Tonight marked periods 7, 8, and 9 in a row where the Rangers got smoked. That’s three straight games where the Rangers looked flat and uninspired. Yet they won two of them? Maybe this one was rock bottom though, as it had shades of Alain Vigneault’s Rangers. The Penguins completely outplayed the Rangers tonight and two nights ago. The fact the Rangers came away with a win the other night, let alone eight goals, is a borderline miracle.
We all know this game was a train wreck. So let’s focus on the positives:
- Igor Shesterkin was very good again. This kid is going to be special. How spoiled are we with goaltending?
- Adam Fox is going to win a Norris, or multiple Norris’. He’s the best defenseman we’ve seen here since Brian Leetch and Sergei Zubov.
- I love Colin Blackwell. He’s polarizing only because of where the coach plays him. Dude plays his butt off every night and he’s getting rewarded. Love it.
- Adam Fox is an elite defenseman.
- Most of what has gone wrong the past three games is fixable with a simple refocus on the system that worked the last two months.
- Adam Fox is very good.
Penguins 1, Rangers 0 – Bad angle
6'6" of pure hockey skill. pic.twitter.com/jIoPGFbKRg
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 8, 2021
There’s not much else to say here other than what a bad angle by Libor Hajek here. Just terrible.
Rangers 1, Pens 1 – Powerplay triangles
The #NYR second power play unit makes the most of their opportunity. Buchnevich sets up Blackwell to tie the game, Kakko with the secondary assist pic.twitter.com/0GLbOa5I9F
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) April 9, 2021
Triangles triangles triangles. That was a powerplay triangle with Kaapo Kakko, Pavel Buchnevich, and Colin Blackwell. Notice that Blackwell took three steps in as soon as Kakko hit Buchnevich. That created a tighter triangle while getting to more open space, and Blackwell finished.
Pens 2, Rangers 1 – Failed clear, lucky bounce
2-1 and havin' fun. Thanks @Letang_58! pic.twitter.com/ztNmK2dBVt
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2021
This is what happens when you can’t clear the zone and get pinned. This time, Kris Letang’s pass went off Chris Kreider’s stick and past a moving Igor Shesterkin.
Pens 3, Rangers 1 – Triangles work against you too
Zucker ➡️ Zohorna ➡️ Rodrigues ➡️ THE BACK OF THE NET! pic.twitter.com/g7pCoFGhU7
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2021
A quick powerplay goal for the Penguins here. This time, they used their own powerplay triangle, isolating Ryan Lindgren on a give-and-go. The pass down low to Radim Zohorna forced Lindgren lower, opening up the pass back to Evan Rodrigues for the goal.
Pens 4, Rangers 1 – Horrible all around
Penguins points (thus far):
Letang 1G-1A
Zohorna 1G-1A
Zucker 1G-1A
Rodrigues 1G-1A
Pettersson 1A
Guentzel 1A
Dumoulin 1A
Ceci 1A pic.twitter.com/fH6ljvxXMO— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2021
Chris Kreider turnover at the offensive blue line. K’Andre Miller bad angle on the pass up the ice. Jacob Trouba backing into Shesterkin on the pass to Jason Zucker. This was horrible.
Pens 4, Rangers 2 – Adam Fox
With a primary assist on Kevin Rooney's goal, Adam Fox extends his point streak to 12 games with 22 points #NYR pic.twitter.com/uAVgXj4mEM
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) April 9, 2021
Pavel Buchnevich with the great carry-in zone entry with speed, which forced the Penguins back. Then Adam Fox kept the streak alive by waiting out Tristan Jarry, then sliding a pass under him to the empty net. Kevin Rooney hit the empty net, unlike both Filip Chytil and Mika Zibanejad earlier.
Pens 5, Rangers 2 – Empty netter
Jankowski empty netter. Not much else here.
Shot Heatmap – U-G-L-Y
What the eff is this? And this is *better* than what it looked like after two periods.
Skater Results – How bad can it get?
This is AV type stuff.
This was by far the worst effort since the season opener. Just bad all around. The Rangers were outplayed by the Penguins from start to finish, much like last game. The difference was they didn’t score on every shot they took. No time to think it over, as they have the Isles tomorrow.
Charts from Evolving-Hockey and Natural Stat Trick.
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