Stop me if you’ve heard this before, Rangers versus Hurricanes, Hurricanes massively outshoot Rangers, Hurricanes win by a goal. Well, it happened again. An underwhelming performance by anyone not named Igor Shesterkin, which seems to be one of the theme of the season. It looked like Igor was going to steal the game, the defense failed him as the Rangers let Carolina get extended looks, and they got one. Another one of those themes: The Rangers look like a lost cause. They are mediocre at best, and a dumpster fire at their worst.
Imagine if Shesterkin were with the Colorado Avalanche, or any other team that has a competent group in front of him. There was nothing he could do last night, or most nights when the offense can barely manage two goals. Carolina is predictable, with goals coming from moving the puck low to high then crashing the net for rebounds and deflections. If it’s defended properly, they won’t score. That was not the case last night, as the Rangers simply couldn’t prevent the Canes from getting those second, third, and fourth looks.
The only other positive from last night was Vlad Gavrikov. He’s been worth his contract so far in New York. Gavrikov opened the scoring with his first powerplay goal of the season, which set a new career high in goals in just 41 games. The offense is a nice cherry on top, but the real reason why Gavrikov was signed was for his defense. I can’t remember the last Rangers defenseman who had as good a defensive stick as Gavrikov. He makes many smart plays with the puck and also anticipates plays well without the puck. He’s been a great signing so far.
Now is a time when we can start questioning prospect usage in games, particularly with Gabe Perreault. Perreault is getting top-six time at 5v5, but that is only amounting to 14 minutes a game with no powerplay time and no 3v3 time. There’s no reason to keep trotting out the same powerplay that is horrible and stale. Why not see what this kid has?
If Mike Sullivan wants to churn out more busts than booms, then by all means, keep stapling Perreault to the bench while your $45 million dollar top six flounders against actual contenders. There is not one skater on the team right now that has justifiably earned carte blanche with this coaching staff in this year’s iteration of the Rangers.
Play the young guys, find out what you have in this organization, let them make mistakes, because thinking playoffs are an actual goal for this season is folly.
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