Battle Of Hudson covers the Rangers and Devils, who's intense rivalry heated up in the 90's. With fresh faces added, they battle for supremacy in NYC and NJ..
When the New York Rangers were eliminated by the New Jersey Devils in the first round last year, the hammer dropped on coach Gerard Gallant for the disappointing seven-game series defeat.
Enough established players voiced their displeasure over the coach, which led to Gallant’s dismissal after two successful seasons. The first one included a run to the Eastern Conference Final when they lost to the Lightning. It was a winnable series. Similar to them blowing a 2-0 series lead against the Devils in 2022-23.
Even if you didn’t care for how Gallant ran the bench, he won plenty of games as Rangers coach. A combined 99-46-19 record translated to a .662 winning percentage. It was the way in which the Rangers lost to the Devils that stung. After taking the first two games in Newark, they lost four of the last five to lose in excruciating fashion. It didn’t help that they were uncompetitive in a forgettable 4-0 loss in Game 7 to end last season.
A lack of adjustments hurt Gallant’s case. It was similar to what happened against the Lightning the prior spring. He got out-coached by Jon Cooper, who made the necessary adjustments that helped his championship experienced team come back to take the series in six games. The Rangers also led two games to none before the Lightning stormed back to win four straight.
When expectations increase as they had last season, the pressure mounts. The Rangers decided to go all in by adding Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. While Tarasenko had some good moments, a hobbled Kane struggled due to a bad hip that needed surgery last off-season. He’s resurfaced in Detroit, showing that he still has some magic left.
Unlike 2021-22, when Rangers Team President and GM Chris Drury acquired Frank Vatrano and Andrew Copp to fit into the top two lines, the big stars weren’t perfect fits. You could still argue that a banged up Kane was one of the best Rangers versus the Devils in last year’s first round series. If only Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad showed up consistently. They weren’t the only Blueshirts who had a bad series. But they’re the top two forwards they have.
Fast forward to this season. Under new coach Peter Laviolette, the Rangers started out on fire. Led by a determined Panarin, who remains one of the game’s most dynamic scorers, the team vaulted to the top of the standings, even leading the league at one point. With Vincent Trocheck putting in a terrific season and Alexis Lafreniere meshing with Panarin, who’s scoring with regularity, they’ve carried the Rangers to first place in the Metropolitan Division.
However, there are issues that have crept up. They aren’t the same team. For over a month, they’ve struggled with consistency. The once solid defensive structure they had under Laviolette has disappeared. With both Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, who scored his 21st for the team’s only goal in an ugly 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings last night – struggling to contribute at five-on-five, scoring has dried up. Adding Kaapo Kakko to the first line helps with puck possession and forechecking. He scored a goal and has had some other chances since returning on Jan. 14.
The problem is that there isn’t much else. The bottom six forwards aren’t scoring enough to help the offense. On Saturday night, Laviolette gave veteran Nick Bonino a game off to get Tyler Pitlick back into the lineup. He played on the checking line with Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey. Of the three, Vesey is a scoring threat. However, they haven’t gone in for a while. Entering tonight’s match versus the Anaheim Ducks, he’s gone eight games without a goal. Vesey had eight in 43 contests.
Rookie Will Cuylle continues to play on the third line. His honest style includes supplying some much needed physicality to a roster that lacks it. He leads the Blueshirts with 120 hits, which also tops all rookies this season. Cuylle has been without a goal since Dec. 29. He has seven in 45 games. He played with Jonny Brodzinski and Blake Wheeler on Saturday night. Wheeler isn’t the same player he used to be in Winnipeg. He can still add something playing a secondary role. But his skating remains an issue.
Despite dropping their sixth game over the last eight, the Rangers remain in first place in the Metropolitan Division with a 28-15-2 record. Their 58 points are two better than the Philadelphia Flyers and three up on the Carolina Hurricanes. They hold the first tiebreaker with 23 regulation wins. The Flyers only have 17 while the Hurricanes have 20. With the All-Star break approaching, there’s still a lot of games remaining. It’ll be interesting to see how the race unfolds.
When you look at the Rangers, they have enough core players who should understand what it takes to be successful. Kreider has been here the longest. He has been part of some really good teams that were close to winning the Stanley Cup. None more heartbreaking than 2013-14 when they fell to the Kings and Jonathan Quick a decade ago. Now, Quick plays for the Rangers and keeps them in games like last night when most of the team played uninspired against an offensively inept Kings, who got a gift from the perplexing K’Andre Miller late in the second period for the game-winner. Miller’s misadventures are becoming increasingly frustrating. He handed Quenton Byfield a goal you or I could’ve scored.
Miller is part of that core. He’s played long enough to know what he can and can’t do. You wouldn’t know it by some of the glaring mistakes he continues to make. Miller is good at assessing his play, even admitting that he took a mental break away from the team recently. At times, he can make the right plays that excite the same fans who are at their wit’s end with him. It’s imperative that he get back to playing the way he did for most of the first half. His work with Jacob Trouba remains the key to the defense. They get most of the tough assignments.
Adam Fox has been producing. He’s the offensive leader of the blue line. Teamed with rugged warrior Ryan Lindgren, who will do virtually anything to help the Rangers win, they are a reliable pair. Fox’s play has slipped defensively since returning from an upper-body injury he suffered on Nov. 2. He might be playing banged up. Lindgren always does due to absorbing some heavy hits and blocking shots.
In what’s been an inconsistent third year, Braden Schneider has been up and down. There are moments when he makes a good play that helps the cause. Then, there are times when he loses his man, such as on Kevin Fiala’s first goal for the Kings on Jan. 20. Even playing without Erik Gustafsson, that isn’t an excuse for leaving Fiala wide open to bury a Trevor Moore feed in front. A play Zac Jones did nothing wrong on. Jones doesn’t play often. But he hustled back defensively to stop a breakaway with a clean stick lift. Schneider has to avoid some of the penalties he takes. He’s still learning.
Igor Shesterkin has not been himself this season. Whether it’s the defense or not, the former 2022 Vezina winner has too many games when he’s allowing questionable goals. He still shows flashes of brilliance. But he has yet to rediscover the form that made him one of the game’s elite goalies. He’s 28 and supposed to be in his prime. The Rangers desperately need Shesterkin to raise his level if they want to seriously compete.
When it comes down to it, the Rangers’ core is on its third coach in four years. They had David Quinn from 2018-19 until 2020-21. He was tougher than Gallant, who was more hands-off like Alain Vigneault. That was part of the reason he was let go. The players indicated that they wanted a more hands-on coach who would be honest with them. Laviolette is certainly that. Just from watching his postgame interviews, he pulls no punches. He is much more honest in his assessment than Gallant.
The Rangers are still trying to win with Zibanejad as their number one center. He hasn’t had a consistent season. Always a streaky player, Zibanejad can get hot and score goals during stretches. The Rangers are still waiting for him to go on a tear. The five-on-five issues between him and Kreider, who’s on pace for 40 goals, remain. They haven’t been as effective on the cycle. Both are dangerous in transition. That’s how Kakko got his third goal in a 5-2 home win over the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 16. Kreider moved the puck up for Zibanejad, who then made a nice backhand pass that Kakko buried.
Forechecking remains an area the Rangers must improve. It can’t always come from Panarin, Trocheck, and Lafreniere, who was robbed late by Kings backup goalie David Rittich of a tying goal. If he buried half the chances he’s had, Lafreniere would have at least 20 goals instead of the 11 he brings into Anaheim.
The lack of defense is a big concern. It isn’t only about the defensemen. The forwards aren’t coming back consistently like they had been earlier in the season. They know better.
By now, opponents know that if they can shut down the Panarin line and limit the Rangers’ top power play, they have a good chance of winning. Unless Zibanejad and Kreider pick it up at even strength, the Rangers are too reliant on Panarin and Trocheck, who’s been their MVP due to what he brings. The impact on faceoffs is a big reason for the team’s improvement.
Even with Filip Chytil continuing to skate on his own back home in Czechia, there’s no way of knowing if or when he can return. Concussions are tricky because they’re the unknown. He must get medically cleared before playing again. If he takes another hit, that could be his career. What about his livelihood? Is it worth the risk? It’s his decision.
Obviously, if Chytil came back, that would help solve the secondary scoring issues. He could slot in on the third line and upgrade the top nine. That would then allow Laviolette to have better choices for the fourth line, including Bonino, who’s been miscast on the third line.
The Rangers still need another rugged forward who can also add some scoring to a stale roster that lacks enough grit if they get into a physical series. Blake Coleman has those qualities. But his cap hit ($4.9 million) is too much. He certainly has performed well for the mediocre Calgary Flames. Coleman teamed with Goodrow to win consecutive Cups in Tampa. They comprised that superb third line with Yanni Gourde.
Whatever the organization decides between now and the Mar. 8 trade deadline, it’ll still come down to a core that’s already gone through two coaches. The same problems are still boiling to the surface under Laviolette, who preaches team discipline along with a structured system.
At some point, you have to point the finger at the players. The window for this group is running out. If they fizzle out in the first round again following a promising start, it could be time for management to consider breaking it up. Hopefully, it doesn’t reach that point.
For a change, I’m going to start with the good stuff before I get to the bad – of which there was plenty of last night – and that is the induction of Devils icon Sergei Brylin into the still relatively new Ring of Honor. Brylin is the first Devils player and only the second person after original owner John McMullen to be given this kind of recognition. Others will surely follow down the road – our three Cup-winning coaches, Lou Lamoriello and several other players surely deserve to be honored but for now, Brylin’s a nice first step toward giving some other icons and championship Devils well-deserved recognition.
Particularly since Brylin was the only three-time Cup winner for the Devils who didn’t have his number retired (and has coached in the organization for much of his post-playing career), it’s probably all the more fitting he’s the first player who had this type of ceremony. I’m not going to pretend I was the biggest Brylin fan while he was playing, he never had the most outgoing personality, big offensive stats or the crunching hits of a Scott Stevens but you always had to respect him. While he’s not a foundation piece or a gaudy decoration, he was definitely a glue guy, someone who would do a job on any line and in any position in the lineup. Those type of players are essential to Cup teams, even if they’re not the first guy fans will buy a jersey of, or even the fifth.
It is unfortunate that he last played for the Devils in 2008 so you have a whole generation of fans who maybe casually know him as a coach in Albany/Utica and now here but never really saw him as a player. For someone who’s not all that comfortable in the spotlight, Brylin did more than fine with his speech. Unfortunately, Brylin was the last Devil who did anywhere close to fine on the ice tonight, and now I can get to the evisceration.
Before that though, a personal note – apologies if anyone lurks on this blog waiting for my comments on the Devils, I just haven’t been feeling the urge to even watch this team anywhere close to day in and day out, let alone write a blog on it. From early on this season, I just haven’t had a good feeling about this group. Whether overconfidence set in after last year and a dominant preseason, or bad coaching and goaltending have poisoned the well to a degree where everyone either stinks or just gives effort on an intermittent basis, this just…isn’t a very likeable team right now. You can rightly say two years ago we would have killed to just have a frustrating bubble team, but a lot’s changed since then.
I could make the case they were due for some regression after overachieving last year, but that doesn’t give them license to be total underachievers now. This sort of reminds me of the 2009-10 season where in the first half the Devils were on a 125-point pace with a decent, if not great roster but then cratered in the second half and culminated that by a disgraceful no-show against the Flyers in the first round. Even when everyone was healthy this season – which, granted hasn’t been often – they’ve relied on their talent and individual brilliance too much. I was accused of being alarmist early this year when I pointed out if not for Jack Hughes and a godly power play we’d be terrible. Well, now look at us after Jack wound up on IR and the power play has been defanged by the twin losses of Jack and Dougie Hamilton. A power play that was ’80 Oilers-esque for the first fifteen or twenty games of the season has now reverted back to the dark ages where you don’t even expect to get a good chance, you’re just hoping not to get scored on – whereas on the PK, you’re just hoping not to get scored on every game.
Neither mission was accomplished as a brutal shorthanded goal, a PK goal almost literally before you could blink in the first period (after the first of stiff Cal Foote’s two penalties) and some awful turnovers, lazy defending and impotent finishing all led to a 6-2 rout that wasn’t even as close as that score would indicate. Me and my friends walked out at 6-0 in the third period, and frankly I would have gone sooner if I wasn’t visiting them a few sections over. Although the game was clearly over by then, the last Stars goal was pretty indicative of how the night went for us:
Luke Hughes in particular looked hapless on that play and has not just hit the rookie wall, but crashed into it at full speed. He’s hardly the only one who stunk up the joint tonight with terrible decision making and without any concept of how to play defense though. I don’t even want to waste any time or effort pulling up the power play shift which led to Roope Hintz’s shorthanded goal early in the second period but trust me, it was bad. I don’t even want to see it again, but it involved turnovers from at least the trio of Luke, Jesper Bratt and Nathan Bastian…all on the same shift. Puck sloppiness and lazy defending had the inevitable result of a back-breaking second goal, after the Devils’ punchless offense had already been frustrated by ex-Devil Scott Wedgewood. Hintz made Simon Nemec look particularly bad on this play, though it’s hard to get on the kid too much given the level he’s played at as a 19-year old rookie – plus, the inevitable goal was just the end of a lot of disasters on our ‘power play’.
Maybe after a decent-ish start it was inevitable that the team would turn tail and quit at that point, which they certainly did. For almost two periods, Nico Daws kept the Devils in the game which is a strange thing to say in a game we would eventually lose 6-2. But even Daws could do nothing about the utter breakdowns that led to goals #3 and 4 in the last four minutes of the period, turning the crowd from angst to anger. Three guys went toward Tyler Seguin on the right side of the net, leaving Matt Duchene wide open on the left side for a layup goal #3, this is where the ‘is it the dumb system or dumb players?’ conundrum rears its ugly head. Hintz found himself wide open on the right for goal #4 when everyone else was either on the point or the left side of the net. Too many mistakes to get on any one person in particular, unless you’re Lindy Ruff and have the microscope out for Alexander Holtz…which leads to my first target for this mess of a season, the head coach.
First, on the macro level when you get scored on first 31 times in 44 games, that’s indicative of how this team constantly gets off to slow start after slow start, particularly at home where they’re now 9-11-2, compared to 14-7-1 on the road. Once is an accident, twice is a trend and thirty-plus times in barely half a season is a real problem. There’s only so many times the goalies can take the blame for the rest of the skaters’ inability or unwillingness to play sixty minutes most nights. Clearly, the home-road split is another issue. When you’re this bad with the last line change at home and this good without it, it makes you wonder about things…
Even the games we managed to win at home, we weren’t overly impressive in almost any of them. Eight of our nine home wins were either one-goal games, or a one-goal game that turned into a two-goal margin after a late empty-netter (against the pitiful Blackhawks a couple weeks ago) – and many of them were wild comebacks since again, we usually give up the first goal and start badly in the first period. That’s before we even get to the losses, many of which are either against horrible teams or mediocre junk. When this team misses the playoffs they’ll have nobody but themselves to blame after dropping so many points at home to the dross of the league.
Last in the Metro Columbus? One loss and barely avoided a second after Luke’s coast-to-coast goal of the season, while we thumped them twice in Ohio. Anaheim and San Jose, two of the three worst teams in the league? 5-1 and 6-3 losses at home, respectively. Montreal and their conference worst -36 goal differential? Another desultory loss at home last Wednesday. We single-handedly kept a rancid, aging Capitals team in the playoff hunt by losing twice to them at home early in the season, giving up ten goals in two games to a team that’s averaged less than 2.5 per game. Maybe there’s too much line changing and not enough playing at home. There was certainly a lot of angst in the air even before last night’s game, because let’s be honest we – the season ticket holders and people who come to a lot of games by other means – are tired of this bleep by now. I didn’t even bother watching the Columbus game on Friday where we had a relatively comfortable win. Why bother when I just know they’re going to stink it up every time I am contractually obligated to watch?
On a micro level, my problem with the head coach is both his lack of accountability for 95% of the roster when they screw up, and his over-the-top accountability for Holtz, the former first-round pick. It was one thing when last year Holtz wasn’t playing well and the team had other options, which kept him unconscionably in the scratch box for weeks at a time before he finally had to ask to be sent down to get actual playing time. This year however, he’s pacing for 20+ goals and 40+ points, all despite constantly being stuck on the fourth line for long stretches with anywhere from 10-14 minutes a night. And yet he still can’t get out of the doghouse. Lindy’s combative answer to a perfectly legitimate question about why Holtz only got two shifts in the third period against Montreal after he tied the game with a power play goal was ridiculous.
Lindy Ruff didn't like a question about Alex Holtz's playing time on Wednesday.
Not only was it dismissive but to top that off, he went into a mini-dissertation about how some turnover along the boards in the defensive zone during the second period was the reason he played so little in the third. I saw at least ten worse turnovers last night than the one which was being referenced (and it did get posted on Twitter if you want to look it up), none of them by Holtz. Of course it’s like seeing Halley’s Comet when you see a Holtz shift these days, despite having the top five-on-five goal scoring ratio per sixty minutes on the team, at least as of a couple games ago. You would think a guy who had three of our twelve goals in the last five games, despite an average ATOI of about twelve minutes a game would get some chances higher in the lineup to get the offense going. But no, gotta focus on his mistakes with a superpowered microscope while everyone else can litter the ice with mistakes without so much as a rebuke from this head coach.
And yes, I get the whole some guys need tough love premise and Holtz seems to be one of those guys, even GM Tom Fitzgerald put out a public warning after last year saying this was a pivotal offseason for the former first-rounder. At some point though, you have to either give him the same chances you give everyone else on the roster or come down on everyone else with the same intensity, one of the two. You can’t have one level of treatment for one young player and another for the rest of the roster. Especially when said young player can add something more than a plug like Max Willman or Chris Tierney can. You can find guys to be plugs on the fourth line, but potential goalscorers don’t grow on trees. And Holtz is developing into an actual goalscorer, but at this point I think he’s ever going to realize his true potential until either he or the head coach leaves.
Power play goal for New Jersey!
Scored by Alexander Holtz with 18:23 remaining in the 3rd period.
As frustrated as the head coach leaves me and other fans – yes, the Fire Lindy chants started to bubble to the surface again last night, though not yet with the same unity they did early last year – I don’t want to let the players skate by without throwing a bunch of grievances their way. The system may be bad and clearly the special teams need worth on both ends, PK and PP but some of that is on the players being dumb too. It’s not like the system really changed from last year when we had 120 points and beat the Rangers in the first round. At some point these players need to be made to take agency for their own underachieving, particularly the stars.
Jack Hughes? Great for the first 1/4 of the season before he was either sulking around for the previous few weeks, or playing injured before injury finally forced him from the lineup. Nico Hischier? Hasn’t been as dynamic as last year, and when you’re the captain you need to take a good chunk of the hit for this team’s continuing inability to respond early in games and play well at home. Timo Meier? Even around the injuries, he certainly hasn’t been as dynamic as he was cracked up to be when we acquired him. Jesper Bratt? Still on over a point-a-game pace and one of the few guys I can actually say gives effort on most nights, but he’s definitely proven a lot easier to shut down lately without Jack around for defenses to focus on (same with Nico, for that matter).
And the offense isn’t even the biggest issue right now, in spite of the underachieving and injuries to guys like Jack and Dougie with Holtz chained to the doghouse. Clearly goaltending remains the biggest issue although Daws had a couple of good games to start with after his post-holiday recall and even Vitek Vanecek was fine by all accounts in Columbus (despite giving up a goal on the first shot faced there, another game where we got scored on first). There’s only so much scapegoating of young and mediocre goalies you can do before the question has to be asked, well then why are we playing the same complicated system with younger goalies and younger defensemen who aren’t used to something as overly complicated as our system is?
It’s also easy to scapegoat the fact we have three rookie or second-year defensemen in the lineup nightly until you realize even the vets like John Marino and Jonas Siegenthaler are both underperforming as well (whereas Nemec has been overperforming expectations, despite goal #2 last night), or maybe they were both just one-year wonders. If that’s the case then Luke and Nemec really both better develop into franchise defensemen. Of course, Luke is already bumping up on a career high in games played in late January. At least Nemec had experience with a pro workload in the AHL last year so he shouldn’t have a rookie wall to get through the way Luke does. Brendan Smith being out due to injury now actually doesn’t help our already sagging PK either, although for as much as he adds on the PK, five-on-five he creates other issues.
So yes, the coaching and goaltending needs to get a lot better, the D needs to be better, the offense needs to be more consistent and at least find a level between early-season god like power play and current hapless power play and the effort needs to be more consistent, especially against bad teams at home or really anyone at home these days. Aside from all that, there just doesn’t seem to be enough urgency as a whole in the organization and this is my cue to (for the first time really) rip the GM.
It’d probably be wrong of me to second-guess every move of Fitz’s this offseason since I either liked or understood what he did, but pretty much everything Fitz did has not worked out. The Tyler Toffoli trade is pretty much indicative of our whole offseason, looked great on paper – a third-round pick and a guy who’d fallen down in the pecking order in Yegor Sharangovich for a guy who had 30+ goals and 70+ points in Calgary last year? No-brainer on paper, and yet Toffoli has been straight trash since December started and replacing a guy who grew up in the system with a merc on a lame-duck deal probably changes the chemistry too. Five goals (which include the ultimate junktime tally last night in a 6-1 game) and four assists in 23 games just is not anywhere close to good enough. I don’t want to hear that ‘scorers are streaky’, especially when this one literally adds nothing other than scoring.
As for Sharangovich? Amazing what getting a chance elsewhere can do for you…19 goals and 32 points in 46 games, both totals better than Toffoli’s, much better in points (17 goals and 30 points). I couldn’t be happier for the kid, who was a character and always seemingly came to the rink with a positive attitude. Sharangovich is the ultimate cautionary tale for our treatment of Holtz. Let’s not continue to overlook him here and watch him blossom elsewhere – and in Sharangovich’s case, re-blossom after two pretty decent seasons at the start of his career.
Clearly I understood letting Damon Severson and Ryan Graves go, to get younger on cheaper on the blueline while necessarily re-signing Bratt and Timo to lucrative extensions up front. As of now though, only Bratt looks close to being an $8 million player and he’s not quite lived up to that billing the last few weeks either. And yes, we’ve had infinitely more problems defensively than last year but a lot of that is due to Dougie being out while Marino and Siegs have been underachieving. It would be nice to have better options on the PK than a regressed Marino, Smith (who’s now injured) and a whole lot of kids though. I also understood keeping Lindy off a team-record points season but clearly that isn’t working out either.
It’s hard even now to get on Fitz for his goalie decisions (or indecisions?) given what little there is on the market and the overinflated prices of anyone who is but at a certain point you have to take the hit when almost none of your moves at the position work out. From the injury to Jonathan Bernier to the retirement of Corey Crawford and the regression of both Vitek and Akira Schmid this year, the question has to be asked who’s to blame for the constant issues at that position? The GM for making all the wrong moves? A terrible goalie coach? A defense that’s been bad every year except last year, which not-so-coincidentally is the one season we had decent goaltending for much of the year? It’s more likely some combination of all three but whatever it is, needs to be sorted out sooner rather than later, especially before we ruin both Schmid and Daws playing behind a tire fire of a team and completely eviscerate poor Vitek who’s already one step from being run out of town on a rail after being such a big part of last year’s success.
More than even any decisions Fitz has or hasn’t made, my big problem with him right now is twofold…one, you just can’t let this season slip away without at least attempting to shake things up. I call it the Joe Douglas school of sitting on your hands when the team is crumbling around you, not even attempting to do anything to change the culture, chemistry, talent, etc ruined my Jets’ season and it’s about to ruin the Devils’ season as well. If you don’t want to fire the head coach whatever, DO SOMETHING, literally. Hold someone accountable for these constant clown shows. For too long we had a lassiez-faire atitude toward things around here when everything constantly went wrong and that was part of our culture of losing.
Last year everything went right aside from the first two games of the season and playoffs, and the team smashed through its glass ceiling of expectations but now the standard should be higher than just shrug your hands and blame injuries if things don’t go well this year. We traded for Timo and re-signed him long-term, re-signed Bratt long-term, traded for Toffoli and all on top of a core that broke our playoff drought and won our first postseason series in over a decade against the hated Rangers. Yes, Jack and Dougie are hurt – tough noogies. Jack’s not out for the whole season and it’s not like we were smashing teams with them in the lineup either. Hold someone accountable for goodness sakes! I’d even take a goalie coach change at this point, cause even that’s above what we’ve done or are probably going to do in terms of holding feet to the fire.
Accountability needs to start at the top though, and that leads to my second big criticism of Fitz…where are you, my dude? You can’t go on every show and podcast known to man last year from TSN to Spitting Chicklets, take all the plaudits thrown your way when the team’s going well and then just hide in the bunker this year when things aren’t going to plan. Especially with the expectations surrounding this year’s team, missing the playoffs would be an utter disaster. I get you can do that because the New Jersey media isn’t exactly going to hunt you down like Canadian media or New York media would, but that doesn’t make it right. Fitz and Lindy must love being in New Jersey with the lack of media to hold their feet to the fire, no wonder Lindy got testy when a young reporter dared to ask him about Holtz, most of the media here is either state-run (i.e. team stuff) or too worried about their own jobs to push back against the head coach or publicly wonder where the GM is now that he isn’t looking for pats on the back.
Like I said before, I haven’t exactly felt like doing a blog most of the time because I don’t want to just rant day after day about the state of this team sitting on the wrong side of the bubble for the playoffs due to mistakes and oversights of its own doing without any sign things are going to change. Thankfully I will not be at tomorrow’s game against Vegas (I don’t generally go to three games in a week anyway) but I fully expect things to get ugly if we get whipped again and even the local media won’t be able to get away from asking questions about guys’ futures here. Say what you want about Lou and his career post-2012 or even about his choice for a replacement head coach on Long Island yesterday, but he showed again with the firing of Lane Lambert and hiring of Patrick Roy that he still won’t stand for underperformance, and he’s still willing to think outside the box.
There’s only three more games left before the All-Star week off, so at least I have two weeks off from the next time I have to concern myself with seeing a trash performance in person. Hopefully the next time I write a blog (likely after we’ve hit the All-Star break) it’ll be after the outlook is better…or at least after changes have finally been made.
In last night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, the New York Rangers fell apart in an uncompetitive 5-1 loss at the Fortress on Jan. 18.
If you stayed up late to watch this one, the Rangers started well against the defending champs. They were aggressive on the forecheck, generating some good scoring chances in the first part of the game.
Knights goalie Logan Thompson made a few big saves to keep them off the scoreboard. The best opportunities came from Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere, and Vincent Trocheck. First, Kakko got open in front, but his shot hit the side of the net. Then, Thompson made two huge saves to deny Lafreniere and Trocheck of giving the Rangers the lead. That set the tone for the Knights.
Even an early power play drawn by Erik Gustafsson couldn’t aid the cause. Thompson made stops on both Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. He was the story of the first period, making 11 saves to hold the Blueshirts in check.
Defensive breakdown leads to Vegas goal
Shortly after the Golden Knights killed off the Byron Froese hooking penalty that Gustafsson drew, it was the home side that took advantage of a defensive breakdown by the Rangers to grab the lead.
On a play started by Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague, his pass for Nicolas Roy trapped both Lafreniere and Panarin in the neutral zone. Their passive play allowed Roy and Jonathan Marchessault to work a give and go before Marchessault finished off his 19th goal to give the Knights a 1-0 lead with 8:25 remaining.
K’Andre Miller was the defenseman who got outnumbered on the goal. He’s struggled lately. It hasn’t been a good stretch for him or defensive partner Jacob Trouba, with both caught on for some goals against. While it’s easy to point the finger at Miller for the first Vegas goal, it was a bad decision by both Lafreniere and Panarin in the neutral zone that created the Marchessault tally. Lafreniere was also late coming back on the backcheck.
The forwards must do a better job of reading and reacting to plays. One of the biggest reasons for the Rangers’ mediocre stretch over a month is due to the forwards and defensemen not being on the same page. They’ve lost their structure that coach Peter Laviolette preaches. It was that attention to detail that had them way ahead in the Metropolitan Division. That lead is down to two points after the Flyers defeated the Stars on Thursday night.
Rangers victimized by Barbashev
Despite the good start, the Rangers found themselves behind on the scoreboard. Over three minutes later, they were victimized by Ivan Barbashev. He was able to get behind the defense and have the puck bank off his skate to put the Knights up by two.
It was yet another case of the Rangers not defending the way they should. Following a Miller clear, Marchessault found Roy at the Rangers’ blue line for an easy entry into the zone. Miller allowed Roy to get behind. He then skated around Trouba and centered a pass that a cutting Barbashev redirected in with his skate. He beat Kakko in front on the goal.
The referees got together and initiated a video review to determine if Barbashev kicked the puck in. It didn’t take them long to decide that it was a good goal. Just like that, the Rangers fell behind by two on a pair of Knights’ goals that came 3:13 apart. It went from being a good period to a forgettable one.
Knights Shutdown Rangers’ Offense
The second period was a different story. Facing an opponent that boasts big defensemen, even without Shea Theodore, the Rangers found it challenging to get anything going offensively. The Knights made it difficult on the Rangers’ offense by keeping them to the outside.
With essentially a lot of one and dones, the Rangers were unable to mount enough of an attack to get back in the game. In particular, the top scoring line of Panarin, Trocheck, and Lafreniere were limited by the stingy Knights’ defense. Panarin has done most of the heavy lifting. He had an off night.
Will Cuylle got a good shot right on Thompson from the slot that the goalie handled. Cuylle was a bright spot in the defeat. He took 15 shifts and had two shots and four hits in 11:05 of ice time. Although the puck hasn’t gone in for him recently, Cuylle continues to play a gritty style that’s easy to respect. The Rangers can use more of that element moving forward.
Knights Strike Twice late in Second Period
With seemingly nothing happening, Braden Schneider took an interference minor on Barbashev in front of the Rangers’ net. That put the Golden Knights on the power play. They made Schneider pay.
On what was another glaring example of poor defense, the Rangers allowed an easy power-play goal to fall behind by three. The penalty killers were way too passive. Chandler Stephenson played catch with Mark Stone before he found Barbashev wide open in the slot for an easy one-timer past Igor Shesterkin to make it 3-0.
They weren’t done. With the Rangers apparently napping, the Knights struck twice in only a 25-second span to double the margin. On the next shift following the Barbashev goal, Brett Howden moved the puck up for Kaedan Korczak. He had enough room to take a wrist shot that Keegan Kolesar was able to tip in to make it 4-0 with 1:36 remaining in the second period.
The game was over. The Rangers weren’t coming back from a four goal deficit against the Golden Knights. It was their costly mistakes that put them behind by four after two periods. The same ones have become a common occurrence. These bad habits must be corrected soon. The second half won’t get any easier.
Zibanejad ends Goal drought
On a power play that carried over to the start of the third period, Zibanejad ended his goal drought by scoring his 15th of the season. It was his first goal in nine games.
The play was set up by Panarin and Kreider. They combined to find a cutting Zibanejad for his first power-play goal since Dec. 22. He hasn’t finished as much this season. Except for a mini-stretch last month, Zibanejad hasn’t scored the way he’s capable of. The Rangers need him to get hot.
Howden Seals it for Knights
Whenever they play the Knights, the Rangers see a familiar face. Howden spent three seasons on Broadway before he was traded to Vegas on July 17, 2021. He’s found a home there. A dependable checking forward who kills penalties, he seems to always play well against his former team.
With Shesterkin lifted for an extra attacker, Stone intercepted an Adam Fox pass and moved the puck ahead for Howden, who sealed it for the Knights with an empty netter. It was his fifth goal of the season.
Howden finished the game with a goal and an assist and a plus-two in 15:52. He got the last laugh again. It’s hard to beat winning a Stanley Cup. One in which he contributed to the Golden Knights’ victory last summer.
There really isn’t anything else to add. It is what it is.
Road Trip Continues in LA
Prior to the Rangers continuing their road trip with a visit to LA to face the struggling Kings, the Flyers will be in action earlier on Saturday when they host the Avalanche. They’ve won five games in a row to vault into second place in the division.
The Rangers still have a game in hand. They also have the first tiebreaker with six more regulation wins (23-17) than the Flyers. However, you can’t help but admire the job John Tortorella has done in Philadelphia. They don’t have any established stars. But they have good players who have bought into his system. That’s why they are where they are at this point of the season.
Valiquette Blasts Rangers’ Effort
In case you missed it, MSG Rangers analyst Steve Valiquette blasted the Rangers’ effort after the loss. He couldn’t understand how they could let a Vegas team off the hook when they were without top center Jack Eichel, top defenseman Theodore, and number one goalie Adin Hill.
He was correct in his assertion that it was a winnable game. He felt that once the Golden Knights surged ahead, there wasn’t much energy from the Rangers’ side. He even went as far as to say that they’re not the same team. In the first half, when they fell behind, they battled through it to pull out some games. There was none of that last night.
Aside from chastising both Lafreniere and Miller for the game’s first goal, Valiquette also didn’t have anything complimentary to say about the Rangers’ goaltending. He stated that since the new calendar year, it’s been their opponents that have had the better goalie in six of the nine games they’ve played this month.
He isn’t wrong. Shesterkin isn’t stealing as many games as he has in the past. Even if I’m not a big proponent of analytics, the statistics don’t lie.
There’s a reason for Shesterkin’s mediocre play that has him with a 2.84 goals-against-average (GAA) and a .902 save percentage. He hasn’t been as consistent. When even the telecast can tell that he’s shaky, that’s alarming.
It isn’t all his fault. The Rangers have gotten sloppy. It’s been going on for a while. The defensive lapses. The lazy turnovers. The blown coverages. There are too many open looks for opponents. That needs to change.
When you have some people questioning why these issues continue to prop up, maybe it isn’t about the coaching. This core has been together long enough to know how to play winning hockey. They’re on their third coach. It’s only Year 1 under Laviolette. The egregious mistakes shouldn’t still be happening.
Either they fix it and make a big run this spring, or it’s time for the organization to consider breaking it up. Enough is enough.
When Kaapo Kakko returned on Jan. 14 for the New York Rangers, he was immediately put on the first line by coach Peter Laviolette. It’s where he started the season.
The Rangers are banking on Kakko to improve his play by producing. In his second game back, since missing 21 games with a lower-body injury, he scored a goal in a 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, Jan. 16.
For Kakko, his goal that came in the second period was a positive for the Rangers who won their second game in a row. Despite being largely outplayed by the Kraken in a middle stanza that saw the visitors hold a 16-10 edge in shots, it was the Rangers who got the only two goals to extend their lead to 4-1.
Shesterkin The Difference
They can thank Igor Shesterkin for that. When the Kraken upped their offensive attack, it was the Rangers’ starting netminder who made the biggest difference. He was at his best turning away more than half Seattle’s 31 shots in the second period. He made 29 saves to earn his second straight victory.
That’s two consecutive starts where Shesterkin was sharp. The former Vezina winner has stopped 53 of 56 shots to highlight the pair of Rangers’ wins. Undoubtedly, they need him to continue his improvement in the second half of the season.
When he’s dialed in, the 28-year-old Shesterkin is one of the game’s best goaltenders. That hasn’t been the case for most of this season. It’s important for him to continue to find that level. When he’s consistently making key saves, that fuels the team’s confidence.
There still were too many quality scoring chances that he had to handle. Despite the outcome, the Rangers weren’t particularly good defensively. They left the slot open for some of the Kraken’s opportunities. It’s a good thing Shesterkin bailed his teammates out. They needed it. Otherwise, the game could’ve been different.
Trocheck Connects on the Power Play
Following a first power play that produced no shots on Kraken backup goalie Chris Driedger, the Rangers were rewarded another one due to Justin Schultz firing a puck over the glass for a delay of game minor.
On what was a great play off the rush, Vincent Trocheck connected on the power play. He was the beneficiary of a wonderful no-look pass from linemate Artemi Panarin to slam home his 14th goal of the season at 8:22 of the first period.
After Adam Fox made a nice outlet for Panarin, he carried the puck over the Kraken blue line and then looked away from a cutting Trocheck. By freezing the Kraken’s penalty killers, it allowed him enough time to make a perfect feed into Trocheck’s wheelhouse for a power-play goal that gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, it was short-lived. After Barclay Goodrow took an undisciplined roughing minor during a scrum, Trocheck made a rare mistake on the penalty kill that allowed Jordan Eberle to tie it up with 9:19 remaining.
Trocheck’s turnover led to a three-on-one for the Kraken. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jared McCann combined to get the puck to Eberle, who beat Shesterkin with a wrist shot in the slot to draw Seattle even.
Gustafsson gets it Right Back
On the next shift, Chris Kreider forced a pass for Mika Zibanejad that took a favorable bounce off a Kraken player. Erik Gustafsson then quickly picked up the puck and fired a shot by Driedger to get it right back.
His unassisted tally came just 28 seconds after Eberle had tied the game. It was Gustafsson’s first goal since Nov. 3. Having struggled recently, he had his best game of the new calendar year. Gustafsson was more noticeable offensively and played well defensively. He finished the game with his fourth goal and a plus-two rating in 14:01.
Both Gustafsson and defensive partner Braden Schneider had good games. Schneider would later pick up a secondary assist on a Blake Wheeler goal that proved to be the game-winner.
Wheeler Snaps Goal Drought
With Shesterkin delivering timely saves during a stronger second period for the Kraken, that allowed the Rangers to be opportunistic offensively.
A player who’d struggled lately is Wheeler. The veteran snapped an 11-game goal drought by tipping in a Jonny Brodzinski shot to put the Rangers ahead by two with 7:28 left in the second period. At the time the goal was scored, it was a rare instance when the Rangers spent some time in the Kraken zone.
Wheeler’s goal was a big momentum swing. The Kraken had controlled most of the play. Even after it, the Rangers left Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak wide open for a high shot that didn’t connect. At the time, MSG analyst Joe Micheletti observed that it didn’t feel like a 3-1 game. He was correct.
Kakko Increases the Lead
With less than three minutes left in the second period, Kakko increased the lead to 4-1 when he got open in the slot and buried a backhand feed from Zibanejad to score his first goal since Nov. 20.
On a play started by Kreider in transition, he made a good pass up for Zibanejad, who easily skated into the Kraken zone. He then found an isolated Kakko open for a quick one-timer that beat Driedger to give the Rangers a three-goal lead headed to the third period.
That gave the Rangers some cushion to work with. Most importantly, it had to be a confidence boost for Kakko. He’d struggled during his first 21 games before the injury kept him out for almost two months. In his first two games back, he’s played well. They need him to.
McCann Scores Late for Kraken
With the Rangers protecting a three-goal lead in the third period, K’Andre Miller took down Eeli Tolvanen to put the Kraken on the power play. That led to McCann scoring late for the Kraken to make it 4-2.
On what was a play in transition, Schultz got the puck up to Eberle, who then fed McCann. For some inexplicable reason, he was allowed to drive to the net without any resistance and score on a backhand for the Kraken’s second power-play goal of the night.
The Rangers usually do a better job on the penalty kill. If there’s one area that was frustrating, it was their failure to kill both Kraken power plays. They went 2-for-2.
Wheeler Seals It
Despite the Kraken lifting Driedger for an extra attacker, the Rangers were able to finish off the game. Wheeler sealed it by scoring into a vacated net with 2:38 remaining. Both Zibanejad and Fox picked up their second assists of the game.
The Rangers limited Seattle to seven shots in the final period. The victory moved them four ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers in the Metropolitan Division.
Blueshirts Head Out West
Next up for the Blueshirts is a trip out West. They will have four games on the West Coast starting on Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Vegas Golden Knights. There’ll be a back-to-back this weekend at the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 20-21. They’ll conclude the road swing at the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 23.
It came down to the final seconds. After Dylan Strome won a faceoff back for an Evgeny Kuznetsov shot in the slot, Igor Shesterkin made one last save to preserve a 2-1 Rangers win over the Capitals. He stopped 24 of 25 shots to help the Rangers snap their four-game losing streak.
It was a much needed victory. With both the Hurricanes and Flyers on their heels, the Rangers came out with an important two points on Sunday afternoon. It didn’t come easy. The rematch with the Caps was another hard fought game decided by a goal.
At least this time, it was the Rangers who came out on top. They were able to rebound from Saturday’s 3-2 loss in Washington by turning the tables back home in New York City. There were some close calls late with them protecting a one-goal lead. But they did enough to earn their first win since Jan. 4.
Kakko Plays Well in Return
The biggest story coming into the game was the return of Kaapo Kakko. After missing 21 games due to a lower-body injury that he suffered against the Sabres on Nov. 27, Kakko played well against the Caps.
With Rangers coach Peter Laviolette deciding to put Kakko back up on the slumping first line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, they had a bit more jump early on. During a strong first period mostly controlled by the guys wearing the dark blue liberty jerseys, the trio spent a long shift in the Caps’ zone. Kakko was set up in front. But Charlie Lindgren made a good save to deny him.
Although the top line didn’t hit the score sheet, at least they were more noticeable. During the recent stretch, there have been too many shifts when you wondered if Zibanejad and Kreider were on the back of a milk carton. They haven’t been consistent enough at five-on-five. A key area that must improve in order for the Rangers to have success this spring.
Kakko even took the body. He was credited with two hits. A welcome change from how he played in the first part of the season. He also had two shots-on-goal and four attempts in 16:04 of ice time. He received over two minutes on the second power play. Oddly enough, it was that second unit that generated some good chances. Kakko was stopped on one opportunity.
Panarin Gets it Started Early
Before the game was a minute old, Artemi Panarin got things started early. He scored his team-leading 27th goal just 50 seconds in to put the Rangers in front.
On a play from behind his net, Jacob Trouba made a good outlet up to Vincent Trocheck. He then gained the Caps’ zone and moved the puck across for a quick Panarin one-timer that beat Charlie Lindgren underneath the glove.
With the goal, it gave Panarin 400 points as a New York Ranger. It came in his 310th game. He has 127 goals and 273 assists since joining the Rangers in 2019-20. In 42 games, he has 59 points to rank third in league scoring this season. For the game, Panarin had a goal with four shots and went plus-two in 18:47. That included 7:11 of power play time.
Lafreniere Gets Winner
For most of the first period, it was the Rangers who dictated the terms. They held the Caps to three shots for most of the period. Earlier in it, Alexis Lafreniere had a chance to put them up by a pair. However, Lindgren made the save. That didn’t prevent Lafreniere from getting the winner in what was a close game between old rivals.
With less than a minute left, Braden Schneider kept the puck in and found Lafreniere isolated in front. His first shot was stopped by Lindgren. But he was able to put in the rebound to make it 2-0.
The goal ended an eight-game drought. It was Lafreniere’s first goal since Dec. 27 versus Washington. His 11th of the season allowed the Rangers to take a two-goal lead to the locker room.
Although scoring has been tough for him, Lafreniere has been putting up points. He has two goals and six assists for eight points over his last 10 games. His impact was felt on Sunday. It was the diligent work of Lafreniere that drew four penalties. That included a visibly frustrated Joel Edmundson after he was called for high-sticking during the third period.
Lafreniere’s willingness to forecheck and battle for loose pucks is what makes him tough for opponents. His work ethic is a big reason why he’s drawing so many penalties. You never have to worry about his battle level.
His impressive play earned him the game’s first star.
Caps Get Back in It
As often happens in these games, there’s usually a turning point when the momentum shifts. For a while, the Rangers continued to be in charge. But for some reason, they stopped shooting the puck. That helped the Caps get back in it.
With the Rangers suddenly limited offensively against a sharper Caps in the second period, eventually, things began to change. It started with them over passing the puck. That allowed the Caps to move in transition and get a couple of long shots on Shesterkin.
On a bad giveaway by Erik Gustafsson, in which he tried to go up the middle, his lob was intercepted by the Caps. That caused some trouble. Following a tough save from Shesterkin on T.J. Oshie, the Rangers were in full scramble mode. Eventually, Max Pacioretty and Strome were able to set up Oshie in front to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 8:57 remaining in the second period.
Gustafsson’s game has definitely taken a step back lately. He’s committed a few more mistakes that have not helped the cause. While he’s been a good addition, it might be time for Laviolette to consider giving him a night off. If he does, Zac Jones would get into a game. Whether or not that’s being considered depends on the coaching staff.
Oshie nearly tied it a couple of shifts later. Fortunately, Shesterkin made the save on his deflection. Oshie was very good in the two games, scoring in both.
Lindgren Stones Kreider
After Lafreniere drew an interference minor on Martin Fehervary, the Rangers came close to going back up by two. Lindgren made a couple of saves on Zibanejad and Trocheck before Nic Dowd took down Adam Fox, which led to a 37-second five-on-three.
Lindgren stoned Kreider to keep the Rangers off the scoreboard. Following a first save on Kreider, he then made an even better glove save to prevent a certain power-play goal. In particular, Lindgren’s right catching glove was superb in the two-game series. He’d later rob Jimmy Vesey with another glove stop.
Lindgren made 54 saves on 58 combined shots over two starts against the Rangers this weekend. He was named the game’s third star in a losing effort on Sunday.
Shesterkin Shuts the Door
With the Caps continuing to hang around due to the Rangers’ sudden power play outage, they came close to tying it in the third period. Shesterkin shut the door when called upon.
On the first shift, he had to come up with two saves on Oshie and Pacioretty. Shesterkin finished with 24 saves on 25 shots to get the victory. It was one he needed for his confidence.
He also made a nice glove save by getting across to stop Connor McDavid on a one-timer with over 90 seconds left in the game. Shesterkin made seven saves to help the Rangers get back in the win column.
The Caps also missed a couple of scoring chances. Tom Wilson fired a shorthanded shot wide during a Rangers power play. Pacioretty was set up for a dangerous chance with Lindgren off for an extra attacker. However, he didn’t get all of the shot and sent his one-timer wide with 17 seconds remaining.
Ryan Lindgren absorbed a Wilson hit to clear the zone. He had a good game finishing with four blocks and a plus-one in 19:10. Trocheck shot for the empty net but missed wide for an icing.
That allowed the Caps one final chance. Following Strome beating Trocheck on the draw, Shesterkin made the save on Kuznetsov. The puck went behind the net as time expired.
Kraken visit MSG
The Rangers have one more home game this week. They’ll host the Kraken at MSG on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Seattle has won eight consecutive games. Buoyed by the play of goalie Joey Daccord, along with All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand and Vince Dunn, they’ve been playing much better lately. The Kraken are fast and can score goals. It’ll be a good test for the Rangers.
When it’s not going well, the little things add up. In their fourth straight loss, the Rangers continued to be their own worst enemy. A bad third period turned a 2-1 lead into a frustrating 3-2 loss to the Capitals on Saturday afternoon in DC.
Despite the Caps missing Alex Ovechkin from the lineup, they found a way to come back and defeat the Rangers by one goal. They got strong play from goali Charlie Lindgren. He stopped all 10 shots in the third period to improve to 2-0 versus the Rangers this season. He also made 31 saves against them in a 4-0 shutout on Dec. 9.
In the battle of brothers, it was the elder Lindgren who came out on top over younger brother Ryan Lindgren. The Rangers defenseman was also busy during the contest. He was involved in an altercation with Nic Dowd late in the first period due to a clean hit he landed on Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary. It shouldn’t have prompted a response. But that’s how the game’s become.
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) January 13, 2024
Wilson Bloodies Brodzinski
Earlier in the first period, Capitals forward Tom Wilson bloodied Jonny Brodzinski. He was called for a boarding minor. Anton Blidh responded to the hit by cross-checking Wilson. That led to Connor McMichael roughing Blidh during the scrum. McMichael received the extra two minutes to put the Rangers on a power play that they failed to capitalize on.
Regarding the Wilson hit on Brodzinski, he didn’t target him from behind. As ESPN studio analyst P.K. Subban illustrated during a segment with Mark Messier, Wilson came from the side and let up. Messier took it a step further by indicating that Brodzinski put himself in a vulnerable position.
Even if you’re not the biggest fan of Wilson, the penalty was for Brodzinski turning into him. There are too many overly sensitive hockey fans who have forgotten what the game used to be. It’s become much softer. There was nothing malicious about Wilson’s hit. Both Messier and Subban crushed it with their stance on the Lindgren hit. It’s a hockey play.
Fox Gives Rangers the Lead
With the game still scoreless, a good play by Will Cuylle in the offensive zone forced Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen into a turnover. His aggression led directly to Adam Fox, giving the Rangers the lead.
On a play down low after Cuylle moved the puck to Chris Kreider, he got it across for Fox. His intended return pass came right back to him for an easy goal that put the Rangers up 1-0 with 6:37 remaining in the first period.
It was Fox’s third goal in four games. After going without a goal since Oct. 28, Fox has suddenly been finding the back of the net with regulatory. He’d later add another goal to make it four goals over the last four games.
The lead proved to be short-lived.
Mantha Ties It
On a play in the Caps’ zone, a K’Andre Miller misread had a bad result. His pinch at the point put Jacob Trouba in a tough spot. McMichael sent Anthony Mantha on a breakaway where he beat Jonathan Quick to tie the score with over two minutes left in the period.
Miller got caught reaching to try to prevent the McMichael lead pass that sprung Mantha for his 12th goal of the season. It was another mistake from the suddenly struggling Rangers defenseman. He’s made several during the team’s four-game losing streak. Miller has to do a better job defensively.
Fox Strikes Again
During an evenly played second period in which both Quick and Lindgren made crucial stops, the Rangers were able to surge back ahead thanks to Fox. He struck again to give the Rangers their second lead of the contest.
Fox stepped up and fired a slap shot from the right point that went through a Jimmy Vesey screen past Lindgren for his second goal of the game. The goal was unassisted. The Rangers led 2-1, with under 15 minutes left in the period.
Quick stopped all 10 shots in the period to allow the Rangers to take the one-goal lead to the locker room. He played another good game. It’s been discussed around hockey circles. It’s Quick that gives the Rangers the best chance of winning. He’s outplayed “All-Star” Igor Shesterkin. We’ll see how Shesterkin responds in tomorrow’s rematch at Madison Square Garden.
Defensive Miscues Hurt
In the third period, the Rangers made too many mistakes to finish off the Caps. There was an undisciplined Kreider slashing minor that ended a power play a minute in. Ultimately, defensive miscues hurt the most.
Still ahead by one, the Rangers fell asleep during a Caps’ rush in transition. After Carlson passed the puck up for Evgeny Kuznetsov, he breezed by a lazy Zibanejad stick check and then was allowed to circle around the net. Kuznetsov then had his backhand tipped in by Dowd, who beat Miller to the front of the net. That tied the score.
On another mindless defensive shift less than two minutes later, Fox made a bad read that led directly to an easy tap in for T.J. Oshie. Capitals defenseman Joel Edmundson started it with a pass up for Dylan Strome. After Fox’s step up didn’t work, that created a two-on-one down low. Strome easily passed across for an easy Oshie goal that gave the Caps the lead with 11:31 left in regulation.
It’s been those kinds of eye-opening mistakes that have the Rangers struggling. If the Hurricanes win over the Penguins tonight, their lead for first place will be down to a single point.
Lindgren Shuts The Door
Following the Caps’ pair of goals that turned a one-goal deficit into a 3-2 lead, they limited the Rangers offensively. While they wound up out-shooting Washington 10-6, there weren’t many Grade A chances.
The best opportunity came when Zibanejad tested Lindgren high. But he got his glove up to deny him.
With Quick off for an extra attacker, the Rangers got two more chances with time winding down. Alexis Lafreniere had his one-timer in the slot stopped by Lindgren with 1:19 left. It was a tight window. He couldn’t quite lift the puck.
The final opportunity came with 11 seconds to go. They had Vincent Trocheck open for a one-timer. However, his shot went high and wide. Despite dominating on faceoffs by winning 20 of 24, the Rangers’ best center (this season) couldn’t force overtime.
Hopefully, Trocheck will make it to the All-Star Game on merit. Unlike the starting goalie, he deserves to go to Toronto.
Rematch Tomorrow
With the Caps holding up their end of the bargain by winning on home ice for the second time this season, it’s up to the Rangers to do the same in tomorrow’s rematch at 1 EST. If they can, they’ll finally end the losing streak and conclude the season series with a split against the Caps. If they can’t, then there are bigger issues.
If you checked the game sheet of tonight’s Rangers’ 5-2 loss to the Blues, you probably think they didn’t play badly. If only it were that simple.
The Rangers out-shot the Blues by a healthy 43-19 margin. It didn’t mean anything. By continuing to play passive hockey during the worst stretch of the season, they’re costing themselves games.
It didn’t matter that they were without Mika Zibanejad, who was a late scratch due to sickness. The flu is going around. Hopefully, it’s not a team epidemic.
If you watched Thursday night’s game, the Rangers looked like they were in a malaise. There were too many missed assignments and undisciplined play that allowed the Blues to score four goals on 19 shots past Igor Shesterkin. It was the latest game that he gave up four or more goals. It was the third start in his last four where he allowed at least four goals.
Of course, it isn’t all his fault. The Rangers gave gotten away from the structure they had. At one point, they were one of the league’s best defensive teams. Continuing to sink out of the top 10 in goals allowed per game, they’re headed the wrong way.
The issue is that the Hurricanes continue to climb in the standings. Their latest win (6-3 over Ducks) pulled them within three points of the Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Islanders and Flyers are six behind. Teams behind the Rangers are catching up. That great start afforded them a slump. They’re under .500 over the last 17 games (8-8-1).
Fox Scores and Then Gives It Back
Skating without Zibanejad, the Rangers dressed 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. That meant a cameo for Zac Jones. It also significantly weakened the Rangers’ lines. Jonny Brodzinski replaced Zibanejad to play with Chris Kreider and Will Cuylle. Barclay Goodrow centered the third line between Jimmy Vesey and Blake Wheeler. The checking line was Jake Leschyshyn with Nick Bonino and whoever they double shifted. Neither played much.
At least Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafreniere were still intact. Despite generating a lot of offense at even strength, the Rangers’ best scoring line was shut down by Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. He had a strong night finishing with 40 saves. That included a combined 13 on Lafreniere and Panarin. Both couldn’t solve him.
Before two minutes had gone by in the game, Adam Fox scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead. He put in a Goodrow rebound for his second goal in three games.
But after he’d put them ahead, Fox made a mistake that led to Jordan Kyrou tying it. Following both players colliding inside the Blues’ zone, Fox was late to recover. Kyrou got back up quickly and was left wide open to bury a Pavel Buchnevich feed for his first goal of what proved to be a big night.
Kyrou Puts Blues Ahead
After Bonino took an ill-advised delay of the game penalty, that put the Blues on the power play. It didn’t matter that they came in with the worst ranked power play.
Instead, the four Rangers’ penalty killers backed up and allowed Robert Thomas and Buchnevich easy access to set up a Kyrou power-play goal for a 2-1 Blues lead. This was about as soft as it gets. Nobody took anyone. It was way too easy.
Even in a period where the Rangers created some opportunities, they were held to one goal on 13 shots by Binnington. While they applied forecheck pressure, the defense remained sketchy. Kyrou nearly completed the hat trick before the first period concluded.
Undisciplined Penalties Doom Rangers
In the second period, the Rangers were their own worst enemy. They took three consecutive mindless penalties. Those undisciplined penalties doomed them.
After killing off a Brodzinski holding minor, Goodrow interfered with Torey Krug behind the Rangers’ net. That put the Blues back up a man. Unable to capitalize on the penalty, the Blues were handed a third straight man-advantage when Trocheck hooked into Kasperi Kapanen.
It only took 13 seconds for the Blues to cash in with another power-play goal. Brandon Saad converted from Brayden Schenn and Krug to put the Blues ahead 3-1 with 10:34 left in the second period.
Kreider Comes Close Twice
Finally, on the power play after Krug slashed Kreider, the Rangers sent out a top unit that included Lafreniere with Panarin, Fox, Trocheck, and Kreider. They moved the puck around well. Kreider came close twice.
He hit the goalpost on two chances. One came early on the five-on-four. The second came later. Binnington was able to cover the puck to get a stoppage. He also denied both Panarin and Lafreniere.
That’s the kind of game it was. The Rangers couldn’t quite figure out how to beat Binnington consistently. Luck was on his side on the Kreider opportunities.
Kyrou Gets Hat Trick
On a broken play in the Blues’ zone, Nick Leddy cleared the puck right to Kyrou, who got the hat trick with under 13 minutes left in the third period.
He picked up the puck and skated in and beat Shesterkin with a wrist shot that made it 4-1 Blues.
While there was still 12:59 left in regulation, it didn’t look like the Rangers could mount a comeback. When you subtract Zibanejad from a lineup that already lacks depth, it becomes predictable.
Trocheck Scores on Power Play
If there ever was a deserving Rangers player who should make the All-Star Game in Toronto, it’s Trocheck. He continues to play well. He scored on the power play to cut the deficit to 4-2 with 9:02 remaining.
After Cuylle drew a slashing minor on Thomas, Trocheck followed up a Kreider rebound to beat Binnington for his 13th goal. That gives him four goals in three games. He has eight points over the last four games. He continues to get it done.
Buchnevich Seals It
With Shesterkin off for an extra attacker, the Rangers tried to make it interesting. However, a former player ended matters. Buchnevich sealed it by scoring into a vacated net with 18 seconds left.
Buchnevich had another good game for the Blues. He finished it with a goal and two assists. In 38 games this season, he has 13 goals with 19 assists for 32 points. The 28-year-old right wing continues to produce well for the Blues.
In 174 games with the Blues, Buchnevich has 69 goals and 106 assists for 175 points. He’s over a point-per-game since the Rangers traded him on July 23, 2021, in exchange for Sammy Blais and a second round pick. It’s safe to say the Blues won that trade.
Rangers Play Capitals Twice
The Rangers will play the Capitals twice this weekend. It’s a classic home and home series. Both games are at 1 EST. The first one is in Washington on Saturday, Jan. 13. The Caps then visit Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 14.
Those are the last two games of the regular season series between the old Patrick Division rivals. The Rangers and Caps have split the first two. The Caps took the first meeting 4-0 on Dec. 9. The Rangers took the second meeting 5-1 on Dec. 27.
Whether Zibanejad is back or not, the Rangers have to play better hockey. They’ve become too soft. There have been some bad losses over the last month. They have to get it going soon.
It would be easy to accentuate the positives for the New York Rangers at this point in the season. Despite their play leveling off over the last month, they remain atop the Metropolitan Division with 54 points. Only four other teams have won at least 26 games thus far.
That includes the Vancouver Canucks, who dealt the Rangers an ugly 6-3 loss on Monday night, Jan. 8. It was the Rangers’ second straight defeat. At least they rallied back from a three-goal deficit in a 4-3 shootout loss at the Montreal Canadiens to salvage a point on Jan. 6. Not once have they lost three straight games this season. When they visit the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night, that’ll be tested.
Although they have a 26-11-2 record with a .692 win percentage, the Rangers are 8-7-1 since a 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 5. During that stretch, they’ve suffered some lopsided defeats. They’ve lost by three goals or more five times over their last 16 games.
Following the loss to the Canucks, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette had some strong words on his team’s lackluster play.
“We weren’t under siege, but some of the decision-making for line changes or a line rush with people out of place or line changes, they bit us right away against a team that has a lot of talent. There’s no excuse for that. We’re not going to win giving up five goals. You can’t win. Not on a regular basis. You’ll win one out of 10, maybe you’ll score six. And so that has to get taken care of,” he pointed out about how much they struggled defensively against the Canucks.
Even in the shootout defeat at Montreal, they spotted them a 3-0 lead. There wasn’t much Jonathan Quick could’ve done on the three goals that the Canadiens scored. They were left wide open.
Defense Struggles
If there’s been an area that’s taken a step back, it’s the defense. The structure hasn’t been the same over the last month. The defensemen and forwards aren’t doing a good job in coverage. There’s been some miscommunication that’s led to goals against that neither Igor Shesterkin nor Quick could be blamed for.
K’Andre Miller was caught out of position on three Canucks’ goals. In particular, two of the three were bad reads by the fourth-year defenseman. With the Rangers trailing the Canucks by one late in the first period, Miller stepped up instead of staying with Brock Boeser. Elias Pettersson faked him out to sneak a pass by Miller that sent Boeser in alone for a breakaway goal that put the Rangers behind 3-1 with 16 seconds left in the period.
Unfortunately, Miller’s misadventures continued during a crucial point in the game. After leading scorer Artemi Panarin cut the deficit to one with his 26th goal off a nice pass from Alexis Lafreniere, the Rangers were still in it during the second period. However, the explosive Canucks struck twice over 74 seconds to increase their lead to 5-2.
Miller was beaten badly by Pettersson, who made a great move around to get his own rebound and tuck the puck past Shesterkin with 4:27 left in the second period. Nils Hoglander then scored his own highlight reel goal to put the Rangers down three with over three minutes to go in the period. The fumes coming from Laviolette on the Rangers bench indicated how frustrated he was with his team’s effort.
It isn’t only the defensemen who are struggling. There have been too many instances when the forwards are caught watching goals happen. It’s even true for the Panarin line. In a game that Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Lafreniere combined for three goals and three assists for six points, they still finished minus-two each. That included an empty netter from Pettersson that sealed the Rangers’ fate.
Lack of Depth A Concern
For a while, the Rangers overcame the losses of Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko without any trouble. They were carried by Panarin, Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider. The contributions from Lafreniere and Blake Wheeler provided them with two consistent scoring lines. That allowed them to vault to the top of the standings around Christmas.
However, the lack of depth has become a concern. Since Chytil’s suspected fourth concussion on Nov. 2, it forced Laviolette to shift Nick Bonino to the third line. While the well-respected veteran center continues to provide strong defense and penalty killing, he’s not cut out to play in the top nine. He’s better suited in a checking role on the fourth line.
The Rangers have gotten some secondary scoring from Will Cuylle and Jimmy Vesey. However, that’s about it from the bottom six forwards. Both Bonino and Barclay Goodrow each have only a goal this season. Jonny Brodzinski provided a spark initially. But he’s without a point over his last seven games, and his only goal came on Dec. 10. Tyler Pitlick is out with a lower-body injury. He only had a goal and two assists in 28 contests.
It’s hard to replace a skilled player such as Chytil. With no indication on whether he’ll return this season, that’s a big hole to fill. The Rangers will likely have to make a trade for another center. They just saw Sean Monahan score a goal for the Canadiens on Jan. 6.
At 29, he’s affordable with a $1.985 million cap hit for the season. He has 10 goals with 13 assists for 23 points. He is over 57 percent on faceoffs. Monahan should be on the Rangers’ radar. He won’t cost a lot compared to some of the rumored players (Trevor Zegras) that could be available.
The Rangers should also be in the market for a right wing. They can’t continue to play Wheeler on the first line. With only five goals and 10 assists for 15 points, Wheeler would be a better fit on the third line. Interestingly enough, Laviolette had Cuylle skate with Zibanejad and Kreider at this morning’s practice. Perhaps he’s going to get a chance to play with them when the Rangers visit St. Louis on Thursday.
Othmann Sent Down
It comes as no surprise that Brennan Othmann was sent down to the Hartford Wolf Pack yesterday. After appearing in three games, the former 2021 first round pick will get more time in the AHL to develop.
After a good first game in which he had five shots on goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 4, Othmann hardly received enough ice time over his next two games. That included 7:16 at Montreal and 7:33 against Vancouver. Laviolette’s reasoning for Othmann only taking two shifts in the second period on Jan. 8 was due to wanting to double shift Panarin. The top two lines saw extensive time while Othmann mostly sat on the bench.
It was pretty obvious that he was going to be returned to Hartford. However, recalling Jake Leschyshyn isn’t exactly going to solve the Rangers’ depth issues. It isn’t going to get any better.
Kakko Nearing a Return
Kakko is nearing a return. He’s been skating in a non-contact yellow jersey during practice. However, he’s definitely getting closer to being back.
While he struggled offensively with two goals and an assist in his first 20 games, Kakko at least can play a top nine role. He’s a strong puck possession player who can be effective on the forecheck. We’ll see if he can turn it around when he returns.
Shesterkin Named All-Star
On Jan. 4, Shesterkin was named an All-Star. With Panarin’s wife expecting a second child around the All-Star break, he can’t go. By his own admission, Shesterkin said Panarin deserved the nod. He hasn’t been consistent. However, the other goalie options for the Metropolitan Division weren’t good with Ilya Sorokin struggling as well.
If there’s a Ranger who deserves to be voted in by the fans, it’s Trocheck. With a dozen goals and 28 assists for 40 points in 39 games, he’s second in team scoring behind Panarin. Trocheck’s been a consistent force all season.
A dependable center who’s won 61.9 percent of faceoffs to rank near the top of the league, Trocheck is the frontrunner for the Steven McDonald Award. No Ranger has given a better effort.
NHL All-Star Weekend is in Toronto between Feb. 1-3. Online fan voting concludes tomorrow night.
I had to look back and see when my last blog on the Devils was, turns out it was when we hit another valley losing the first three games of our pre and post-holiday homestand. Since then, the Devils have won five of six games, actually looking impressive in a couple of them – road blowouts of the Senators and Capitals. I’m certainly not going to make the case everything is hunky dory again though, particularly at home where everything remains a slog.
Sure, they managed to beat Detroit right before Christmas to stop the skid before visions of a winless homestand percolated through the holiday but it was a Detroit team that was on a travel back-to-back (we know plenty about that!) and had lost one of its defensemen during the game, probably the biggest reasons we were able to come from behind in the third period to win 3-2 after a sloggish first two periods. At least Timo Meier looked right again for the first time all season, scoring two goals and seemingly finding his first step. He looked to be fully recovered from his lower-body injury at last, following that pre-holiday display up by scoring the OT winner against the Blue Jackets in the first game after Christmas…of course, then he suffered a ‘middle body’ injury a couple days later in Boston and is now out of the lineup again with an undetermined return date. Oh, and Ondrej Palat has also been out of the lineup the last few days, also with no return date…just to pile on more of an annoyance. So goes the 2022-23 season.
The aforementioned game against Columbus was yet another slog against a bad team at home. At least they managed not to lose to the last-place Blue Jackets this time, barely with Luke Hughes inarguably taking a lot of people off the griddle with his brilliant end-to-end rush late in the third period to save the Devils just when they were set to go down to defeat again down 3-2 with the net empty.
Even with that dramatic finish and Timo’s OT winner, this Devils team just leaves you unsatisfied on the whole, particularly with the play being even more skittish at home. It shouldn’t have even had to come down to that with a rested team, but the woes against bad teams at home and our goaltending woes are both seemingly coming to a head the last couple weeks. I was at that game barely a week ago and I can barely remember anything from it at this point to be honest, aside from Damon Severson getting a nice ovation from the crowd in his first game back at the Rock. This whole season has been a bit of a blur…bad start? Yeah, that usually happens at home. Bad game against a bad team? Yeah, that usually happens too. Crappy goals allowed? Almost a nightly occurrence. Do we win? Sometimes the talent takes over (usually on the road), sometimes it disappears (usually at home).
In fact, that Blue Jackets game did see a slight changing of the guard in net with Nico Daws taking the #2 spot for Akira Schmid…you knew what was coming next at that point, with Schmid being sent down after the Blue Jackets game. It’s hard to say he really did anything to deserve staying up with a 3.26 GAA and .893 save percentage – and his numbers haven’t been much better in three starts back at Utica so far – but inarguably those are still better stats than starter Vitek Vanecek’s. And it felt at times Schmid never got a fair chance, starting with being pulled twice midway through the first period (once his play merited it, once it didn’t) while Vitek almost never gets that treatment no matter how bad he stinks. Age and waiver priority played into Schmid being sent down as well, and even during the summer GM Tom Fitzgerald publicly stated his wish that he could get another goalie so Schmid would be in Utica to improve our depth. It seemed a funny thing to say then in the wake of his impressive playoff series against the Rangers and Game 5 against the Hurricanes, but not so weird in hindsight.
Of course, it’s not ideal to have Daws take a full load of starts barely a week or two after returning from major surgery but if they’re going to play more games like the road pastings in Ottawa and Washington, it might not even matter much. Daws played both and was at least okay-ish or better, which is an improvement from the goaltending we’ve had most of the season but almost any goalie, even ours should win games you get six goals in (exhibit A, Game 3 against the Canes last year when we scored eight and won comfortably – despite a poor Vitek game coughing up four of his own). And lo and behold, he actually stopped a breakaway in the latter game which has usually been a 100% goal against this year:
Vitek on the other hand…things just are not getting better for this dude. It’s easy to say the playoff meltdown broke Vitek, but really his stretch last year wasn’t all that impressive. His first fifty or so games are what made his season to be honest. Even as the team’s started inducing wins with intense labor pains, Vitek just keeps giving up mind-bogglingly bad goals by the game. In Boston on a back-to-back the Devils actually had a good start, getting out to a 2-0 lead but Vitek coughed up four goals in rapid-fire succession in the second period, with the last three coming in a four and a half-minute span. It wasn’t quite as bad as the Edmonton game where he gave up three in less than seventy seconds, but you really just can’t have periods like this where the bleeding doesn’t get stopped. This is where the ‘just make a save’ crowd has a point.
I’ve always been one to not want to scapegoat the goalie for every little thing but I was on my last nerve with Vitek yesterday, especially with how emotional that game got. Predictably, the emotions got ramped up after a legal hit on Connor Bedard by Brendan Smith that got timed just right and unfortunately, took the rookie phenom out for the rest of the night. I lost any sympathy I might have had for the Blackhawks once they started predictably throwing cheap shots as a result, including one on Nico Hischier that took him out for the rest of the first period as he had to go get examined. Thankfully, it seems as if symptoms were nonexistent as he came back in the second period and played the rest of the night.
Yet it seemed like the refs were more willing to call penalties for us immediately after the Bedard hit, basically canceling out the double minor Nick Foligno took for going after Smith by giving him a minor as well, then calling back-to-back penalties on Jonas Siegenthaler and Colin Miller while the hit on Nico went unpunished. To their credit I think the refs decided early in the second period enough was enough as far as the Hawks getting a pound of flesh, especially after a sequence that saw Dawson Mercer and Ryan Donato get matching minors while Alex Vlasic took a game misconduct and an instigator on Nathan Bastian as a response to a boarding penalty from the latter. Then right after the next whistle, Nick Foligno took on Smith in the inevitable post-Bedard fight, especially once he got ruled out for the night. Ironically Foligno would later leave the game himself due to injury, putting the Hawks down a full forward line with Vlasic’s expulsion.
This is where the old joke ‘I came to a fight and a hockey game broke out’ really fits. Not that it was a great game by any stretch, in fact it was another frustrating one against a team with four road wins all year and without its phenom for much of this game. Our big-name players seem to like piling up stats in the odd game (re: the Senators and Capitals road blowouts), but they’ve been MIA in too many other games the last few weeks. To Jesper Bratt’s credit, at least he tried to put shots on net with a jaw-dropping nine…but none were even close to going in. It was that kind of night for over forty-five minutes, with our only goal by then coming midway through the second on a brilliant give-and-go executed by Simon Nemec and Alexander Holtz, with the latter scoring his ninth goal of the season in spite of some seemingly over the top ‘tough love’ from the head coach at times in terms of icetime this season.
If Holtz’s icetime has been the subject of debate among the fanbase for the last two years, there’s never been any concern about Nemec getting a fair shot. He got twenty minutes a night from his first game in December on, none of the typical ‘ramp up from the third pairing’ you’d typically expect from a nineteen-year old rookie. Makes you think that the decision to send him down after camp didn’t come from the coaching staff, since they already trusted him this much the minute he arrived in the wake of Dougie Hamilton’s injury. And he’s done nothing to un-earn that trust, playing with a poise and efficiency that belies his lack of experience at the NHL level. Nemec even pushed fellow rookie Luke into the background as the best player on the ice last night by far. More on that later though.
It did look like that Holtz goal was just going to be a blip of happiness in another dreary loss to a cream of the crap team. Jason Dickinson scoring a power play goal in the first period on a meh shot where the screen had already passed by Vitek was bad enough in the first period, but scrubini Boris Katchouk’s shorthanded wrister late in the second period (also unscreened) was a dagger that completely sucked the life out of the team and the arena. And Katchouk was all the more happy to revel in it, mocking Holtz’s goal celebration where he egged the crowd on for more noise by cupping his ears to mock the lack of it. A punk move to be sure, and by a third-pairing defenseman no less – but I’d expect nothing more from the Blackhawks organization.
Even then when texting my friend he wanted to blame the goaltending, I was like well, we’ve also only scored one goal in two periods against a crap team and likely would be on pins and needles waiting to blow the game even with a competent goalie stopping both. But by that point, if Vitek was even the slightest bit of a jerk or blase I might have tried to start a Fire Vitek chant after he gave up his second clunker of the night and about his hundredth on the season. That’s what makes this particularly tough, he isn’t…he isn’t Brian Rolston or Jamie Langenbrunner late in his career just giving off an ‘I don’t give a bleep’ vibe. He’s never blamed anyone but himself for his struggles and his play for most of last year inarguably helped us to our best regular season in franchise history.
Not to mention the double annoyance that…we really don’t have another option at this point. Schmid’s been almost as bad, while Daws is at least seemingly getting a chance to win the starting job you can’t really count on it at this point long-term, and the goalie trade market is just stupid because there aren’t enough good ones to go around, so even the meh ones are getting marked up right now. And to be honest, I get just as frustrated with the underachieving skaters that I do with the underperforming goalies but the latter gets a disproportionate amount of the blame so I wind up pushing back against the skaters more. To be fair, I don’t think we were even that bad in anything but finishing last night for most of the first forty minutes…well that and a suddenly impotent power play which went 0-6 last night (really -1 for 6 given the shorthanded goal), has run out of ideas and misses Dougie for sure.
Still, it looked like everyone had given up at 2-1 from fans to players alike. Maybe if Nemec’s seemingly nothing shot didn’t go in almost six minutes into the third it would have been the dreary loss I’m sure most of us were expecting at that point. It’s nice to actually be the beneficiary of bad goaltending on the other end for once, though to be fair if anyone deserved that break it was Nemec who just continues to make you pinch yourself. Between him and Luke, the Devils should be well-set on D for the next decade, even given our issues with the vets at times this year.
New Jersey goal!
Scored by Simon Nemec with 14:19 remaining in the 3rd period.
His goal roared the team and crowd back to life, then the Holtz and Mike McLeod connection struck again late in the third to give the Devils their first lead of the night after Holtz gained the zone and got the puck to Curtis Lazar, whose shot was deflected home by a suddenly lively McLeod. Holtz and McLeod being first-line quality at any point in 2024 I didn’t have on my bingo card, especially McLeod who scored a grand total of four goals in 80 regular season games last year and looked to be just another first-round pick who turned into a fourth-line grinder. Maybe that Game 7 goal against Henrik Lundqvist Igor Shesterkin really did turn something on in this guy. It’s certainly a nice salary drive for him going into another RFA year, hah.
Shockingly, Vitek held up in the third period – even making a brilliant split-second decision to come out of the net and skate almost to the center line to prevent a breakaway chance. And for twenty minutes I didn’t have to worry about helping run this poor guy out of New Jersey. Katchouk hopefully started eating crow for his mocking nonsense the minute Tyler Toffoli scored the clinching empty-netter. How dare you as a third-pairing defenseman on a bad team mock ANYone else’s crowd? Especially taking offense to Holtz pumping up his own crowd.
Of course, the Devils being the Devils they couldn’t even escape an otherwise drama-free end of the game without drama as Jack Hughes seemingly hurt his wrist and missed the last few minutes of the game. Another injury to worry about, yay. While Jack hasn’t even been playing that well as of late, we really can’t afford to be down three top six forwards. Even with the Devils’ improved record since early December other teams keep winning too, we aren’t off the bubble yet and things still need to get a lot better before we start planning for April hockey again.
On Friday in Gothenburg, USA defeated Sweden 6-2 to capture gold at the 2024 World Junior Championships (WJC). The prestigious tournament featured many of hockey’s best prospects.
The Under-20 WJC didn’t disappoint. There were surprises throughout the marquee event that began on Dec. 26. That included Czechia eliminating Canada in the quarterfinals. They had a good roster that lost to USA in a shootout during group play. Czechia had a stirring comeback to shock Finland 8-5 to take bronze in a game they trailed 5-2.
Ultimately, USA had the best roster. They entered as favorites and backed it up with their play. After winning Group B, they coasted past Latvia in the quarters.
Then, Finland gave them a real test. The Americans fell behind 2-0 before coming back by rallying for an emotional 3-2 win in the semifinals. Cutter Gauthier got the game-winner on the power play with over three minutes left in the game. They advanced to the final to face Sweden in front of their fans. The Swedes edged Switzerland in the quarters and then triumphed over Czechia 5-2 to play for the gold.
Facing Sweden for the first time in the tournament, USA showed good composure early on. After forcing Swedish goalie Hugo Havelid into a good stop, it was the Swedes who applied some pressure on the American squad. Trey Augustine made a few key saves to keep Sweden off the scoreboard. He was calm in net to finish with 24 saves on 26 shots.
In the second part of the opening period, USA picked up their game. Their combination of skating, speed, skill, and grit was a team strength during the tournament. They were a deep team that could attack in waves. Particularly in transition. They used quick counters to do damage against opponents.
On a delayed penalty, USA got the extra attacker out for a six-on-five. During it, Rutger McGroarty moved the puck up top for Will Smith. His shot pass was tipped in by Gabe Perreault to give USA the lead with 3:04 left in the first period.
Early in the second period, Sweden put together a good shift to tie the score. After Elias Pettersson passed the puck up for a Mattias Havelid shot, Otto Stenberg redirected it past Augustine at 2:13.
The score remained tied until USA used their quick transition to retake the lead near the halfway point of the game. Drew Fortescue made a good lead pass for Isaac Howard, who broke in and went to the backhand to beat Hugo Havelid five-hole with 10:36 remaining in the second period. It was Howard’s first of two goals. For the tournament, he led all skaters with seven goals.
Less than five minutes later, Howard took a Gavin Brindley feed behind the net and came out with the puck. Tricking Havelid into thinking he was going to pass, he threw a shot towards the net that banked off a Swedish defenseman and in for a 3-1 lead with 5:41 left.
Before they got too comfortable, Seamus Casey went to the penalty box for tripping with less than a minute to go in the period. After they passed up an open shot, Sweden finally worked the puck around to get a big power-play goal with five seconds left. Noah Ostlund passed the puck up for Axel Pellikka Sandin at the right point. He then moved it across for a quick one-timer from tournament MVP Jonathan Lekkerimaki that deflected in front past Augustine to make it 3-2 USA headed to the third period.
With the Swedish contingent urging on their players, they couldn’t have loved what happened at the start of the third. Over a minute into the period, Perreault won an offensive draw to Will Smith. He then set up Zeev Buium for a one-timer that beat Havelid to give USA a 4-2 lead only 1:19 into the period.
A few minutes later, Ostlund was called for high-sticking. He drew blood. It was a double minor. USA could’ve put the game away. However, they were unable to get it done on the power play. There was one close call in front. But the tip attempt went over the net. Sweden did a good job killing off the four-minute penalty.
Despite getting the momentum, they weren’t able to solve Augustine, who had a strong game. He was very poised throughout and gave USA the edge they needed.
With under four minutes remaining, a great individual effort from Ryan Leonard resulted in a backbreaking goal that finished off Sweden. After receiving the puck from Perreault, Leonard kept his balance and maneuvered around two Swedish players before firing a wrist shot over the blocker of Havelid. That gave USA a 5-2 lead with 3:48 remaining.
The performance of the Boston College line got better as the tournament went on. The trio of Perreault, Leonard, and Smith were a factor in helping deliver the sixth gold medal in USA history at the WJC.
With Havelid on the Sweden bench for am extra attacker, Jimmy Snuggerud came out with the puck in the neutral zone and found McGroarty for the empty netter that put the exclamation mark on USA’s gold medal victory.
As time wound down, Sweden showed visible frustration. They went after some USA players during a scrum with 31 seconds to go. Both Ostlund and Anton Johansson got into it with Gauthier and Lane Hutson. A bloodied Hutson went back. Roughing minors and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were assessed.
Once the dust settled, USA finally wound down the clock to touch off a big celebration. They’d already started earlier following the Leonard and McGroarty goals. It was a memorable scene for the jubilant Americans who mobbed each other after winning gold.
After an emotional Sweden were presented their silver medals, they went over and shook hands with USA. There was some discussion about what happened late. It was positive. They fought hard.
The Media All-Stars included Hugo Havelid (SWE), Theo Lindstein (SWE), Lane Hutson (USA), Jiri Kulich (CZE), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (SWE), and Cutter Gauthier (USA). Kulich led all skaters with 12 points (6-6-12). Gauthier led USA in scoring with two goals and 10 assists for 12 points. Both Howard and Lekkerimaki tied for the tournament lead with seven goals.
Other players who stood out that weren’t selected included Ostlund, Perreault, Brindley, Howard, Ondrej Becher, Filip Mesar, and Matyas Melovsky.
It was another successful tournament. One that brought the hockey world together. Hopefully, next year will include the return of Russia. That’s a whole other subject for another day.
hasan4978
Derek
Battle Of Hudson 
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