Recap: NYR Held Winless in Alberta, Lose 6-2 to Edmonton

The Rangers looked to wrap up their first big road trip of the season with a final stop in Alberta to take on last season's runner-up to the Stanley Cup, the Edmonton Oilers. Having gone 2-1-0 through their first three games on the road, the Rangers ideally would have liked to come out of it with three wins but the McDavid and the Oilers certainly had other plans. Another abysmal showing defensively allowed for Edmonton's offense to expose the Rangers in their first back-to-back losing stretch of the season.

1st Period:

Both sides were off to a solid start establishing good pace to the game going nearly seven minutes without a stoppage of play. While the Rangers were keeping up with the Oilers somewhat at the very beginning of the period, through the midway point they were being out-shout 10-2 and barely had any time spent in the offensive zone. Jonathan Quick was once again supplying a strong presence in the Rangers crease to keep them. 

That continued to be the story through an uneventful second half of the first. While the Rangers were slowly and steadily picking up more shots on goal, Quick continued to be the difference maker. Outside of some big saves, including a split effort against Connor McDavid; One of the lone highlights from the Rangers came as Artemiy Panarin laid a massive hip check on Leon Draisaitl after turning the puck over, nearly sending him on a breakaway. 

With two and a half minutes to go in the period, Quick’s shutout streak would officially come to an end at just over 145 minutes. A pass back from Draisaitl set up Vasily Podkolzin for a one timer that went off the post and in to make it a 1-0 game. On the shift that followed, Brett Kulak was called for holding which gave the Rangers a lengthy shift on the delayed call 6-on-5. They would close out the period with 63 seconds of power play time. 

The power play did more harm than good as the Rangers struggled to maintain possession and Darnell Nurse managed to beat Quick on a point blank shot to extend the Oilers lead 2-0. This became the first shorthanded goal the Rangers allowed this season. Another period where the Rangers were out-shot significantly, 21-8 with scoring chances 11-6 and high danger chances 4-1. Which if you combine those numbers with their efforts in the last game of this road trip, equate to a truly not great look for the New York Rangers. 

2nd Period:

The good news was the Rangers still had power play time to start the middle period. The bad news, they would come up empty handed and would soon take a penalty of their own to be shorthanded for the first time this evening. An effective power play for the Oilers but the Rangers were able to hold them off, keeping the score 2-0. 

The Rangers had a couple of encouraging shifts but still had nothing to show for nearing the midway point of the game. With about twelve minutes to go, the Rangers headed back to the power play as Derek Ryan was called for slashing but that quickly became a 4-on-4 after another shorthanded chance from the Oilers. It was Vincent Trocheck that would head off as he was called for hooking Mattias Janmark on the shorthanded opportunity. 

Edmonton is certainly not a team you want to give more time and space to and sure enough, two of the best players in the world ended up on a 2-on-1 against Jacob Trouba which may as well have been a 2-on-0. A quick back-and-forth passing play resulted in an easy goal for Draisaitl to make it a 3-0 game. 

Things went from bad to worse as Janmark found a pinching Evan Bouchard wide open in the high slot who fired a shot through traffic past Quick to make it a 4-0 game. Yet another goal against with 8 and 55 on the ice together.

With just under five minutes to go in the second, the Rangers finally got on the board. A strong effort from the Rangers second line allowed for Artemiy Panarin and Adam Fox to go back and forth near the point before Panarin walked a shot in that went off of Stuart Skinner and in to spoil his potential shutout. 4-1 game. 

Despite the late period goal and doubling their shots on goal tally in the second period, the Rangers were so far from competing in this one as their defensive shortcomings were once again on full display. They would need a real wake up call during the second intermission if they were going to come out for the third as a team capable of getting back in this game. 

3rd Period:

With a bit more urgency to their game to start the final period, the Rangers had a stretch of good shifts mainly spend in Edmonton's end of the ice. As they did towards the end of the second, the Rangers continued to double shift Panarin by putting him on the third line with Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle, giving Kakko more reps at center.

Alas, any hopes of making a game out of this one seemingly came to an end about six minutes in. A good zone entry by Kasperi Kapanen off the rush set the scene for Connor McDavid to find a pass right at the door step that he was able to dish past Quick to make it a 5-1 game.

It was quickly becoming the Connor McDavid show as just a couple of minutes later, he did what he does best and made practically everyone else look silly as he outworked and out-waited, everyone and everything until he had a wide open net to shoot at, 6-1 Edmonton.

The Rangers ended up with another power play soon after as Derek Ryan was called for holding but it wouldn't do much except allow for the second power play unit to actually see some ice time. Ryan Lindgren would be the next one to go off to the penalty box as the Rangers were set to be shorthanded once again. Edmonton would also resort to their second power play unit however in their case, it was more of a sign that they were ready to coast their way through the end of this one.

With three and a half to go, Panarin picked up his second of the night on a rocket of a wrist shot in the slot. A great effort from Alexis Lafrenière to force the turnover that got Panarin the puck.

Another burn the tape type of night but unfortunately for the Rangers, they'll have lots of homework to take away from this one. Final shots on goal tally would come in at 40-35 Edmonton. The Rangers will head back home to host the St. Louis Blues on Monday Night as they kick off a busy holiday week of hockey.