If the New York Rangers were the Rangers of any of the last three seasons, Sunday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers would be an easy one to digest. The Rangers defended well, as they have for the last week against some quality offenses. Igor Shesterkin, making a rare back-to-back start, looked strong. They had plenty of good looks on offense.
More than enough positive signs to outweigh a negative result, in any recent season. But in this season, the one with the 4-15-0 blotch on the calendar from late November to early January, means that there’s no way to feel OK about Sunday. The 3-1 loss, with the Oilers scoring the go-ahead and insurance goals on plays when Rangers defensemen were a step late to an Oilers shooter, means the Rangers’ stay in the final wild-card spot could be short-lived.
They’re still there with 72 points in 68 games. But the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets, who sit one and two points back, both have two games in hand now.
Some takeaways from a decently played, disappointing night at the Garden:
Power play woes continue
During the Rangers’ 12-4-1 run to open this season — that feels like it happened about a hundred years ago — they scored 11 power-play goals, befitting a team that’s finished third, seventh and fourth on the power play in the last three seasons.
In the 51 games since, the Rangers have scored just 22 power-play goals. The 0-for-3 performance on Sunday hurt, since J.T. Miller laced one off the post on a power play barely 90 seconds into the game that could have changed this one, but also because the Rangers couldn’t convert on a third-period power play down a goal. With Adam Fox back in the lineup, the Rangers have their preferred PP1 personnel, but they simply haven’t been producing.
Since Miller arrived the Rangers are 7-for-46, a 15.2 percent clip that’s 26th in the league. Not enough has changed on the power play with Miller’s addition; that may have more to do with the collective funk some of the Rangers’ top guys have been in most of this season, with Mika Zibanejad on pace for single-digit power-play goals for the first time in eight years and Chris Kreider also underperforming.
Vincent Trocheck could return to the top unit and Alexis Lafrenière, who has awakened from hibernation in the past week, could make a reappearance there as well. But the core of the top unit will remain. It just has to be better, or else the Rangers lose coin-flip games like Sunday’s.
Containment on defense, except for a couple key moments
Connor McDavid didn’t have a shot on goal until the final four minutes of the game. What happened after that, you ask? Well…
McDavid clinched this one with a wicked wrist shot past Shesterkin. McDavid can make anyone back off when he’s coming with speed across the blue line and K’Andre Miller’s step back proved to be one too many, as he stepped up on McDavid too late to prevent the dangerous shot from the slot.
The killer was Viktor Arvidsson’s goal to break a 1-1 tie at 6:09 of the third. It was an Edmonton three-on-two, so Zac Jones wasn’t going to match Arvidsson stride for stride, but Arvidsson was outside the left faceoff dot, a relatively harmless place for Shesterkin to face a shot. Jones, though, got his stick out and Arvidsson’s shot rolled up Jones’ blade, completely fooling Shesterkin.
The puck changed trajectory on Viktor Arvidsson’s eventual game-winner thanks to Zac Jones’ stick. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
You’d rather see Jones keep good position but let his all-world goalie see a shot without anything in the way there.
Jones had a solid night otherwise, one of several Rangers defensemen and forwards who used their feet and bodies to make the maximum effort on McDavid and the Oilers. As they did against the Jets last week to no success and also to good results against the Wild and Blue Jackets, the Rangers have come to understand how hard they need to defend to keep themselves in games this time of year.
Sunday was that old hockey chestnut: a playoff-type game. Lots of blocked shots both ways, good goaltending, not much room to operate. Small details make a huge difference.
Kids are grinding
In addition to Will Cuylle scoring what may well become a prototypical Will Cuylle goal — pretty much from the seat of his pants two feet from the net — the rest of the Rangers’ under-25 forward group are all doing the most they can with small minutes. Matt Rempe (7:19), Brett Berard (6:22) and Brennan Othmann (6:00) may only be getting a handful of shifts every night but you have to be encouraged that they are all embracing these plumber-type roles.
That is probably Rempe’s NHL future, but Othmann and Berard were both 20-goal scorers in Hartford last season. They play very different roles in the AHL. Up here, though, there won’t be much room to become a top-six forward in the near future, so it’s wise to do what you can to be noticed.
You can certainly quibble with their usage too, especially when Othmann in particular has started to grasp the NHL game a bit better. Hunting for a tying goal in the third, Peter Laviolette gave the top two lines a breather and sent out Sam Carrick, Johnny Brodzinski and Kreider. All guys who have scored a few this season. But Othmann and Berard have had some juice, especially on Sunday, so I wouldn’t have minded seeing one or both of them get a crack at trying to tie it.
Shesterkin loses a back-to-back start for the first time
It was just his fifth time starting on consecutive days, so that’s not exactly a long streak broken. Yes, you’d want him to have Arvidsson’s shot, even with the change of direction. Yes, you’d want him to snag McDavid’s wrister too, even though it’s the best player in the world bearing down. Shesterkin is still the main reason why the Rangers are in this playoff hunt at all and he was still pretty good on Sunday — arguably the worst goal he gave up was Corey Perry’s first-period power-play goal, when he lost his positioning on a scramble.
The Rangers’ remaining 14 games are tough. Ten are against current playoff teams and there’s a California trip in there with a back-to-back. But the Rangers will only make the playoffs on Shesterkin’s back, so I’d expect to see him play at least 12 of these last 14. That would bring him to 62 starts for the season, a career high. Time to earn that big contract.
(Top photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
