3 Rangers takeaways after losing streak extends to 3 games in 5-2 defeat at hands of Blues
A bad day carried over into a bad night Monday for the New York Rangers. After stories leaked that general manager Chris Drury contacted all 31 NHL teams to let them know the Rangers are open for business, looking to make a trade that will shake the team out of its doldrums, they went out and lost again, this time 5-2 to the St. Louis Blues at Madison Square Garden.
The current three-game losing streak is the longest this season for the Rangers (12-7-1), who lost for the first time after scoring the first goal Monday (10-1-0).
It was more of the same for the Rangers, who chased most of the game, allowed 40 or more shots (43) for the third consecutive contest and were out-chanced 43-30 by the Blues. In fact, St. Louis had a 20-7 advantage in high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick, the first time they had at least 10 this season.
It’s not like the Rangers, who are 7-7-0 in their past 14 games, are struggling against the 1980’s Edmonton Oilers or 1970’s Montreal Canadiens here. It’s anyone and everyone, including a Blues team that entered play 30th in the NHL in scoring.
“We need to be better. Everyone needs to be better inside the room,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said postgame. “It’s not good enough what we’re doing. We’re playing to a level and a standard that’s not us”
Related: Rangers trade rumors, lineup changes after extended stretch of mediocre play
3 takeaways from Rangers 5-2 loss to Blues
Here are three takeaways from the game monday.
1. Wash. Rinse. Repeat
It was more of the same Monday for the Rangers — not enough sustained pressure, too much time spent defending. Too many shots and scoring chances allowed. An unsightly xGF of 31 percent, per Natural Stat Trick. And for the sixth straight game, no help from the power play, which was 0-for-3 against the Blues and is 0-for-10 since Nov. 14.
Blame falls on everyone. But it’s hard not to focus on Mika Zibanejad’s turnovers, getting beat off the rush on Brayden Schenn’s goal early in the third period, or his minus-3 that dropped him to a team worst minus-13 this season.
Then there’s another night of looking slow and without answers for defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Jacob Trouba; each was minus-2. Trouba had an awful 21.2 percent xGF; Lindgren was not much better at 29.43 percent.
At least Chris Kreider escaped criticism. The 33-year-old forward missed his first game of the season because of an upper-body injury.
2. No answers in third period
Not to make excuses for the Rangers, but they appeared somewhat gassed in the third period. And that might be attributed to a long flight home from Edmonton, plus the time change, after a four-game road trip out west.
Remember, the Rangers were tied 2-2 entering the third period, against a struggling opponent which had won two of its previous nine games and just had its coach fired the day before. But Schenn scored 1:12 into the period on a semi-break off the rush, and the Rangers had no response. Zack Bolduc’s second of the game at 8:25 pretty much sealed the deal here. And Laviolette wasn’t happy about it.
“We give up a goal to start the third period, and then I don’t like the response after that,” the coach said. “That’s the time to dig in, go get the next one and bring it back to even and we weren’t able to do that.”
The Rangers were stuck on three shots on goal for most of the period and ended up with only seven with the game hanging in the balance.
3. Follow the cool kids
Perhaps the veteran Rangers should take a cue from some of the kids in the lineup. Will Cuylle delivered the first two-goal game of his NHL career and was a wrecking ball with a team-high six hits.
And look at how he scored his goals. In the first period, he planted himself above the blue paint, fought off a defenseman and had Kaapo Kakko’s shot/pass bounce off his skates and between Joel Hofer’s pads to make it 1-0. Then he tied the game in the second period by driving to the net, burying a pretty feed from Zibanejad. And note that Cuylle started that scoring play with some ferocious work on the forecheck.
Also on that goal, another 22-year-old forward, Brett Berard, picked up the secondary assist in his NHL debut. Berard was a ball of energy and made a gorgeous behind the back feed to set up Kakko on the second power-play unit in the first period. The little guy got knocked down, got up repeatedly and helped provide what little energy the Rangers displayed Monday.
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