The Rangers entered a gauntlet week with no expectations, and managed to leave with six of eight points after a pair of OT losses to Colorado and Vegas over the weekend. Yesterday’s loss to Vegas was disappointing only because it felt like the refs were the story of the game. Mika Zibanejad said it best (per Peter Baugh), “Really? Zero powerplays and you don’t call that?” after Mitch Marner tripped Matthew Robertson in overtime. The coincidental roughing minors on Will Borgen and Brett Howden that led to the tying goal were just as bad, and it felt like the refs had another agenda. Not accusing anyone of anything, just saying it felt that way. No one should know Chris Lee’s name, but everyone does, and that’s a problem.

As for the actual game, Jonathan Quick returned to action after missing the last few weeks with a lower body injury and looked like he didn’t miss a beat. Quick’s first period kept the Rangers in the game as they did not look good out of the gate on the second half of a back to back. The ice was tilted towards the Rangers defensive zone, and Quick had to make a number of great saves due to mistimed reads, turnovers, and some rush chances. Jack Eichel’s winner was a one of a kind goal, much like Nathan MacKinnon’s winner on Saturday. Tap your stick to the goal and move on with the point in tow.

Alexis Lafreniere has had a pretty mediocre stat collecting season, and though other parts of his game have been great, the lack of points has started to become a story. He may have gotten off the schneid, setting up a Mika Zibanejad goal to tie the game after a great offensive zone shift, and Mika returning the favor later for Lafreniere to rip the puck past Carter Hart bar down and out to take the lead. Lafreniere doesn’t shoot nearly enough as he should, he does tend to look to defer to his linemates, but he’s got a great shot that he should utilize more often.

If Lafreniere shot more, it would likely lead to more goals which would quiet the discourse around him. We have seen in the past though that when Lafreniere does finally score, he’ll go on a mini run of games where all of a sudden everything goes in the net. With a game against the Blackhawks on the horizon Wednesday, does he do it again?

But again, it’s unfortunate that the officiating took center stage and may have cost the Rangers two points in the end. The Rangers did just about everything right to give themselves a chance to the win. There are so many plays that could have led to powerplay opportunities that we can’t cover them all, but you can’t look me in the eye and say Vegas committed zero penalties in the game, save for a coincidental minor.

We know officials don’t actually call games by the book and will instead “manage it” to where power play opportunities more often than not come out evenly every game. So what were Chris Lee and Furman South doing, exactly? They weren’t managing the game, and they certainly weren’t calling it straight. There’s hardly a true accountability system in the NHL for these types of officials, because the commissioner gets on his soap box every Stanley Cup Final presser to praise the job these guys do. At some point, there needs to be accountability for whatever it was the refs did last night.

More About: