From puck drop to final whistle last night, the Rangers just could not get anything going. In what can easily be called their worst game of the season, the Carolina Hurricanes wrecked the Rangers 6-1. Perhaps the Rangers forgot what they were supposed to do, as the Sebastian Aho/Adam Fox incident took center stage in pregame interviews. The vibes just weren’t right for this one.
A costly penalty committed by Alexis Lafrenière in the first 30 seconds of the game allowed a red-hot Carolina power play to immediately score. The Hurricanes simply overwhelmed the Rangers from then on, not giving them any room to generate significant offense. About the only fun part from last night was Chris Kreider passing Rod Gilbert for goals scored at the new MSG with 166.
As has been a theme in Ranger losses, it was an absolute blowout. It’s not clear if this is a cause for concern since a loss is a loss, but it is something many have noticed. It was the fifth 4+ goal loss, and 7th by 3 goals or more. When this team losses, they do it in style.
Igor Shesterkin in particular seems to be the poster boy for this trend. He is one of the most important aspects of this team, yet he seemed lost after the 3rd goal, surrendering another 3 on top of it on 27 total shots. It seems once he allows more than 2 goals, he has trouble getting back on track.
With a tight upcoming schedule, it’s going to be very curious what Peter Laviolette and Benoit Allaire think is best for him. It may be best to put Igor right back out there against the Chicago Blackhawks to right the ship. Goalies have clunkers, and following his strong December, we were bound to see one.
Maybe getting your doors blown off instead of losing by one game is preferable? The lows have ultimately been short for this year’s team, but it is concerning though that this seems to happen about every 8 games or so.
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