rangers penguins

AP Photo/Adam Hunger

The Rangers dropped the second game of their back-to-back set against a divisional opponent in the Penguins on Sunday afternoon. Although the Rangers set the tone early on by applying some serious pressure, Marc-Andre Fleury kept the Penguins in it and the first period ended tied at one goal each. The Rangers then flat lined almost completely during the second as the Penguins came alive, and although they seemed to have a little bit more urgency in the third period it simply wasn’t enough, with the Penguins scoring the eventual game-winner off a fluke deflection from behind the net.

*-No gifs for this game, sorry about that. The gif makers were all committed elsewhere. Damn them for having lives.

 Rangers 0 Penguins 1

The Penguins get on the board first with a nice cycle play on the man-advantage. The puck starts out along the board below the left circle, is moved up to Letang at the point, then down to Crosby for the one timer. Hornqvist then quickly scoops up the rebound and throws it on net from the goal line, sneaking it between Lundqvist and the near post.

Rangers 1 Penguins 1

A well executed 3 on 2 ties up the game at a goal a piece. Kreider passes the puck across at his own blueline to Klein moving through the neutral zone, who then enters the zone with Stepan trailing and Kreider coming down the opposite wing. Once the defender commits to him, Klein drops the puck off for Stepan, who is now open, who threads the pass through the Kreider in front of the net for the tip in.

Rangers 1 Penguins 2

The Rangers’ struggle to clear the puck out of the zone does them in here. Sheary ties up the puck in the left corner, giving the rest of his team time to get in position as the puck in punched out into open ice. Justing Schultz then collects the turnover and rips the shot, which Sheary, having moved to the front of the net as the puck was kicked out, deflects for his first of the period.

Rangers 2 Penguins 2

A clean faceoff win on the powerplay makes it’s way back to Keith Yandle, who slides across the blueline making space for Derick Brassard. Brassard then slaps the shot, and it deflects in off of Olli Maatta and past Fleury, who was screened by Chris Kreider.

Rangers 2 Penguins 3

Sheary gets his second of the game on a breakaway resulting from a defensive breakdown on the part of the Rangers. Sheary starts the play at the left circle in his own zone as the Penguins start the breakout from behind the net. The puck is then sent forward to Fehr at the Penguins blueline, who tips it forward to Kuhnhackl. As all of this is going on Sheary is rushing down the wing past Kevin Hayes, and Kuhnhackl is moving into the space created by Fehr. All Kuhnhackl has to do it tip it forward for Sheary, who’s in alone on Lundqvist. Sheary goes top shelf and the Penguins are up by a goal.

Rangers 3 Penguins 3

Nothing too complex here, just a beautiful display of strength and composure by Ryan McDonagh to knot the game at three. Fast is at the redline as the McDonagh is breaking out of the defensive zone and passes it to him as he enters the Penguins zone. McDonagh then skates down the wing, smokes Olli Maatta, and curls around the net for the wraparound goal.

Rangers 3 Penguins 4

Matt Cullen nets the game winning goal from behind the net on a fluke deflection off of Marc Staal’s leg. The puck is in a scrum in the corner with multiple Rangers and Penguins on it. It’s then kicked out behind the net, where Cullen gets to it. Cullen throws it out in front of the net and it takes an unfortunate bounce off of Staal into the net.

Rangers 3 Penguins 5

Bryan Rust hustles down the ice to negate an icing while the Rangers have the goalie pulled, taps it back to Kuhnhackl who then puts it back to Crosby, who then hits the empty net to put this one away.

Shot Attempts and Scoring Chances

chart (24)chart (25)

This first chart shows what was plainly evident to anyone watching – that the Rangers came out strong but took their foot off the gas midway through the game. Interestingly enough however the Rangers maintained a lead in scoring chances throughout the game (mostly due to the first period, but still).

Shot Location

Screen Shot 2016-03-13 at 5.50.10 PM

Although the Penguins had more shots in the home plate area the Rangers weren’t too bad themselves, getting their fair share of chances down in front on the left side.

Individual Shot Attempts

Screen Shot 2016-03-13 at 5.52.08 PM

This chart is probably skewed a little bit by the first period of the game, but still shows who had what kind of game relative to who else (to an extent).

While the Rangers came out strong they simply didn’t play a full 60 minutes of hockey. The result shows it, and in these kinds of games against divisional opponents, and likely playoff foes, they really need to be better. Still, there plenty of solid things about the game, including the play of Chris Kreider, and the way in which the Rangers kept up the goal scoring despite falling behind at points. They’ve had better games this season and they’ve also had worse, but unfortunately they dropped two points on this one.

 

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