kevin hayes

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

The Rangers forgot how to defense this game. Well in reality, it’s been this month, but who’s keeping track? Last night was another in a long stretch of games where the Rangers allowed at least 30 shots on goal. Henrik Lundqvist was the story of the latest defensvie debacle, making 43 saves to steal a point for the Blueshirts in the shootout loss.

Outside of Hank, not many Rangers had good games. Kevin Shattenkirk had a noticeably bad game, so bad that he wound up benched in the third period. Funny thing is Nick Holden also had a bad game, yet no benching. Ho Hum. Oh, Alain Vigneault used his timeout! That’s a positive!

On to the goals:

Devils 1, Rangers 0

Ryan McDonagh, Mats Zuccarello, and JT Miller all were around the puck and none clear the zone. Then with Zucc down after the Taylor Hall hit, it’s all three on one side, and no one picks up John Moore. He had all day to finish that once receiving the pass. That goal happened because the three amigos had a mass controller unplug with the puck right before, though.

Rangers 1, Devils 1

The fourth line had a good old fashioned blue collar hockey goal. They got four or five whacks at it, with all three forwards around the net. Jimmy Vesey was the one who finally got it through Schneider.

Rangers 2, Devils 1

Mika Zibanejad took the hit to move the puck up the ice to Pavel Buchnevich, who promptly got it to Nick Holden for the zone entry. Holden dished to Chris Kreider for the shot from the high slot, a rather routine one. But Schneider muffed it and Holden skated right by Damon Severson to collect the rebound.

Devils 2, Rangers 2

This was a terrible turnover by Kevin Shattenkirk on the powerplay. Blake Coleman picked up the puck and ripped the perfect shot over Hank.

Rangers 3, Devils 2

Kevin Hayes with a little luck here. The puck hit off Severson’s skate and under Schneider.

Devils 3, Rangers 3

Brian Boyle was left all alone in front, as Nick Holden just stood behind the net and watched the pass from the corner from Taylor Hall. He spun around and put the backhand past Hank.

Score Adjusted Corsi/Scoring Chances

Do I really need to post these? We all know how this one went. It was the Henrik Lundqvist show. They lose 83-3 without him.

The Rangers can’t continue giving up this many shots. They were winning despite themselves all month. With Zibanejad back, this was supposed to change. It has not. Eventually, if they keep giving up this many shots and getting throttled like this on a nightly basis, the other shoe will drop.

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