A rough end to 2019 as Rangers fall to Edmonton

The Rangers looked like they were already hungover to start the game against Edmonton, but at least made a comeback effort to try to make things interesting. I didn’t get to watch the full game, but from what I watched (I had to turn it off after it was 4-0), but I have some truncate thoughts.

• I blinked and it was 1-0 on a botched coverage in the slot. Yes, that botched coverage was an issue, but how about getting beat to a pair of loose pucks within the first 10 seconds? Not a good start.
• And then I make a round of drinks for everyone and it’s 2-0. This seems to be the running theme here – I look away for a second and James Neal scores.
• At least I was watching TV when it was 3-0…progress right?
• All three goals were scored from within 2 feet of Alex Georgiev. It would be nice if there were some semblance of defense in front to prevent these.
• Thankfully the period ended without any further calamities.
• That period was one of the worst periods of hockey I’ve seen from the Rangers in quite some time. Probably the worst since the 6-0 and 9-2 blowouts to kick off the AV years. They didn’t defend, got beat to every puck, and just had a general apathy that you don’t expect to see.
• Another powerplay goal against. Remember when MSG was touting that the penalty kill hadn’t allowed a goal in a while? Those were the days.
• At this point I had to turn the game off, but I was getting updates on Twitter.
• Georgiev lost his mind, which is nice to see. I’d be pissed too if that was the defense playing in front of me.
• The officiating seemed to be a big issue in the second – there were some gifs of David Quinn being none too pleased. Between that and the Georgiev losing his mind gif, at least we got good content to close out the year.
• Artemi Panarin with a goal and three assists to make it 6-4. This guy is just so, so good. Just want to point out though that if it were Rick Nash, someone would have said “of course he scores now when the game is out of reach.”
• Ryan Strome with a goal and and assist. Adam Fox with two assists. To think that at one point the Rangers were down 6-0 and had it within one with four minutes left. Crazy.
• Despite the comeback effort, this was not a good game. The Rangers bowed out of 2019 in an embarrassing manner, and should be ashamed of themselves for how they started the game. They were down 3-0 before officiating became an issue, and all three were goals that could have been stopped by simply covering the front of the net.