Game #43: Rangers waste good effort in excruciating 4-3 loss to Islanders

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Derek

There are losses, and then there are LOSSES. I don’t feel like explaining myself. When you give the kind of effort the Rangers put into a third period they dominated, and still lose in excruciating fashion, it speaks volumes about where this franchise is. They suck. There isn’t much else to say.

I can’t explain the 4-3 loss to the Islanders, who managed to score on their only shot with 1:26 left in regulation. Of course they did. Henrik Lundqvist didn’t make a big save the entire night. Does he ever against his kryptonite? I don’t want to see him in net for the rematch on Saturday, or I’ll skip it. He stinks versus the Islanders. Make up any excuse you want. Psychological? Who cares.

I’m fed up with seeing our $8.5 million goalie give up goal after goal in losses to our number one rival. Would it kill him to make a save? Robin Lehner made countless saves throughout in outplaying Lundqvist for his eighth straight win. Seven. Eight. It doesn’t matter. The Rangers had the first 15 shots of the third period and they still lost due to Lundqvist. I don’t feel like blaming Marc Staal or Neal Pionk for this. The fifth straight defeat was due to our goalie. Even if it was a horrible game for Pionk with Staal not much better. The goalie gets all the credit when they win. Well, he deserves the blame for this one.

I am not gonna bother wasting anyone’s time with a long recap. Goals were scored. Three by the home team including Jesper Fast’s amazing baseball bat swing on a high Pionk shot that he batted in perfectly to tie the score. He was robbed by Lehner on the next shift. Lehner also stoned Pavel Buchnevich, and Mika Zibanejad on two other chances in the first of a home and home series that concludes Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn. Honestly, I’ve never seen Lehner look better. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working. The Isles are a playoff team for the time being.

I wish I could say some nice things about how most of the 18 Rangers skaters showed up for the rivalry game. It took longer for others than supporting cast members like Cody McLeod, who sucked AHL scrub Ross Johnston into a dumb unsportsmanlike penalty after Matt Martin tried to punk McLeod. Goon tactics by Barry Trotz’ club. Ryan Strome scored a power play goal on a great feed against the team that drafted him sixth overall in 2011. Strome played a good game centering mostly Filip Chytil and Jimmy Vesey until the third when David Quinn made a change. He moved Fast up with Pavel Buchnevich, who finally showed a pulse with some better shifts. Maybe getting knocked on his ass by Martin woke him up. He played with more edge even going back at Martin and saying something to him after another idiotic moment between him and McLeod at the Ranger bench.

I can take most losses. The Rangers got sloppy after Strome’s goal. Awful turnovers like the one Pionk made, which led directly to a Mathew Barzal breakaway goal on a napping Lundqvist. Then a bad penalty by Vesey on Anthony Beauvillier led to Jordan Eberle beating Lundqvist from an awful angle. The Islanders don’t have a good power play. That didn’t stop them from scoring on their first two. Typical of how brutal the Rangers penalty kill is. They stink.

The Rangers came back early to tie it in the second on a rare Kevin Shattenkirk goal. Only his second of the season on a pass across from Fredrik Claesson. Mats Zuccarello set a good screen in front to prevent Lehner from picking it up. Zuccarello is back to playing hockey. He was more effective than either Zibanejad or Chris Kreider, who didn’t do enough offensively. Zuccarello competed hard for a second game in a row. Maybe his admission to Larry Brooks was a good thing. He’s just playing now.

But a bad Staal penalty on Barzal resulted in another Isles power play goal. This time, Anders Lee redirected a good Nick Leddy point shot in for a 3-2 lead. That’s what happens when you’re bad.

At one point because they don’t shoot the puck enough, the Rangers had only 11 shots. They were stuck on three for a while against a more defensive minded Isles. They came in ranked fourth in team defense due to a better system under Trotz. If they make the playoffs, Trotz should get Coach of the Year over everyone else. They’re doing this without John Tavares, who scored two more including his 300th and 301st of his career in a Leafs 4-2 win over the Devils. Tavares has 29 goals for Toronto.

Whatever Quinn said to his team before the third, it worked. The Rangers were harder on the puck and attacked the Isles, who looked like they were trying to hold on. Every line contributed. Especially the Strome line. It was no coincidence that Fast scored his seventh while bumped up. They worked their tails off. McLeod was noticable every shift due to Martin acting like a punk. Buchnevich played hard enough on the fourth line for Quinn to move him up. The Brett Howden unit was around the puck a lot.

But when you outshoot your opponent 15-0 and then watch hopelessly as Cal Clutterbuck passes across for a Josh Bailey goal with Pionk right on him, it is extremely frustrating. Infuriating. I had no reaction. I expected it as soon as I saw Clutterbuck given too much respect by Staal. Pionk has to tie up Bailey there. He didn’t. Zuccarello missed a check in the neutral zone that allowed Clutterbuck to get in the Rangers zone. The rest is history.

This was as bad a loss as this team has had all season. It has a lot to do with the hated rival. But also how well they played the third. If only they had taken advantage of Leo Komarov’s boneheaded delay of game penalty that handed them a five-on-three. But Quinn blew it by sticking with the horrible top unit that produced nothing. He didn’t reward the guys who were going. A pivotal moment that was a huge miscalculation.

They lost because that’s what they do. So, it’s 5-11-5 since Thanksgiving. Five losses in a row with no end in sight. The Isles won because they know how to. Seven victories in the last eight and nine of the past 11. They have Lundqvist’s number. No. This isn’t Phil Collins or Genesis from 1987. It’s the one-sided rivalry.

One last act on Saturday.

BONY 3 STARS:

3rd 🌟 Ryan Strome, Rangers (power play goal 5th as Ranger, best forward)

2nd 🌟 Robin Lehner, Isles (27 saves including 16 of 17 in a lopsided 3rd)

1st 🌟 Mathew Barzal, Isles (goal for 9th in last 11, 2 assists, beast mode)

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Struggling Rangers try to slow down wildcard chasing rival Islanders in home and home

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Derek

The tale of two classic New York rivals is at the midpoint of a weird season. One where scoring is way up and the amount of parity is not good like Gary Bettman portrays. There just aren’t many good teams. Aside from the Lightning, Maple Leafs, Capitals and Penguins, no one has stepped up in a mediocre East. The West isn’t much better.

A lot has changed for both the Rangers and Islanders since their last meeting prior to Thanksgiving. A convincing 5-0 home shutout on Nov. 21 sent the Blueshirts into the break a playoff team on a 9-1-1 stretch. It’s crazy to think that they had more points than the Pens at the time. Since then, they’re 5-10-5 with only 15 of a possible 40 points. They enter tonight’s hone match on a four-game losing streak, having been outscored 22-5. Three of the losses were uncompetitive. Only the recent 4-2 defeat in Vegas was hard fought with the team showing improvement.

The Islanders have played much better hockey over the last month. They just had a six-game win streak snapped in hard fashion to Carolina, 4-3 at Nassau Coliseum. They’ve won nine of their last 11 entering play tonight. During that stretch, they’ve scored three or more goals in 10 games. At 23-14-4 with 50 points, they’re fourth in the Metro Division and trail both third place Columbus and final wildcard Montreal by a point. They have three games at hand on the Canadiens and two on the slumping Sabres.

The next two games are a home and home series between the bitter rivals. Tonight’s game at MSG is set for 7 PM while Saturday’s rematch at Barclays Center is a rare 1 PM matinee on Saturday in Brooklyn. Sadly, these two games will conclude the season series. The teams split the first two back in November. The Isles took the first game at home 7-5 on 11/15. Then the Rangers returned the favor by winning handily at home 5-0 on 11/21.

For the Blueshirts, Kevin Hayes will miss his fourth consecutive game with a lower body injury sustained in a 7-2 home loss to Pittsburgh. Coach David Quinn has used rookie Filip Chytil at center the last three games. He hinted that Ryan Strome could shift to center later, moving Chytil on the wing. There is one lineup change on defense with Fredrik Claesson replacing Tony DeAngelo after he took 14 penalty minutes in the 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights.

DeAngelo remains an enigma. He’s often been the odd man out due to inconsistency. He possesses talent, but is caught in a numbers game due to Adam McQuaid returning to pair with Brady Skjei. Kevin Shattenkirk has been back for a week. He’ll reteam with Claesson, who Quinn is more comfortable with as a lefty stay at home D on the third pair. Marc Staal and Neal Pionk remain intact despite their play slipping. I’d like to see DeAngelo play regularly. But the team is also showcasing the more experienced players due to next month’s deadline. If DeAngelo wants to get back in Quinn’s good graces, he has to earn it. I like his skating and puck skills. His defense like most leaves a lot to be desired. He plays with edge, but can’t try to pick fights and seek retribution like he did the other night against Max Pacioretty.

Mats Zuccarello played one of his most effective games, picking up a primary assist on Mika Zibanejad’s 12th goal. Astonishingly, he ranks second behind goalscoring leader Chris Kreider (20). This is a roster that doesn’t score enough. Only Hayes (10) and Jimmy Vesey (10) are the other two Rangers to have double digits. In answering a question regarding why his team doesn’t shoot more, Quinn was very candid. He acknowledged that quite a few players are passers. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out who he means.

In 12 games since returning to the lineup due to a broken thumb, Pavel Buchnevich has two goals on 12 shots. He’s been held without a shot in five games. More troubling is over the same stretch, the playmaking right wing has only one assist. His only point in the past 10 games is a goal scored on Jan. 2 in a 7-2 loss to Pittsburgh. In that game, he went to the net for his seventh goal and registered four shots in 15:58. He hasn’t been the same player since the injury. Only he knows if he’s 100 percent. Due to that inconsistent play, he found himself on the fourth line and off the power play. I think it’s tough to punish him when our team lacks enough skilled players. But if his play doesn’t warrant it, then he’ll continue to be in the doghouse.

Alexandar Georgiev got the last two starts. He made 27 saves in a fine performance on Tuesday. Henrik Lundqvist will get the nod tonight. We’ll see if he can put an end to the Isles’ mastery over him. Don’t forget it was Georgiev who shut them out in the last meeting. It’ll be Robin Lehner for the Isles. He’s established himself lately over Thomas Greiss. Lehner brings a career high seven-game winning streak into play.

Mathew Barzal had been hot during the Isles’ good stretch. Urged by tough minded coach Barry Trotz to shoot more, the ’17-18 Calder winner recorded his first career hat trick in a statement 4-0 win over John Tavares and the Leafs in Toronto on Dec. 29, 2018. Prior to going without a point over the last two, Barzal posted eight goals and three assists over the previous six games. Since 12/8, he’s 9-8-17 over the past 14 games.

The Islanders have gotten a nice contribution from rookie defenseman Devon Toews. In seven games since being recalled from Bridgeport, he has two goals and an assist with an impressive plus-seven rating while averaging 17:40. He had a good training camp before an injury sidelined him. Look for the younger Toews to become a fixture on the Islander blueline.

Josh Ho-Sang was sent back down to Bridgeport. As usual, keep an eye on Casey Cizikas. He centers the effective fourth line in name only with party crashers Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. Brock Nelson is on a hot streak with six points (3-3-6) in his last five games. He’s 5-5-10 over 10. Rangers killer Anthony Beauvillier has no goals and three assists in his last eight. None of that matters when he plays the Rangers. His only career hat trick came against them on 11/15 when he went 3-1-4 to highlight the Islanders 7-5 home win.

More importantly, today marks the two-year anniversary of former NYPD detective Steven McDonald’s death. The Rangers will pay tribute to him. I’d imagine his family will be there for the big game. If they have an ounce of pride, they’ll win tonight.

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Game #42: A better effort not enough as Rangers lose fourth in a row to Golden Knights, 4-2

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Derek

The second half officially began the same way the first half ended. It’s not going to get any better. At least they competed tonight in Vegas. Unlike the past three losses with the previous two unwatchable, the Rangers gave a better effort against the Golden Knights. It wasn’t enough in a 4-2 defeat at T-Mobile Arena.

Alexandar Georgiev made his second straight start. He was okay finishing with 27 saves on 30 shots. The backup goalie didn’t have much chance on the three Vegas goals. Each came due to mistakes with two on breakaways, and the third on a power play. Goaltending is the least of their troubles. Though I’m sure Henrik Lundqvist didn’t mind getting an extra day off before the team returns home to host the Islanders. An opponent he never beats.

Tony DeAngelo returned to the lineup for a change. He replaced an ineffective Brendan Smith. The whole idea of having two extra D now that Adam McQuaid is healthy doesn’t make a lot of sense. But they want to give each veteran a chance to play with the trade deadline six weeks away. DeAngelo hasn’t played much lately, which doesn’t make sense. But it is what it is. This is the same organization owned by James Dolan, who actually thinks they can sneak into the playoffs due to Lundqvist. In related news, he also believes in the tooth fairy, and I believe in Peter Pan.

DeAngelo was pretty feisty throughout getting physically involved during the match. He took two minor penalties including boarding William Karlsson from behind during the second. He wasn’t pleased about something that I missed in the first. All I saw was him angrily go off to the locker room. So, the boarding penalty was a retaliation. For good measure, he lost it in a heated exchange with Max Pacioretty, earning a misconduct. It easily could’ve been a extra minor for roughing or unsportsmanlike conduct. The refs did him a favor giving an extra 10 minutes to cool off.

Unfortunately, one-time Blueshirt Brandon Pirri (remember him) made DeAngelo pay by depositing a Pacioretty rebound that beat Georgiev off the goalpost for a gimme that made it 2-0. Pacioretty took a good Nate Schmidt feed and blasted a one-timer past Georgiev off the far post. The puck took a favorable hop right to Pirri, who scored his seventh goal in just his eighth game. He’s gotten a opportunity to play due to both Reilly Smith and William Carrier being out with injuries. Smith is a top six forward and Carrier is a key part of their tough fourth line that includes Ryan Reaves. The Knights have a tough decision to make once Pirri reaches game number 10. He then has to clear waivers to be sent down.

While that’s a nice problem for Vegas to have, the Rangers have much more serious ones. Kevin Hayes missed his third consecutive game. The team went 0-3-0 on the road trip being outscored 15-3 by Colorado, Arizona and Vegas. Only the Knights look like a playoff lock with the one line Avalanche coming back to the pack due to starter Semyon Varlamov being out. Oh BTW. In their 7-4 loss at Winnipeg, former Rangers draft pick Ryan Graves scored his second goal on a wraparound. Funny. He never got a crack here last year, but already has one more goal than Kevin Shattenkirk. You really cannot make this stuff up!

In four straight losses, the Rangers have been outscored 22-5. Without Hayes, they’re much worse. What’s going to happen after Feb. 25 if they trade him? It’s really gonna be hard. Watching these games is a chore anyway. I’m letting my father go to the Islander game. Ironically, his buddy bought him a seat at the rematch in Brooklyn on Saturday. I bet that’ll be more fun than the World’s Most Shameless Arena. I actually look forward to hearing him tell stories about the atmosphere at Barclays Center for the rivalry. It might be the final time they play in Brooklyn.

Even though I didn’t watch last night’s game in entirety, I somehow managed to catch all six goals in between The Sopranos marathon on HBO. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Tony Soprano.

Cody Eakin got the Golden Knights on the board in the first when he got behind the defense and beat Georgiev on a mini break. Alex Tuch chipped a pass by Marc Staal to send Eakin in where he found enough wiggle room to score the game’s first goal on Georgiev. The forward backing up Staal was late.

At one point in the game, the Rangers had only nine shots. I chuckled along with my Dad about it. It’s basically turned into a bad comedy. They did come on the final part of the second. Following Pirri’s 10th goal in 10 games with the Golden Knights (over two seasons), they got a couple of good opportunities to score. Marc-Andre Fleury, who never loses at home, made two consecutive big saves on that golden sniper Cody McLeod. I wish I was making it up. First, he got behind the Vegas defense and took a Pavel Buchnevich feed and was stopped by Fleury in tight. Then, he got a breakaway and made the right move, but his forehand deke was denied by a sliding Fleury.

After those two stops, Mika Zibanejad centered for a pinching Staal one-timer that missed the net wide. A no no. Of course, it led to Jonathan Marchessault breaking out behind the D for a beautiful goal unassisted for a 3-0 lead. He made a perfect shot by going just over the right arm of Georgiev to the short side. It was his 14th. It’s hard to believe that the Panthers gave him and Smith away to protect current Oiler defenseman Alec Petrovic. What were they thinking? Probably the same thing both the Rangers and Blue Jackets were not giving Marchessault a chance.

Fleury has an amazing home record at T-Mobile Arena. He leads all goalies in home statistics. Tuesday night was his 15th victory in 21 starts. He entered 14-3-3 with a 2.04 GAA, .928 save percentage and five shutouts. It’s amazing how well he has played there. They’re an extremely tough team to beat there. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if they beat out the Flames and Sharks for the division.

In the third, there was this prior to Zibanejad breaking Fleury’s shutout.

Reaves is as tough as they come. McQuaid did well early before losing the decision on the knockdown. Reaves also has eight goals. That’s one more than Buchnevich. No wonder he found himself on the fourth line. More of a playmaker, he doesn’t shoot the puck enough. It’s probably why he’s not getting rewarded by David Quinn. Quinn rewards guys who bring it every shift such as Vladislav Namestnikov. He was emotionally involved throughout, giving and taking against a few Knights. His production isn’t there, but the kind of yeoman effort he brings is what Quinn’s looking for. It could wind up resulting in a trade to a contender.

Mats Zuccarello recently admitted to Post scribe Larry Brooks that he hasn’t been the same player due to all the scrutiny about his future. He knows it’s coming to an end on Broadway. He’s loved being a Ranger. So, I understand why it would be hard for him to focus. However, he didn’t make any excuses for his disappointing play. He blamed himself.

Zuccarello was better in this game. He worked hard during his shifts and got moved up to the top line with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. That hard work paid off when he was directly involved in Zibanejad’s goal that came with 8:17 left. A nice passing play started by Kreider resulted in Zuccarello getting the puck across to an open Zibanejad on the doorstep for his 12th goal. That ended a nine-game drought for Zibanejad, whose plus/minus has suffered lately. He’s minus-six during the four-game losing streak.

The Blueshirts nearly made it a one goal deficit. But Fleury robbed Boo Nieves on a good backhand. The rebound was cleared away. Eventually, the Knights got a empty netter from Ryan Carpenter with 80 seconds remaining. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare dug a loose puck out of the corner and centered for a Carpenter one-timer into a vacated net for 4-1.

To their credit, the Rangers didn’t give up. A hard working shift by Nieves and Jimmy Vesey allowed Jesper Fast to get his sixth on a rebound with 23 seconds left. That was it.

BONY 3 STARS:

3rd 🌟 Brandon Pirri, VGK (power play goal for 7th of season in 8 games)

2nd 🌟 Marc-Andre Fleury, VGK (27 saves including 12 of 14 in 3rd)

1st 🌟 Jonathan Marchessault, VGK (breakaway goal for 14th for game-winner)

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Game #42: Terrible Tuesday – Sabres 5, Devils 1

Posted on January 8, 2019 by hasan4978

I could almost picture coach John Hynes pulling a Gordon Bombay and castigating his team after their latest wonderful performance in Buffalo, who was missing one of their top forwards in Jack Eichel. ‘You want to lose? Fine, you’re the ones that look like idiots out there!’

Mercifully, I didn’t watch this game. I almost forgot it was on at one point although I was checking the score on Twitter through the first period, saw it was 1-0 and thought maybe they’d be able to pull one out here. Then I went underground reading a book and have other things on my mind anyway so I completely forgot about the game till I checked my phone and my buddy Rudy simply texted…Kinkaid LOL

Yeah I knew it was bad after that, and rolled my eyes when I saw 5-1 late in the third period. While I do like some of the things about the ‘new era’ in Devils hockey I loathe the utter lack of accountability after games like this. There’s no exec, coach or player that’s going to consistently hold feet to the fire for subpar efforts. Especially after Ray Shero clearly sought to dial down expectations a few weeks ago, in the wake of a multi-year extension for coach Hynes. I like them both personally and/or professionally but it’s hard to continue to have blind faith in (ahem) the process after nights like this keep piling up.

Part of the reason I avoided tonight’s game is I won’t be able to avoid the expected bloodletting on Thursday, going with my friend because of the ’80’s night promo. I was trying to talk another friend into going to ’90’s promo night next month but there aren’t too many other games that either I actually want to go to or anyone else will. I even sold my Flyers tickets this weekend (and thankfully also my Blackhawks tickets on Monday to my friend’s friend who’s a Blackhawk fan), an unthinkable occurrence in a normal season but with three months to go might as well recoup some money on the few meaningless games I still can.

Yes that probably includes the Ranger game at the end of the month too, though even if I hadn’t been inclined to sell I might have been too busy to go on a Thursday regardless. Only difference is in a normal season I might go out of my way to try to sell tickets to Devils fans online or off the Internet, but I could give a crap now. If a Ranger fan wants to pay big money to see arguably the two worst teams in the East right now, have at it.

Maybe it won’t be so bad once Mackenzie Blackwood comes back. While Keith Kinkaid made his second straight ineffective start while Blackwood’s on the mend at least he’s skating now, so there’s that. Not that I expect Blackwood to keep throwing shutouts if this is the kind of effort they’re going to put up in front of him. Looking at the 33-21 shot difference tells me the Sabres must have put it on cruise control during that five-goal second period.

Sadly I’m already starting the countdown to the lottery…40 games left.

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Game #41: The dead of winter for Rangers in ugly 5-0 loss to howling Coyotes

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Derek

Let’s face facts. This season is quickly becoming exactly what was anticipated. How low can they go? The Rangers have been so bad that I cannot even watch without it becoming cringe worthy. I was already distracted by a very good World Junior Championship won by Finland in a wild finish over Team USA on Saturday night by a score of 3-2. The Finns deserved the gold medal after outplaying our country until a stirring comeback. But Kaapo Kakko scored the winner with 1:26 left in regulation to give Suomi the gold.

If you want to read about a great game played in Vancouver, please click on the link above. You won’t be disappointed. Even though USA lost in excruciating fashion, it was still fun to recap. It truly is a great tournament that gives hockey fans the very best of today’s young players, who could become tomorrow’s stars. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for the Americans to get an elusive fifth gold medal. Finland was better when it counted. Kudos to them. Don’t forget Kakko is vying for the top overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft. Jack Hughes (4 assists in 4 games) had a good tournament, but a injury kept him out of three preliminary matches. He nearly was the hero following Josh Norris tying the game from Sasha Chmelevski.

Sometimes, it doesn’t always go your way. Speaking of which, the Rangers’ latest loss was awful, embarrassing, humiliating and ugly all rolled into one. After getting shellacked in Colorado 6-1 with poor Alexandar Georgiev in for the whole game, they decided to play even worse in a 5-0 shutout defeat to the world-beater Coyotes. I kid because you cannot make this stuff up. Embattled coach David Quinn decided to give Henrik Lundqvist the start against journeyman Darcy Kuemper. In the past, we would’ve laughed our asses off at the match-up. Not anymore. These days, it doesn’t seem to matter who Lundqvist goes against. It’s no laughing matter.

How bad was this afternoon game that was scheduled against what turned out to be the best wildcard game of the weekend between the annoying Eagles and heartbroken Bears? On a scale of 1-10, I’d put our game at a minus-six. In football weather terms, that would be six below zero. In hockey terms, a minus-six refers to plus/minus rating. Were there any positives? Not when you get embarrassed by the mediocre Coyotes. They got shutout by five goals and the shots were 40-23. That included a lopsided margin of 33-14 the first two mindless periods when they watched Lundqvist give up all five goals on 32 shots. Georgiev replaced him before the second period was out.

I have no idea how Lundqvist is handling all these losses. Fact is on March 2, he will turn 37. After standing on his head in wins over Nashville and St. Louis stopping a ridiculous 73 of 77 shots to close out the 2018 calendar year, he’s been pelted for an ungodly 11 goals on 50 shots in blowout losses to Pittsburgh and Arizona. He didn’t last the entirety in either start. I’m not gonna bother doing the math on what it did to his GAA and save percentage.

At one point, his goals-against-average was around 2.51 and the save percentage was about .918. Now, he has a GAA over 3.00 and a save percentage under .910. Of course, he has no shutouts. Something that’s become a Ranger trademark when he starts. Long gone are the days when Lundqvist could post five to six shutouts a season. How bad has it become? Try four total shutouts since the start of ’16-17 over a combined 147 starts.

If you are him, why even stick around? It’s a unmitigated disaster. In the last three losses, the Rangers have been outscored 18-3. At least they competed against the Penguins despite the all too predictable lopsided 7-2 final score. The past two games have been unfathomable. Here’s how bad, sad and mad it’s become. By the time I put yesterday’s game on after watching the end of a weird Chargers win over the Ravens, it was 1-0 Arizona. As soon as I channel flipped, Brady Skjei and Kevin Shattenkirk fumbled the puck around and let Mario Lemieux Kempe score to make it 2-0. I immediately switched to Hasan’s Devils to see how they were doing in Vegas. I saw the hilarious goal by Ben “Coffey” Lovejoy that put them up 2-0. They lost after I tuned out.

I didn’t watch the rest of the first period of the game. My brother has the MSG Go App. He put it on just in time for yet another Coyotes goal. This time it was mere mortal Conor Garland, who got his second of the game. I had never heard of him until the other day when he scored against the Devils in Arizona’s shootout loss to Kyle Palmieri and Drew Stafford. Now, he’s a household name when he faces the awful Hudson rivals. Three of his five goals have come against both.

Trailing by three, Neal Pionk decided to fight Josh Archibald. Or maybe it was the other way around. Pionk received an extra minor for cross-checking Archibald. Archibald is a tough customer. I haven’t even looked at the scrap until now.

He didn’t do too badly. At least he cares. It’s really a sad situation with the blueline. Shattenkirk has been a disaster. Brendan Smith is no better. The sooner these two are gone, the better off this team will be for the future. No disrespect to either. I know they’re giving a honest effort. But neither fit into the team’s plans. So, if they have to pick up part of Shattenkirk’s remainder of his deal that doesn’t expire until 2021, so be it. It’s a tough cap hit of $6.65 million with another $10 million owed once this season is over. We’re only at the halfway point. Smith’s AAV is $4.35 million with over $9 million owed thru 2021. Maybe they’re showcasing both. It doesn’t make sense to keep scratching Fredrik Claesson, who’s been one of their most effective D along with the more movable Marc Staal. Adam McQuaid is also tradable.

At some point, they have to move a couple of these vets and give John Gilmour (10 goals with Hartford) another look. He can’t be any worse. I don’t want to rush either Libor Hajek or Ryan Lindgren. Neither are ready. I wouldn’t mind seeing soon to be 22-year old Brandon Crawley. But all this is just a guessing game.

By the time the second concluded, the Coyotes had added two more goals off the sticks of Clayton Keller (only his ninth) and Alex Galchenyuk (1-2-3) to chase Lundqvist. Georgiev made eight saves the rest of the way.

I want to leave this response by Chris Kreider on what part of the problem is. It’s very telling.

That’s your next captain.

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Game #41: Sad-sack Sunday – Vegas 3, Devils 2

Posted on January 6, 2019 by hasan4978
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1082060148749885441

Ironically as the season lurches further and further into irrelevance there’s less and less to say after each game. What’s to say after a game like this? Still no Taylor Hall, no Marcus Johansson and now no Mackenzie Blackwood spelled doom against a solid Vegas team on the road. Even after getting a 2-0 lead with the Golden Knights playing Malcolm Subban. You just knew no lead was safe with this defense and anyone other than Blackwood in net, and sure enough before the end of the second period Vegas caught and passed us in predictable fashion, with more bad goaltending, bad defense and bad turnovers.

To be fair the defense wasn’t really that bad today, only giving up 28 shots to Vegas. Usually it’s more like 45. However, for the second straight game Pavel Zacha had a horrendous turnover lead directly to a goal, and Keith Kinkaid gave up at least two stoppable-bad goals. Last year’s Spring heroics seem a long way away now. Then again, Kinkaid was bad last year before February so it’s not like he was ever going to be any sure thing to replicate his February-April success. While for Zacha, he darn well better cut out the defensive errors since his offense still leaves a lot to be desired.

Maybe it serves me right for getting a chuckle over Subban’s second goal allowed in the first period when BEN LOVEJOY of all people faked him out in front with a shimmy and turnaround goal, which gave the Devils a 2-0 lead after an early marker from Nico Hischier. I remarked it was nice to see bad goaltending from a non-Devil goalie from a chance. Too bad it wouldn’t last, as Subban made 36 saves and shut us down late – especially during what was basically a three-minute power play to end the game including 6-on-4 time with the net empty. Kinkaid for his part did not step up and get a game that was there for the taking.

Even before this afternoon I was a little disillusioned when I saw the standings and the fact we were ten points out from our nearest playoff competitors and would have to pass two of Buffalo, Montreal, Columbus and a hot Isles team. I said 2-1-1 was a bare minimum from this trip, now they won’t even achieve that. Our last road game happens to be at Buffalo, if there’s any hope left of making a pre-All Star break run it has to begin with a regulation win against one of the playoff bubble teams.

It sucks when games become irrelevant in January. We’ve had that feeling far too often this decade, and Derek’s getting that feeling again this season after a number of years of the Rangers being competitive. This is the first year I can remember being agnostic about the Ranger scores, in part cause they were expected to be bad anyway and also because we’ve been so bad ourselves. I didn’t even realize how bad things have gotten over there till my friend’s been texting me updates of their scores in recent games.

Of course we have more than enough problems of our own right now. With only four home games before the All-Star break I don’t have much worrying to do with tickets until the end of January but then it’ll be interesting to see how many games I can sell and for what. Thank goodness for the eight-game ticket buyback (for credit you get towards next season’s season tickets), I’ll probably wind up using all those games in February and March, assuming they don’t jack up the price of season tickets to where I consider not renewing.

I’m going with one friend to the Toronto game on Thursday mainly cause of the promo, another friend who’s a Blackhawks fan is buying my tickets from me Monday (thank god), and I’m even debating punting out (selling) the Flyer afternoon game on Saturday. Yeah it’s a great rivalry and will probably be a good game in a vaccum but what’s the point with two teams going nowhere? I wasn’t even all that upset with today’s game. I’ve passed the point of acceptance apparently. Plus I have other things on my mind at the moment which aren’t worth getting into.

Sure there’ll be things to watch in the second half – maybe Kyle Palmieri pushes for 40 goals, Nico continues to improve and other young players like Blackwood make even more of a mark. Sadly the biggest points of suspense left is what we wind up getting for rentals like Johansson, Lovejoy and Brian Boyle at the deadline, and where we wind up in the draft lottery after the dust settles.

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Game #40: Frenzied Friday – Devils 3, Coyotes 2 (SO)

Posted on January 5, 2019 by hasan4978

After getting less than four hours of sleep Thursday in the middle of a stressful weekend, I wasn’t even thinking of watching the Devils’ game in Arizona Friday. Particularly after their horrendous loss in Dallas two nights ago. So I wound up sleeping through the early part of the night but actually woke up in time for the replay on MSG+ or whatever they’re calling it now. I did see the final result before but figured I’d at least watch the superextended highlight version.

Essentially that’s what a late-night game replay is, they show the periods of the game where goals are scored and the most intense action (late third, OT/SO) and cut out parts of the early game that aren’t as action-packed. I did get at least a feel for the action, seemed like a bit of a weird game or as eventual SO hero Drew Stafford described it, a ‘greasy’ game. I do like Stafford but giving him the first star based on a game where he played just over nine minutes and only scored in the shootout is just normalizing the shootout as a ‘GW goal’ a bit too much for me, but whatever. After a rare road win it’s a good problem to have.

I was actually a bit surprised the refs and Toronto gave Nico Hischier a goal in the first minute plus of the game – granted, he earned it with a nice finish off a Kyle Palmieri feed but a sliding attempt by Clayton Keller to block the pass had already dislodged the net and resulted in no goal called on the ice. Correctly, the refs ruled it didn’t impact the play (and indeed arguably was a nonintentional intentional dislodging of the net caused by Keller), and gave birthday boy Hischier a goal.

Things went from good to shaky to bad though when an extended five-on-three saw Mackenzie Blackwood make some brilliant saves but one too many split stretches during that sequence resulted in what apparently looked like a slightly pulled/tight groin (fellow goalie Keith Kinkaid admitted as much in a postgame interview). Blackwood did stay in the game for several minutes after that but eventually gave way to Kinkaid, who as things have gone this season gave up a goal on his first shot although ‘credit’ for the goal should go to Pavel Zacha for a dreadful turnover in front of his own net.

For once, the D and non-Blackwood goaltending actually held up for the most part in a game where they outshot the Coyotes 35-25 despite that extended five-on-three (despite Travis Zajac and Blake Coleman both being in the box during it!), and Brian Boyle’s double-minor in the third period that our vaunted PK unit shut down. I say for the most part because a blocked shot led to a fatal two-on-one for the Coyotes in the middle of the period. While defenseman Ben Lovejoy actually did what he was supposed to and took the pass away while not overcommitting early, Kinkaid allowed a shortside dart by Christian Fischier to get past him to give Arizona a 2-1 lead.

It was Zajac and Coleman who got the Devils back on equal footing late in the period, keeping their poise on a broken play in front with Zajac getting the puck through a defender to Coleman who basically redirected it under Darcy Kuemper to tie the game. While I didn’t realize this while watching the replay initially, apparently during the second period the refs did disallow a goal by the immortal Blake Pietila with a (possibly quick?) whistle and we could have won the game in regulation instead of just being tied. Oh well…we might have blown it if we had to protect a third period lead anyway.

With the game tied, the Devils killed off the aformentioned four-minute PK but otherwise controlled the action late. Even in the dreaded OT the Devils were for once the better team, but of course couldn’t convert despite Nico being on the doorstep after some lovely work from fellow soph Jesper Bratt to get him the puck. Although the shootout has seldom been kind to us, at least we had SO specialist Stafford in the lineup, along with leading goalscorer Kyle Palmieri who’s improved at the skills competition the last couple years. Both scored while Kinkaid only had to make a pair of saves to seal the win. Kinkaid’s exaggerated can’t look reaction during Stafford’s winner said it all about how big a win it was for the team. Although they’re still far out of a playoff spot – essentially they’re 10 points behind and have to pass two of Buffalo, Montreal, the Isles and Columbus to get back in a playoff position – any extended run was going to have to start with at least a couple of wins on this trip.

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Game #40: Undisciplined Rangers get Avalanched 6-1

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Derek

With one eye on what amounted to a Finland 6-1 blowout over Switzerland in the World Junior Championship semifinals, I kept flipping back and forth between our team’s latest disaster and the poor Swiss. At least those kids will play Russia for the bronze later today before the gold medal game tonight between Finland and Team USA. I’m sure the Swiss led by leading goalscorer Philipp Kurashev (Blackhawks) will give it everything.

I just am not as certain what we’ll get the rest of the way from the Rangers, who ran into a Avalanche in a uncompetitive 6-1 loss in the rocky mountains. Prior to the game, Kevin Hayes got sick with coach David Quinn indicating the altitude and cold temperatures might have had something to do with it. At that point, my reaction was, “Oh well.” I knew what was coming.

Colorado didn’t wait until the second period like the Penguins did. They scored twice on a Cody McLeod boarding major penalty. He got defenseman Samuel Girard in the back of the numbers as the Avalanche blueliner turned to play the puck. The end result made it look much worse.

The Rangers penalty kill wasn’t able to bail McLeod out. After killing off the first two minutes, they gave up power play goals to Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. MacKinnon scored his 25th from Tyson Barrie and Gabriel Landeskog when he used a Ranger as a screen for a great wrist shot past Alexandar Georgiev. Poor Georgiev deserved a better fate than the six goals he allowed on a ridiculous 47 shots. Eighteen of which were down a man due to a unbelievable amount of undisciplined penalties. The Avalanche lived in the power play going 3-for-10.

It’s kinda pathetic when you can’t stay out of the penalty box. The Rangers never gave themselves a chance. Especially against the world class skill the Avalanche present. Normally, our players do a better job in front of Georgiev. Not on Friday night. He made 41 saves and played well despite a barrage of shots. It was a huge discrepancy the first two periods. Colorado held a 16-3 edge in shots in the first with goals from MacKinnon and Rantanen having them up by two. It could’ve been much worse. So many bad penalties were taken. That included Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider.

Astonishingly, Colorado’s only goal in the second came at even strength when Landeskog had a Erik Johnson one-timer deflect off him past a helpless Georgiev for a 3-0 lead. Even though they were a little better getting seven shots on Philipp Grubauer, they were outshot 17-7 for a two period total of 33-10. The worst aspect is every time I turned it on, Colorado scored. Talk about bad timing.

Quinn spoke about how his team didn’t quit. That is sadly true. They wound up with more shots (15) in the third than the first two periods. Ryan Strome also scored their only goal when he converted his fifth unassisted on a clean breakaway. However, Colorado was leading 5-0 by that point. Alex Kerfoot redirected a J.T. Compher shot to make it 4-zip. Then following a foolish cross-checking minor Kreider took on MacKinnon, Rantanen tipped home the Avs’ third PPG for his 19th from Barrie and MacKinnon.

The only goal I didn’t see was the all too predictable first and probably only goal from former Ranger Ryan Graves. Graves never even got into a game last year before the organization dealt him to Colorado for nobody Chris Bigras. Who? Exactly.

Nice assist by Zuccarello below. He stinks at five-on-five. It’s sad to watch him. They’ll be lucky if they get a third round pick at this point. He’s clearly not into it and some of his play at even strength shows.

Graves certainly had plenty of reasons to celebrate and smile. He’s now played in five more games than he ever played in New York. Good for him.

It was a night of milestones for the home team with Graves getting his first NHL point (goal) and Barrie (3 assists) passing John-Michael Liles for the most points (278) by an Avalanche defenseman.

For the Rangers, the game wasn’t fun. Filip Chytil replaced Hayes at center on the second line. Due to all the penalties, he only played 12:23 with four shots, and went 5-for-9 on draws. The only part I liked was seeing Vladislav Namestnikov mix it up with Rantanen in front of the benches. I wish more of our guys played with his passion every shift.

No three stars. There’s no point. At least first round pick Vitali Kravtsov has looked good in the WJC. He had eight shots in Russia’s 2-1 loss to USA. A nail biter of a semifinal between classic rivals. We’ll see if the Americans can deliver a fifth gold medal Saturday night starting at 8 EST/5 local time in Vancouver. Tune in on NHL Network.

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BREAKING: Devil coach Hynes signs contract extension

Posted on January 3, 2019 by hasan4978
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1080858856643874817

This season I’ve been sticking to game recaps/reviews but had to interrupt the normally scheduled programming for a breaking news update of moderate importance. Of all things, I found out about coach John Hynes’ extension while listening to WFAN during the 11 AM update, host Evan Roberts made mention of Devil news and I was worried it had to do with either Taylor Hall’s injury or an update on Andy Greene who also left last night’s game due to injury. When I heard in fact it was an extension for Hynes, I was…bemused to a degree.

I haven’t been as anti-Hynes as a lot of Devil fans this season and still like and respect the man personally, but to be honest last night’s game really soured me a lot on the current staff including the head coach. When you have veteran defensemen continually making rookie mistakes, they’re either not getting taught anything or the system is just horribly wrong. I never figured he was getting fired in-season, mainly because the win-now urgency clearly isn’t there from the organization. Not to mention there really wasn’t anyone on the staff worthy of even being an interim in-season replacement. And as I’ve said before Joel Quenneville was a pipedream, no GM is going to hire a high-wattage head coach and pay him more money/give him more control and clearly Shero has prerogative in hiring and firing coaches unlike some organizations (cough Philly cough).

I wasn’t neccesarily expecting an in-season extension either but it probably isn’t a real surprise given his contract was likely up at the end of the year (he was hired four years ago and hadn’t been extended before so this was likely an option year or his last year on his initial contract). With word coming out it was a multi-year extension, it’s safe to say Hynes is now under contract at least through the end of 2020-21. You can argue whether or not Hynes’ ills and the team’s step back this year was because of goaltending, or decisions made above him with GM Ray Shero’s quiet offseason. If there is a good thing about this extension it’s that Shero didn’t scapegoat Hynes for his own failings toward making the team better this season compared to last year.

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Game #39 Penguins blow out Rangers 7-2

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Derek

When I saw this game on the schedule, I knew what to expect. The Penguins have been red hot lately. Even the two consecutive road wins the Rangers had over the Predators and Blues to end last year, didn’t mean anything. They were out played by the Blues badly with only Henrik Lundqvist bailing them out for a 2-1 win.

When you face an explosive rival such as the Pens, you’re not gonna get away with it. Sadly, the Rangers played the Penguins on even terms through a scoreless first period. The roof caved in literally in the second period. They were outscored 4-1 by the Pittsburgh machine. As I was taking in the wild conclusion of Finland stunning Canada 2-1 in the World Junior Championship quarters, I kept getting text updates with Pittsburgh goals. They came in with rapid fire over the final two periods- turning a competitive game into a 7-2 blowout over the Rangers at MSG on national TV.

Why the executives at NBCSN thought it was a good idea to show our team against the Pens is inexplicable. I guess it’s similar to NHL Network not at least providing a scoring update of Finland’s dramatic overtime win over Canada during the second period of USA’s 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Czech Republic.

On a day they revealed that Henrik Lundqvist would represent our team at the All-Star Game in the four division format, he had what he claimed was his “worst game.” It wasn’t all his fault. These things happen. It didn’t take long for the Rangers to implode in the second period. Consecutive goals from Zach Aston-Reese and Jake Guentzel (off Marc Staal) made it 2-0. A dreadful turnover at the Rangers blueline allowed Kris Letang to score his ninth unassisted with a clear path shot by Lundqvist over a minute later.

Ryan Strome temporarily stopped the Pens’ momentum with a neat deflection of a Brady Skjei point shot 26 seconds later to make it 3-1. But that was short-lived. Less than three minutes later, Dominik Simon finished off his fifth from Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist for a 4-1 Pittsburgh lead.

There were so many blown assignments in last night’s forgettable game. Even the normally reliable Kevin Hayes was late picking up Simon on his goal. Staal was on for two goals against with partner Neal Pionk. Though the Guentzel tally was unlucky due to Staal doing his job covering Bryan Rust, only to have the puck go off his stick and in.

That’s what happens when you lose badly. It wasn’t their night. I couldn’t understand why Lundqvist was left in for the start of the third. Interestingly, he took most of the blame for the six goals he let in on 18 shots, indicating the the team didn’t play that badly. They led in shots 24-15 after two periods. However, coach David Quinn took him off the hook by blaming himself for keeping Lundqvist in. He even went as far as to say he shouldn’t have played him due to all the saves he made the previous two games. That kind of accountability from both coach and star player is commendable.

Unfortunately, Lundqvist was victimized for two more before giving way to backup Alexandar Georgiev (6 saves on 7 shots). He had Malkin bang into him after his weird shot went by him to make it 5-1 just 63 seconds into the third. Even though Pavel Buchnevich got it back with his seventh only 19 seconds later on a rebound of a Fredrik Claesson shot, the nightmare wasn’t over. Tanner Pearson ended Lundqvist’s night with a power play goal from Letang and Guentzel at 4:40. It was a unscreened shot that whizzed by our poor goalie. Yikes.

Sidney Crosby closed out the scoring by beating three guys to a spot for a rebound past Georgiev for his 19th. It was bad. Much earlier in the contest when it was scoreless, he slew footed Jesper Fast for a tripping minor and complained about it. I don’t get why.

Filip Chytil returned and was minus-two with three shots. Jimmy Vesey was a healthy scratch along with Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Smith.

The Rangers will burn the DVD of this one. They now hit the road. Colorado is up first on Saturday. The same night as the gold medal game in Vancouver. I think you know which one I’ll be watching. Some of our prospects could be playing in the championship game. Vitali Kravtsov has been a standout player for Russia, who posted a blowout win over Slovakia to set up a must see semifinal against USA tomorrow. The other semifinal is surprising Switzerland, who upset Sweden 2-0, against Finland.

Tune into NHL Network for both games.

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