Depleted and Disjointed Rangers overrun by Bruins
The New York Rangers were once again depleted skating with 11 forwards and five defensemen. All thanks to the NHL’s ridiculous hard cap rules that punishes teams that try to improve themselves while others take on dead contracts just to reach the cap floor without spending actually to it.
Being shorthanded aside, the Rangers with their shiny new toy in Patrick Kane looked complete disjointed. And that goes double on the power play.
“It needs a lot of time to gel,” a frustrated Gerard Gallant said. “There’s a couple of guys in different positions and setups so we’ll work with it. We’ve got some time this week (to practice) and decide what we’re going to do.”
New York Rangers fall to Bruins
New York came out in the first period and took it to the Bruins early owning possession and having a shot advantage. Unfortunately, they couldn’t generate enough traffic or high-danger chances to get a lead.
Then the Bruins started to come on and with less than two minutes to go, Charlie Coyle opened the scoring. On the play, Tyler Bertuzzi slipped a pass from behind the net that caught Filip Chytil sleeping.
The Rangers had a power play to start the second period and it took all of 30 seconds for Tomas Nosek to score shorthanded. Adam Fox, who looks like a shell of himself being forced to play more minutes due to injuries and cap issues, coughed up the puck.
Alexis Lafreniere would cut the lead in half at the 7:03 mark of the second period tipping a Jacob Trouba point shot on the power play.
In the final frame, Igor Shesterkin did his best to hold his team in it. Boston had two consecutive power plays that he stopped seven total shots on before the walls caved in.
First it was Patrice Bergeron, followed by David Pastrnak to bury the Rangers hopes.
Lafreniere would score his second of the game with 86 seconds on the clock but this game was over.
Artemi Panarin finished the contest with six turnovers and a -3 rating, as he spent the entire game trying to force feed Patrick Kane, who was a -2. Both players are going to have to get their acts together and start making simpler plays before trying to be the Oilers dynasty of the 80’s.
“They’re trying to force the plays in the middle of the ice,” Gallant said. “There’s too many turnovers. There’s chemistry there but you have to make strong plays. Too many times trying for that east to west pass in the offensive zone. They’ll get it together but it wasn’t good tonight.”
The Rangers will now have four days to work on things in practice before hosting the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. If they don’t, fingers eagerly awaiting to hit the panic button won’t be able to resist.
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