Rangers take 61 seconds off, fall to Penguins to snap winning streak

Sixty-one seconds. That’s all it took. With the Rangers up 1-0 on a goal by Mika Zibanejad, the Rangers fell asleep for 61 seconds, and that’s all the Penguins would need. The Penguins scored three times, securing themselves a two goal lead they would never relinquish. The outcome is sad, since the Rangers came out flying and completely dominated the Penguins for the first 16 minutes of the game. After that, they were deflated.

Alex Georgiev was pulled after the three goal outburst, which was the right move. Georgiev was off on the first goal, and flailed horribly on the next two breakaways. The pair of breakaways were due to defensive naps, but you need your goalie to make a save. Georgiev didn’t. That’s been the rub on him this season, which is certainly not a good one thus far.

All that said, the Rangers didn’t play that poorly in this one. Aside from the nap, the Rangers really limited Pittsburgh’s quality chances. Keith Kinkaid didn’t have to make many difficult saves, aside from a breakaway in the second and the beautiful save on Kapanen in the third. The offense had trouble generating anything consistently though, which was eventually their downfall.

Rangers 1, Pens 0 – Mika finally gets one

Pavel Buchnevich made a great poke check to force the turnover at the blue line and start the rush the other way. Mika Zibanejad took it from there, going over DeSmith’s glove for his first goal with a goalie in net in quite some time. DeSmith was way off his angle on this, he bit hard on that fake.

This is something to keep an eye on. Not the Zibanejad goal, but the pressure on the points in the offensive zone. That’s a high turnover area that leads to odd-man rushes regularly. Alain Vigneault had the Rangers pressure there regularly, but at the detriment to defensive zone coverage. The combination of David Quinn and Jacques Martin have managed to get this part right without sacrificing coverage low.

Penguins 1, Rangers 1 – Off the angle

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1368730820136075264

John Marino placed his shot perfectly, and there was a screen in front. Credit the Penguins for that. But focus on Alex Georgiev’s left pad. He’s beyond the near post, meaning he’s off his angle. That opened the far side of the net for Marino.

Georgiev has not had a good season thus far. There are a lot of goals like this.

Penguins 2, Rangers 1 – A rare Miller goof

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1368731601790771208

K’Andre Miller waved at the pass through the neutral zone, missed, and then blew a tire. That sprung Kasperi Kapanen for the breakaway. Georgiev flailed on this, but it’s very hard to blame your goalie when the defense fails the way it did here.

Penguins 3, Rangers 1 – Nap time

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1368732094814445575

Sidney Crosby walked through Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. They both napped on this one. Another one where you can’t really blame Georgiev, but you’d like him to come up big. This one chased him, and in came Keith Kinkaid.

Penguins 4, Rangers 1 – Bad change

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1368756790146523136

Let’s look at Libor Hajek who was changing as the 3-on-1 rush developed. Looked like either bad timing or just a bad change in general. Very clear Brendan Smith expected help that just wasn’t there.

Penguins 5, Rangers 1 – More desperation, more odd man rushes

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1368758930596302856

Zach Aston-Reese got in on the 2-on-1, and swiped the pass in the air at the net. Since Kinkaid stopped it, play continued. Aston-Reese poked the puck through Kinkaid, whose skate was off the post. But the rush itself was started when Hajek pinched and the Penguins got the puck past him.

Shot Heatmap – Could be better

This looks worse than it is for the Rangers. That’s a deep red in the slot for the Penguins, which was red from those 61 seconds when the Rangers fell asleep. The goals in the third period were largely due to desperation time, and the Penguins taking advantage of defense that were caught. Two of those wound up in the back of the net.

Skater Results – Dull, but not bad

There isn’t much bad here – just a lot of dull. This checks out, since the Rangers really weren’t that bad in this one. It was again that 61 seconds from hell. The rest of the game was rather boring.

The Rangers really did take 61 seconds off in this loss to the Penguins. If not for that, this game could have gone much differently. It seems the three goals in that span deflated the Rangers, and they didn’t really recover offensively. Or maybe they were just fatigued from their first back-to-back this season. Either way, their three game win streak is now gone.

Charts from NaturalStatTrick and Evolving-Hockey.