Image c/o Labatt Blue

The Rangers looked to right the ship last night in Columbus, just two days after suffering their first loss in two weeks. Sadly for the Blueshirts, they faced the same hot goalie that they did last week in Sergei Bobrovsky, except this time, they were unable to score.

This game featured Brendan Smith’s return to the lineup, marking his first start since the October 31 win against Vegas. The game also featured the return of the ever-infuriating Pavel Buchnevich Project, where inexplicably, some players get long leashes whilst others do not.

On to the bullet points…

  • Brendan Smith was semi-rusty. He also hasn’t played in over two weeks, so it’s to be expected. Worth noting, however: his first shift showed him drawing a hooking penalty, which is where the Rangers beat the Jackets last week.
  • The first period was a goaltending clinic on both sides, with the Blue Jackets just barely edging out shots on goal at 14-12.
  • Sergei Bobrovsky is Actually Good.
  • The first goal of the game wasn’t scored until 13:34 into the game, when Zach Werenski got an errant pass that seemed to be tipped towards him by David Desharnais right in his wheelhouse from the point.
  • The MSG crew went over the blocking factor postgame, and, although not entirely indicative of the first goal by Werenski, it’s an interesting point that forwards now anticipate that players will actually go all the way down to the ice to block now. In the case of this goal, the block by Desharnais sent the puck towards Werenski’s stick, but an interesting point nonetheless.
  • Rick Nash was sent to play with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad in the ever-useful send-Buchnevich-to-the-bench exercise in the third period.
  • Pavel Buchnevich took a penalty in the third period, which AV discussed in the postgame as non-egregious (at the very least), and then saw the ice only one shift afterwards. One of your hottest goal scorers riding the bench in the end of a game you’ve scored zero goals. Okay.
  • Maybe AV was just cranky that Artemi Panarin scored on the power play issued due to Buchnevich’s penalty. That one was seen by Henrik and should have been saved.

The relevant charts, courtesy of hockeystats.ca:

5v5 Scoring Chances

Rangers held their own til early in the second

We’re now 20 games in to the season, and the Rangers are 9-9-2. That means they’ve only secured points in 11 games, which, while probably good enough for a playoff spot, is just that. Good enough. Whatever line juggling, inexplicable benching experiments that the coach is playing need to stop. A quarter of the way in to the season is not a time to break up your most successful line for one game with little offense against a burning hot goaltender.

The Rangers will look to turn it around on Sunday night, as they host Ottawa at 7pm.

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