3 Rangers takeaways after closing month of October with dud against Capitals
It’s been largely a very positive start to the 2024-25 NHL season for the New York Rangers. They have points in seven of nine games (6-2-1) and a goal differential of plus-16 that is third-best in the League.
But the Rangers have lost two of their past three games, including a concerning one Tuesday when they were manhandled by the Washington Capitals, 5-3 at Capital One Arena. The score doesn’t do justice to how badly outplayed the Rangers were; the 46-19 shots discrepancy offers a better example.
Igor Shestrekin was brilliant between the pipes, time and again turning aside point-blank chances for the Capitals, while the Rangers were late to defend, largely watching their goalie save the day as best he could. Scoring chances 5v5 were 34-14 in favor of the Capitals, and the high-danger ones were 15-8, per Natural Stat Trick.
Shesterkin kept it close and the Filip Chytil line scored twice — Chytil had his fourth goal of the season, Will Cuylle his third. That line was New York’s best by far, and they now have outscored opponents 9-0 at 5v5 when on the ice.
But that about sums up the good on Tuesday from a Rangers perspective. Maybe toss in Victor Mancini’s perfect pass on Chytil’s goal racing to the net.
But as for the rest ….
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3 takeaways from Rangers 5-3 loss to Capitals
Here are three key takeaways from the game Tuesday.
1. Relying on explosive offense is both good and bad
The Rangers are never out of any game because their offense is lethal and can strike quickly, sometimes completely out of the blue. They nearly won Tuesday because Shesterkin was brilliant and they had a few bolts of lightning offensively that nearly saved the day.
That’s a great thing to have. Most teams don’t have the ability to just explode and score, seemingly at the snap of the fingers. The Rangers have tons of skilled players who are able to turn it on, it seems, at will. That’s an advantage for them.
It’s also a disadvantage because the Rangers know they have that rare ability. You sometimes sense the Rangers believe they can escape any jam, even those created by their own subpar play, because that offensive explosion is right around the corner. The thing is, no team can simply turn it on and off like that — especially when facing a quality and determined opponent, like the Rangers did against the Capitals last night and Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final last spring.
2. K’Andre Miller loses spot next to Adam Fox
It was a rough night all around for the Rangers. But it was particularly bad one for defenseman K’Andre Miller. He was lost defending Aliaksei Protas’ pass that set up Alex Ovechkin’s second goal in the first period and then was simply beaten to the net by Protas on a redirection goal in the second.
Positioning, effort, you name it. It wasn’t good enough by Miller on Tuesday. He wasn’t the only culprit, not by a long shot. But he simply had a bad night. Coach Peter Laviolette recognized as much, later shifting Miller to the second defense pair with Jacob Trouba while moving Ryan Lindgren back up with Adam Fox. It’s the first time this season that the Miller-Fox pair was broken up.
The Rangers were outshot 14-3 at 5v5 with Miller on the ice Tuesday, and their expected goals for was 23.04 percent, per Natural Stat Trick. Scoring chances were 15-4 in favor of the Capitals, and high-danger chances were 6-0. The Capitals, like the Panthers in the playoffs, were relentless on the puck and Miller did not handle it well at all.
It’ll be interesting if Laviolette goes right back to the Miller-Fox pair Friday against the Ottawa Senators. Or will he use this as an opportunity to reunite Lindgren and Fox, the longtime partners?
3. Rangers falter again against relentless foe
Getting back to playing against a relentless opponent, is this becoming a trend with the Rangers? The two games games they’ve lost in regulation — against the Panthers and Capitals in two of their past three games — the Rangers appeared incapable of handling an opponent that consistently took the body and were relentless in their play in all three zones, specifically in the offensive zone.
That, of course, was their downfall in the playoffs last spring. The Panthers will was greater in puck battles and they simply owned the territorial edge. Such was the case again last Thursday against the Panthers and Tuesday against the Capitals, who were like a dog on a bone all game long.
The Rangers managed only 19 shots on goal Tuesday because, in part, they almost never seemed to have the puck, and, secondly, got very little from their star players. Mika Zibanejad managed one shot (on the power play) and three attempts. Artemi Panarin, whose scoring streak ended at eight games, had two shots and six attempts. Adam Fox had two shots and was minus-3. Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal, but was largely quiet 5v5 and also was minus-3.
Listen, it was a bad night all around. But there must be some level of concern that this is a recurring problem — and one that can bite them again in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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