New York Rangers week ahead includes Christmas break, trip to Florida
No team in the NHL needed the NHL Christmas break more than the New York Rangers.
At 16-17-1. last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners are the biggest disappointment in the League this season. A 5-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Monday capped a 1-3-0 week that ended with the opposing coach (Sheldon Keefe) calling off the dogs and putting his fourth line on the ice for a late third-period power play. The Rangers managed just 12 shots on goal against Jacob Markstrom, their fewest in a game since 2001.
“We get a break now,” defenseman Ryan Lindgren said in a very quiet postgame locker room. “We’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror here and come back really hungry, because this is just not winning hockey we’re playing right now. It’s miserable for us, it’s miserable for the fans. It’s time to figure it out.”
The defeat at Prudential Center came 24 hours after a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden, a game the saw the visitors attempt 70 shots on goal to 48 for the Rangers while controlling play for most of the final 2 1/2 periods, That loss took all the bloom off the week’s lone win, a 3-1 Igor Shesterkin-fueled victory against the Dallas Stars that avoided a winless three-game road trip and took some of the attention away from the trade that sent forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen and two draft picks Wednesday.
The NHL shuts down for the three-day holiday break this week, but the Rangers will get a fourth day off before heading to Florida for their next two games. In all, they’re in the midst of a seven-game stretch during which they play exclusively against teams holding playoff spots. Their next game against a fellow sub-.500 team comes when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 7.
Related: 3 takeaways after embarrassing 5-0 loss to New Jersey Devils
Who’s hot
Shesterkin allowed five goals in three games last week – and lost two of them. He could have earned all three Stars of the Game in the win at Dallas after making 41 saves and stopping all 21 power-play shots he faced during the Rangers’ 17 minutes of playing a man short.
Who’s not
Chris Kreider’s offensive struggles earned him a seat in the press box Monday at New Jersey. The longest-tenured Ranger has 11 goals, just one in his past eight games, and has all of one assist this season. “We just need — we need more,”’ coach Peter Laviolette said when asked why he decided to scratch the 33-year-old forward “At the end of the day, we’re not playing a brand that we need to play in order to be successful. And he’s a guy that we count on to help deliver that.”
Matt Rempe must learn how to play physically without going over the line before he plays himself out of the League. He drew three penalties from Dallas in the second period of the win on Friday — but then took a five-minute major for elbowing and a game misconduct for driving the head of Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen into the glass in the third period. Two days later, the NHL handed him an eight-game suspension. He’s now been suspended for 12 regular-season games while playing in just 22 in his first two NHL seasons.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
An extra day off in addition to the NHL-mandated three-day vacation (no games, no practices, no travel). They’ll fly south to spend the weekend, visiting the Lightning on Saturday night and the Florida Panthers on Monday.
Rangers at Tampa Bay Lightning (Dec. 28, 7 p.m. ET; MSG2)
A visit to Tampa might not be the ideal tonic for a team in a slump. The Lightning reached the break with seven wins in their nine games this month, including a 3-0 road victory against the Panthers on Monday with backup goalie Jonas Johansson earning the shutout. Nikita Kucherov, who led the NHL in scoring last season, has 50 points (15 goals, 35 assists) in 30 games, and Brayden Point has 22 goals in just 27 games.
The Rangers have had the regular-season edge in the battle of premier Russian goaltenders.
Shesterkin is 6-1-1 in eight career decisions against the Lightning, with a 1.84 goals-against average, .941 save percentage and one shutout. Andrei Vasilevskiy’s Hall of Fame credential (one Vezina Trophy, two Stanley Cup championships, one Conn Smythe Trophy) haven’t been helped by his pre-playoff play against the Rangers; he is 5-8-1 in the regular season with a 2.92 GAA and .906 save percentage.
Rangers at Florida Panthers (Dec. 30, 7 p.m. ET; MSGSN, NHL Network)
The Rangers’ last trip to Sunrise was one they’d rather forget. It came on June 1, when the Panthers defeated them 2-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, sending New York home for the summer and Florida on to the Stanley Cup Final, where they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games to win their first championship since entering the NHL in 1993.
Most of the championship cast is back, with center Aleksander Barkov and forward Sam Reinhart leading the way up front. Sergei Bobrovsky is 16-7-1 this season and 15-12-3 lifetime against the Rangers with a 2.83 GAA and .908 save percentage.
Artemi Panarin has excelled against the Panthers, with 30 points (eight goals, 22 assists) in 21 regular-season games.
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