Regarding the Rangers, who entertain Connor Bedard on the Garden on Thursday, or is Bedard going to entertain the Garden?
- In a way, Tuesday’s 6-1 rout by Carolina was an aberration because it marked only the fifth time — and first time since Nov. 29 — that the Blueshirts were outscored on special teams.
The Rangers couldn’t determine the Hurricanes’ penalty kill that also destroyed the Maple Leafs on Saturday. They may not get through the blue-line blockade, even on tries where they made multiple drop passes within the neutral zone. They became frustrated. They couldn’t — more so, wouldn’t — get the puck in deep. They became much more frustrated.
And the frustration of the fellows on the elite PP1 unit bled into five-on-five that unraveled within the third period as soon as Carolina scored 11 seconds after the Rangers did nothing with their third power play and scored again 1:23 after that.
“There’s absolute confidence about that,” head coach Peter Laviolette said Wednesday on a day of meetings and video work when asked concerning the frustration factor. “Specialty teams can offer you energy and I feel they may also work back the opposite way as well.”
Laviolette appropriately noted that the Blueshirts’ special teams have been high-end all season. However the Rangers are too depending on their power play they usually are too depending on the 4 PP1 forwards — Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck — to maintain the scoring business.
It’s a high-wire act for which there just isn’t enough of a security net below.
- That is the precise time to remind everyone that the Rangers have been operating without two top-six/top-nine forwards in Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, the previous since Nov. 2, the latter since Nov. 29. The Rangers have done well to camouflage their absences, however the team just doesn’t get enough supplementary scoring from the bottom-six.
Laviolette has used the Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Tyler Pitlick unit as his checking line, though he opted to go power against power against Carolina. That has left the Will Cuylle-Nick Bonino-Jonny Brodzinski combination because the third line. The Rangers have been constructed to have three scoring lines.
Nobody is blaming anyone for this, but in 12 games operating as a unit while deployed because the third line, Cuylle-Bonino-Brodzinski has scored two goals.
This alignment will change within the wake of Pitlick’s lower-body injury that he sustained against Carolina that can sideline him for an indefinite period and created the necessity for Brennan Othmann’s recall from the AHL Wolf Pack. It stays to be seen how Laviolette will rearrange the furniture.
But when a remade bottom-six is unable to get the job done, the hierarchy might want to advertise Adam Edstrom from Hartford and provides him a test drive centering the third line between Cuylle and Othmann.
I’ve even got a reputation for the unit.
Kid Line.
- Adam Fox doesn’t quite appear like himself, does he? It’s just like the perennial Norris contender has been a half-beat behind much of the time since returning Nov. 29 from a 10-game absence. His decision-making has seemed less crisp.
Tuesday, Fox seemed particularly frustrated. For good reason. It was one among the least effective nights of his profession.
The Fox-Ryan Lindgren pair was caved, on for 2 goals against and none for with an xGF of 21.5 percent. The tandem was on for six scoring possibilities against and none for. Within the last two games that features Saturday’s 5-1 victory in Tampa, Fox-Lindgren was on for 16 scoring possibilities against and two for in 29:07.
In contrast, the K’Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba pair was on for 19 possibilities for and 11 against while the Erik Gustafsson-Braden Schneider pair, which struggled big time against the ’Canes, was on for nine possibilities for and 11 against.
- The resiliency and skill to self-correct is impressive, but there shouldn’t be this whiplash effect through the schedule. The Rangers need to determine a consistent baseline wherein structure can overcome games when the special teams struggle.
Fact is after a 16-2-1 run, the Rangers are 7-6 of their last 13 games wherein they’ve scored 42 goals while allowing a way-too-many 41.
- Within the seven games the Blueshirts have lost by three-or-more goals, they’ve been outscored by an aggregate 15-2 within the third period, but with six scored into an empty net.
The Rangers’ 10 regulation defeats include five losses by 4 goals or more. In that respect, Tuesday was not an aberration.
“I don’t know in the event you’re almost halfway through the season and you will have five games which have ended 5-1 [against], I don’t know if that’s abnormal or not,” Laviolette said. “I’m unsure.”
At random, let’s take the Rangers from two years ago, who were 23-9-4 through 36 games, one point off this 12 months’s 25-10-1 pace.
By that time, Gerard Gallant’s first 12 months on Broadway had included two 5-1 defeats, one by 7-3 and one by 6-0.
Perhaps not so abnormal, in any case.