Recap: Bruins Spoil J.T. Miller Debut, Rangers Lose 6-3

Less than a day after the trade was announced, J.T. Miller is debuting once again for the New York Rangers. In a move that more or less signified the team has some belief or desire in chasing after a playoff spot, they were up against another team underperforming this year. Today is a big opportunity for both the Bruins and the Rangers to grab some important points and climb the standings. The teams face off today and then again next Wednesday. Let's get to it.

1st Period

Things didn't start off too hot for the Rangers. The teams traded chances and the puck went up and down the ice, but then the Rangers got into some penalty trouble. First Urho Vaakanainen, playing his first game as a Ranger against the team that drafted him, went off for cross checking giving the Bruins the single man advantage. Shortly after, Ryan Lindgren in what can only be described as a boneheaded play also took a penalty in a very blatant cross checking play against Matthew Poitras. You can see where this is going, the Bruins won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly, set up in the Rangers zone, and began cycling the puck leading to McAvoy sending a one timer right past Shesterkin seconds after the first penalty expired. A quick sidebar, the ABC commentators pronounced Poitras' name three different ways throughout the night.

With that goal, things were starting to look dire, but the Rangers responded right away. Miller pressured the Bruins in the neutral zone, and he and Panarin broke into the Bruins zone. Panarin continued to pester the Bruins defender and got his stick on an attempted pass and deflected the puck over to a wide open J.T. Miller in the slot who rocketed home his first goal as a Ranger in almost seven years. The Rangers tied the game just as the TD Garden was announcing the Bruins goal.

Later in the first as the period was winding down, the Bruins struck once again. Poitras got the puck in deep behind the Rangers net, and chased it down. He outplayed Adam Fox and used his body to spin and play him off the puck and put a pass right to Pastrnak in front who wasted no time giving the Bruins the lead again. Tonight was not looking as if it'd be a good one for the Fox/Lindgren combo and the national broadcast was not shy in their criticism of Fox's ethic and commitment to that play. Adam Fox is the Rangers' best defenseman right now and it's not particularly close, but he just like the rest of the team, has had an off year and this sequence is proof of that. However, he was not the only Ranger to fail on his assignment during this play, both Edström and Carrick failed here as well.

2nd Period

This was a miserable period for the Blueshirts. They were outshot 10-2 and outworked the entire middle frame. There were long periods of time where the Bruins controlled the puck in the Rangers zone over multiple shifts and scored at both even strength and with the man advantage.

First was Coyle's deflection, which frankly Shesterkin has absolutely no chance on. The play almost felt surgical for the Bruins, Marchand carried in the puck behind the net, he beat Fox and played the puck to himself off the boards, and fed the puck to the point. Peeke immediately put a shot on net where Coyle who was entirely in front of Lindgren got his stick on the puck putting the Bruins up by two.

Later in the period, after the Bruins continued to dominate the game, Will Borgen was penalized for tripping. The Bruins wasted no time in cycling in the Rangers zone, leading to a breakdown in front of Shesterkin and Zacha was able to get a clean shot and capitalize on the man advantage for the second time in the game.

I wish there was something good to write about here on behalf of the Rangers efforts or results in the second, but to add injury to insult, Adam Edström and Nikita Zadorov collided near the boards which resulted in Edström leaving the game.

3rd Period

The Rangers started the period off on the power play, and got to work immediately. Kreider, who replaced Trocheck on the first power play unit this time around started off the play by winning the puck and dishing it to Zibanejad. Mika made a pass shot and the newest Ranger J.T. Miller fought through coverage to get his stick on the puck and tip it in past a sprawling Swayman. The Rangers had some life.

Just as it seemed the Rangers were making this a game, the Bruins answered right back. Pastrnak laid a hit on Reilly Smith at the Rangers blue line knocking him off the puck, Poitras collected it and dished it back to Pastrnak who took a slapshot and scored his second of the game.

For what its worth, the Rangers didn't give up. later in the period Jonny Brodzinski would score and close the gap mostly due to a fantastic individual effort from Artemi Panarin. He got the puck in the offensive zone and was stickhandling through three different Bruin players, the rest of the team eventually caught up to Panarin and he handed the puck off to Borgen who slid it over to Lindgren. Lindgren sent the puck toward the net and Brodzinski got his stick on it to deflect it past Swayman for what would be the Rangers last goal of the game. The team's performance in the third period was vastly different than the second, they had pep in their step, they had life! Sadly it was too little too late.

With over three minutes to play, Laviolette pulled the goalie. Which unfortunately led to Pastrnak's third goal and the final dagger that cemented the loss for the Rangers. There was a lot to dislike during this game, but for what it's worth, there were spurts of hope sprinkled in as well. J.T. Miller is fitting in quite nicely, registering six shots on net and two goals. The team is going to need to figure out their power play units which I imagine we'll see various renditions of over the next week. Another positive in this game, is while they were thoroughly out played for long periods of the game, the team did stick up for themselves and push back against the Bruins and their antagonistic ways. Seeing Fox fight Marchand is not something I'd have on my 2024-25 bingo card, but boy I wanted to see it happen and I'll hold a personal vendetta against that linesman for the rest of my life.

The Rangers are back at it again tomorrow, facing off against the Golden Knights at Madison Square Garden.