Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding yesterday afternoon. It was basically him against Vegas, as the Golden Knights had repeated high quality scoring chances all game. But it was save after save after save. Even vintage Lundqvist, which is still current day Lundqvist, wasn’t enough to save the Rangers from their own terrible defense.

Let’s be real here. The team defense took the day off. It wasn’t just the blue liners. It was everyone. The number of chances from right in front or off Royal Road passes was so high I lost count. If it wasn’t for Lundqvist, this game would have been 11-3, not 4-3. It’s funny, though. The Rangers got dominated from start to finish, barely mustered any consistent offense, didn’t play defense, and basically mailed this one in, and STILL scored three goals. Imagine what this team can do if they ever figure out that half of hockey is preventing goals

Rangers 1, Vegas 0

Kevin Hayes read the pinch by Nate Schmidt and chipped the puck out of the zone to Pavel Buchnevich. Just look at this pass to Brady Skjei. Wow.

Vegas 1, Rangers 1

This is just a whole lot of bad luck. Colin Miller’s shot went high/wide, but ricocheted off the glass back behind Hank and it banked in off him.

Vegas 2, Rangers 1

Henrik Lundqvist did everything he possibly could in this game. He was on top of his game. But when the defense does things like this, like allowing that pass from Max Pacioretty to Paul Stastny, there’s nothing that can be done.

Vegas 2, Rangers 2

Mika Zibanejad sure can fire a slapper, can’t he? The Rangers moved the puck very well on this one and Zibanejad just let it rip.

Vegas 3, Rangers 2

Lias Andersson with the turnover. Neal Pionk overcommitting to the second pass after allowing the first. Just a terrible sequence.

Vegas 3, Rangers 3

Hayes forced the neutral zone turnover here, and got the puck to Chris Kreider for his usual speed up the wing and shot. And what a shot that was.

Vegas 4, Rangers 3

I love 3-on-3 OT. This time it didn’t work out. Alex Tuch tucked one inside the post off a nice pass from Stastny.

Shot Heatmap

This is ugly. Look at all that non-white spice for Vegas. The Blueshirts just hemorrhaged shots from everywhere, especially in dangerous areas. Just terrible.

Aside from Hank and Hayes, who keeps boosting his trade value, this is a game you just move past. I saw how the comments were all doom and gloom after the loss on Friday night, but this is a rebuild, folks. This is what happens. These are the types of games we are going to see as we go into January, February, and March.

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