Recap: Abysmal Start Dooms Rangers in 5th Consecutive Loss, Fall 3-1 to Flyers

The Rangers were in the city of brotherly love for their first back-to-back of the season yet there was nothing to love about their performance. Following a brutal start consisting of half the period spent without a shot on goal, the Rangers fell behind early and couldn’t gain any momentum throughout this post-Thanksgiving matchup. Another frustration filled outing as the Rangers have now lost five games in a row and seem to have no life to their play. 

1st Period:

Disinterested doesn’t even begin to describe the start the Rangers got off to in this one. Igor Shesterkin was being tested early and it wouldn’t be long before they fell behind on the scoreboard. An uninspired shot at the point from Adam Fox was blocked with ease by Tyson Foerster who outworked everyone to dish the puck ahead to Bobby Brink, allowing him to come in all alone to capitalize on the breakaway. 1-0 bad guys. 

The Flyers didn’t stop working and the Rangers hadn’t showed up yet as just 70 seconds later, Travis Konecny found the back of the net to extend the Flyers lead 2-0. Another far too easy breakout for the Flyers resulted in a tic-tac-toe passing play through the neutral zone to send Konecny breezing right by a flat footed Jacob Trouba to sneak a backhander through Shesterkin’s legs. 

To summarize just how bad of a start the Rangers were off to, their first shot on goal came over 11 minutes into the first period. Philadelphia on the other hand, had ten up to that point. Through the back half of the opening period it only got worse. The Rangers weren’t playing with purpose, couldn’t make a simple pass or generate anything in the Flyers end of the ice. 

There was however, a noticeable frustration growing. You had Artemiy Panarin getting physical away from the play and as the period went on, Adam Fox was starting to hit anything that moved. Pretty telling when two of your least physical players are among the only ones showing some fire. You could put the fourth line in that category as well but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough to make a difference at least early on here. 

With about two minutes to go, the team’s exchanged high danger chances as Vincent Trocheck fed Alexis Lafrenière on a 2-on-1 that Ivan Fedotov was able to shut down. As the play went the other way, Shesterkin flashed the glove to shut down another dangerous chance from the Flyers that could have put this game even more out of reach. Safe to say, this was an unfathomable opening period.

Shots on goal were 15-4 in favor of the Flyers who also lead in the high danger count 10-2. Outside of one quality scoring chance from Brett Berard and the chance from Lafrenière on the odd-man rush there was nothing positive to take away from this start. The Rangers were out-hitting the Flyers 11-0 but until that resulted in a change of heart from this lifeless group, things were looking as bleak as they have in a long time. 

2nd Period:

Cue the line blender. The Rangers opened the period with Will Cuylle on the wing of Mika Zibanejad and Panarin followed up by Trocheck with Lafrenière and Brett Berard. In addition to that, Braden Schneider was back with K’Andre Miller demoting Trouba to the third pair with Zac Jones. Through the first half of the period, the changes didn’t do much of anything as the Rangers only registered three more shots on goal and continued to barely spend any time in the offensive zone. 

Finally, just twenty seconds after the exact midway point of the outing, the Rangers were finally generating some strong puck movement in the Flyers zone. A perfect pass from Will Cuylle found Trocheck in the slt who fired one home to make it a 2-1 game. 

Unfortunately, the goal didn’t spark much of anything as the Rangers continued to give up odd-man rushes left and right, Laviolette seemingly gave up on the Kaapo Kakko at center experiment as Jonny Brodzinski began taking rushes in the middle of him and Reilly Smith. You can change the lines all you want but there just wasn’t any urgency or tenacity from anyone.

Brett Berard continued to be the lone bright spot for this Rangers team. In the final minute of the period, he made a great defensive play to take advantage of a turnover to lead the rush and generate a scoring chance. His tenacity wouldn’t stop there as he got into a bit of a shoving match with Nick Seeler following the whistle. A good example of what the Rangers needed but were sorely lacking from the majority of this lineup. 

At the end of two, shots were now 27-14 in favor of Philadelphia which considering the four shots on goal the Rangers had in the first was certainly growth. The Flyers had nine scoring chances to the Rangers five and led in the high danger count 2-1. The only ones who appeared to not want to be there more than the players were the officials who hadn’t called a single penalty through the first 40 minutes of the outing.

3rd Period:

With a slightly greater sense of urgency to their game to start the third, the Rangers had a handful of scoring chances but couldn’t quite find the back of the net. Trouba had a chance on the doorstep with Zibanejad having an opportunity right in the slot not long after. The offense continued as Kaapo Kakko nearly tied the game on a point blank rush through the slot. Again, noticeable improvements but still not enough. 

Just over seven minutes in, the officials finally decided to call a penalty which of course came at the Rangers expense. Reilly Smith got tied up with Owen Tippett along the boards and with one hand off the stick and tangled with Tippett, it was enough to earn the attention of the officials which was interesting given how this game had gone up to that point. 

Nevertheless, the Rangers had a penalty to kill and did a great job of doing so as they limited the Flyers from getting anything set up in their end of the ice. Unfortunately, the Rangers didn’t really use that to gain any momentum as the Flyers put their foot back on the gas and spent the majority of the next five minutes in the offensive zone. The Rangers were completely chasing and couldn’t manage to do much of anything. 

With nothing to show for the better half of the period, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker with under three minutes to go. Zibanejad had as good of a chance as you could ask for at the doorstep yet somehow missed the net. With 40 seconds to go, the Rangers were able to call a much needed timeout as this group was completely exhausted. Stop me if you’ve seen this movie before, the Rangers gained the zone and before you knew it, Travis Konecny had a breakaway on an empty net and walked the puck just like Buchnevhich did on Monday. 

It may have been a one goal game for almost half the matinee but it really wasn’t close. This team is in serious need of a shake up and until that happens, it’s hard to feel optimistic about their abilities to snap this slump. The Rangers won’t have much time to prepare for the next one as they’ll head back home for another afternoon showing at the Garden where they’ll host the Montreal Canadiens.