NEW YORK — At this point, the Rangers have shown who they are. They can get hot for stretches, lean on good goaltending and win just enough to stay in the mix of a weak East wild-card race. They aren’t as bad as they were during their 4-15-0 stretch earlier in the season, but they have shown no reason to believe they can string enough quality play together to make noise should they even make the playoffs. The top-end talent isn’t there. Neither is the depth or the defensive consistency.
New York’s 7-3 loss Sunday to the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team it is chasing in the standings, was the latest example. The Rangers failed to capitalize on momentum, were porous defensively for the second consecutive game and did little to generate at five-on-five. Fans booed the players off the ice.
The Rangers are now a point back of Ottawa for the second wild-card spot, but the Senators have two games in hand. New York is two points back of Columbus, which has one game in hand.
“We have no option but to just look forward at the next one,” Vincent Trocheck said.
We, though, have no option but to look back. Here are takeaways from the loss.
Defensive miscues haunt the Rangers
Where to begin?
There was Zach Werenski skating around Carson Soucy and Zac Jones to set up a goal in the first period, then Sam Carrick and Urho Vaakanainen in the second. There was Artemi Panarin getting caught too low in the second period, leading to a two-on-one rush and an Adam Fantilli goal. There was Vaakanainen losing track of Fantilli ahead of his two other goals, though one was because he had to cover for teammates leaving Dmitri Voronkov alone by the net. There was Jones gloving a puck into his own net.
“They came in different ways against us tonight. Whether we get beat or the coverage broke down or it bounces in a different direction or we have somebody fall and the coverage breaks down, it goes to odd man numbers down in our zone,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “At the end of the day it’s not good enough. We gave up chances that were big and right in front of our net, and that can’t happen.”
New York might have led in shots by the end of the night, but the ones by Columbus were far more dangerous. The Rangers allowed 11 even-strength goals over the course of the weekend.
“The team defense is still there,” Trocheck said. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. I don’t know how many of their goals were just a product of us giving them a Grade-A chance.”
Chris Kreider roars after beating Daniil Tarasov for a short-handed goal. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Penalty kill a bright spot
If the Rangers ever are hurting for offense, they should try committing penalties.
New York was already down two goals when Will Cuylle held Ivan Provorov six minutes into the second period. The crowd was listless.
Almost immediately, the Rangers penalty kill went on the attack. Trocheck and K’Andre Miller had a short-handed chance, and when the Blue Jackets got the puck out of their own end, New York immediately regrouped. Braden Schneider rimmed the puck around the boards from the red line and Mika Zibanejad grabbed possession. He passed to Trocheck, who found Schneider all alone on the wing. The defenseman ripped a shot past Daniil Tarasov.
Columbus coach Dean Evason took his top power-play unit off the ice, but his second grouping didn’t fare any better. Chris Kreider poked a puck away from Yegor Chinakhov. He burst up ice for what looked like it would be a two-on-one. Ivan Provorov, though, got tangled with Zibanejad and fell, leading to a two-on-zero rush. Zibanejad and Kreider passed back and forth until Kreider had an open angle to shoot past Tarasov.
With that, the game was tied. It was the first time the Rangers had two short-handed goals in one power play since March 5, 2014.
One goal would’ve done plenty to get fans back into the game. Two? That more than did the trick. New York failed to capitalize on the momentum, though.
“Just kind of let that die,” Miller said.
The Rangers pushed for a few minutes after the pair of short-handed goals, but they couldn’t finish. Then the Blue Jackets scored twice within two minutes to end the period.
“Couple turnovers, just lapses,” Zibanejad said. “I don’t think it’s anything structural or anything major like that. I think it’s just a couple mistakes.”
“When we made it 3-3, we needed to grab the juice, get the fourth goal and then push the game in our direction,” Laviolette added. “It didn’t happen.”
Quick struggles against (kind of) former team
Igor Shesterkin has the lowest save percentage of his career (.905), but Sunday showed why that’s a bit deceiving. With the way the Rangers play defense, other goalies allow far more.
Jonathan Quick, briefly acquired by Columbus at the 2023 deadline and then immediately flipped to Vegas, gave up seven goals on 27 shots. He carried no blame for some of them, but the Rangers too often count on their goalies bailing them out, and Quick wasn’t able to cover up their mistakes.
Laviolette said he and the coaches talked about going to Shesterkin, who played Saturday in Ottawa, with the Rangers trailing 5-3 after two periods.
“Also looking at the schedule, where we’re at inside the season, the fact that we played last night, where we’re going next,” Laviolette said. “Quickie’s a warrior in there. When we talked about it, we left him.”
Jonathan Quick couldn’t make up for his team’s defensive miscues. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
Kreider back on power play
Kreider made his return to the lineup Saturday after missing six games with an upper-body injury. Laviolette did not put him on the power play against the Senators, but he returned on the man-advantage against the Blue Jackets. He had a couple net-front looks on the first power play, and Laviolette said after the game he thought Kreider looked good.
The unit as a whole generated decently well — the Rangers had 10 shots on four power plays — but couldn’t finish.
“There were lots of chances, lots of shots: shots that missed, shots that got blocked, shots that didn’t connect,” Laviolette said. “The goalie made some saves as well. … But we’ve got to score.”
The Rangers power play is now one-for-20 since Adam Fox went down with an upper-body injury. Laviolette did not say if Fox will go on the upcoming road trip.
“We’re getting good looks,” Trocheck said. “I think if we knew the answer to that, we’d probably be scoring more goals. There’s been a lot the last couple games where I feel like we could’ve scored a few and just the pucks didn’t go in.”
Lafrenière not shooting
Alexis Lafrenière picked up an assist against the Blue Jackets, but he had only one shot. He has only one goal and 16 shots in his past 16 games. For perspective, he averaged 2.64 shots per game in a career-best year in 2023-24.
(Top photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
