isles dominated the second, and then the Rangers started getting more offense as the Isles went into prevent defense. Classic score effects in the third, but aside from that, this mirrored what we saw on the ice.
Scoring Chances:
Oy.
Shift Chart:
Back with the last change, Alain Vigneault predictably used Girardi/McDonagh against the John Tavares line as much as possible, but he didn’t hesitate to use Staal and Boyle against them either.
Shot Locations:
This was the first game in a while –that I’ve done a goal breakdown for– where the Rangers allowed this many shots from high risk scoring areas in a long, long time. This was a team loss that you could see coming from a mile away. The entire team played poorly, and it honestly reflects in the charts above.
This was a bit of a big loss, as it ensured that the Rangers can’t catch the Isles just by winning their games in hand. Losses happen, and in reality the Rangers –if they win their games in hand– aren’t too far behind the Isles. The loss hurts, but Stepan’s injury is the bigger concern. He did not return after taking Martin’s chop to the wrist. If he’s out long term, then we are back to what we saw at the beginning of the year.
All gifs courtesy of gifgoldmine.com.
Share:
More About:Game Wrap-ups