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In what’s become a blur of losses — 16 in the last 21 games, nine in the last 11 and five in the last six — the Rangers found a slightly new wrinkle in Washington on Saturday afternoon.
The offense, which hadn’t produced at least four goals in almost a month, hit that number with some aggressiveness up the ice and a bit of luck. The defense — team and individual — was leaky, which isn’t new. And the Rangers’ reliable penalty kill gave up two key goals, continuing a downward trend in what was really the last bastion of quality the team has had this season.
It was another L, this one a 7-4 loss to the East-leading Capitals. Losing to a team playing as well as Washington isn’t a surprise at this point for the Rangers, who lost for the 20th time in regulation in 38 games after not hitting that loss mark until Game 69, 71 and 69 in the last three seasons. The surprise, perhaps, is that a Rangers team that not too long ago would have put up four at even strength and coasted to a win behind decent defense, above-average goaltending and a puck-hunting mentality with the lead can’t even win when they’re scoring goals anymore.
This was also the 13th game of 38 in which the Rangers have allowed five or more goals, the most in the league. That probably explains the inability to win.
Oh, and the greatest captain in franchise history got some shots in during the ESPN pregame and intermission sessions, which certainly warrants some notice.
The takes:
Good news first? There were some goals!
And ones where Caps goalie Logan Thompson didn’t gift wrap the score, as he did on Chris Kreider’s opening goal of the game. Thompson came into the game as one of the success stories of the season in net, 10th in the league in goals saved above expected. Thompson wasn’t good on Saturday, starting with the bad pass from 30 feet out of his net that Kreider volleyed back into a yawning cage.
With Thompson prepared to play goal, the Rangers were still pretty good. Sam Carrick jumped on an Alex Ovechkin turnover, Filip Chytil broke free to receive an Urho Vaakanainen stretch pass for a breakaway goal and Mika Zibanejad snuck one by Thompson off a side-angle look. Chytil and Zibanejad have rediscovered some offense of late, which is crucial to any success this team might have.
Mika adds one. pic.twitter.com/8FZ2AEBYpo
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 4, 2025
Oh, and we can’t forget an oldie but a goodie: An overturned Will Cuylle goal, this one after a lengthy offside challenge review that was preceded by a Capitals timeout called by coach Spencer Carbery to give his video team more time to find the offending clip. Find it they did, even though the offside occurred 14 seconds before Cuylle’s goal and the review and timeout took over five minutes to complete.
OK, now the bad news — everything else
The Rangers went down 3-1 in the second period and pulled within a goal three different times. Here’s how long they stayed within one goal: 1:47, 2:18 and 56 seconds.
This is what bad teams do. The Caps, conversely, have been one of the best teams in the league all year, and answering after a goal is what good teams do. The details of all three of those Washington goals tell a story, mostly of a Rangers team that’s not confident enough to press the attack for a tying goal while also defending hard and getting whatever bounces you need to win games.
Carrick made it 3-2 Caps at 16:26 of the second. Just 13 seconds after that, Ryan Lindgren air-mailed a clear from his own zone into the crowd for a delay of game penalty. The Rangers actually had three different scoring chances on the ensuing penalty kill and, even though they didn’t score, could have gained some momentum from a successful kill to keep it a one-goal game.
Instead, the Caps only needed one decent zone entry and setup. Connor McMichael redirected a Dylan Strome pass from the side wall and it was 4-2 heading to the third. The two PPGs against marked the third time in the last five games the PK has allowed multiple PPGs after allowing that twice in the first 33.
After Chytil’s goal at 8:32, Vincent Trocheck won a D-zone draw back to K’Andre Miller, who couldn’t find the puck quickly enough off his skate. Ovechkin did and beat Jonathan Quick for goal No. 872.
Finally, Zibanejad made it 5-4 at 13:06. Less than a minute later a long-range slapper from Pierre-Luc Dubois beat Quick clean, hit the post, went back toward Quick and Aliaksei Protas got to it before Miller. Ballgame.
Adam Fox had a very Adam Fox-like first period, on his toes and up the ice stepping into Caps plays. After that first period, though the Lindgren-Fox pair wasn’t good enough; they also went for a change as the Caps started up the ice ahead of the Protas goal, leaving Miller and Will Borgen in panic mode from the second they hopped the boards.
The Rangers’ team defense has been atrocious during this 21-game slide but the defense corps has to take the lion’s share of the blame on Saturday. Zac Jones has every right to be ticked off — if Peter Laviolette doesn’t think Jones deserves to get a game over some of the current regulars, then he doesn’t think Jones is an NHL defenseman.
Mess speaks
Mark Messier isn’t around the Garden much at all anymore but he surely knows what’s going on. He was very clear with his assessment of the Rangers both before and during Saturday’s loss.
“The core of the Rangers is fractured right now,” he said on ESPN. “And I don’t think they’re fractured internally. I think there’s a disconnect between management and the coaching staff, there’s a lack of trust and loyalty now and in order to get over that, it’s going to take a lot of work.”
Messier compared the Rangers’ situation to his own with the Oilers when Edmonton owner Peter Pocklington traded Wayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988. That was over money and the Rangers’ dismantling is about trying to find new core players in a salary-cap system, but the feeling in the room might be similar.
“We were able to overcome it in Edmonton, as mad as we were at ownership and at management and everything else at trading away one of our brothers,” Messier said. “It takes a lot of work, a lot of trust and I think the Rangers can (overcome it), but it’s not going to be easy.”
During the first intermission and after Kreider was interviewed during the break, Messier added to his Rangers commentary.
“You can tell with Kreider, one of the longest-standing Rangers of all time, he’s clearly been hurt by being put on the trade block, for whatever reason,” he said. “That has had a profound effect on the core of the team. When you put Chris Kreider on the trade block, that affects his best friend, Zibanejad. The cascade effect of that has clearly been evident over the last month.
“Now, as players, we have to be big enough, strong enough, man enough and man up to get over that. We are not in control of some things that happen as players. Management can do whatever they want and we have a responsibility to each other as players. They’ve got to get over that. We haven’t seen a lot of emotion from the Rangers over the last month.”
(Photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
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