Recap: Dreadful Start to Road Trip, 5-1 Loss to Vegas

Well, if you opted to get a good night’s sleep instead of staying up for the 10 o’clock puck drop, you made the wise decision. Despite an electric start to the game, the Rangers completely faltered, allowing Vegas to run away with this one scoring four consecutive goals through the back half of the first and second periods. There really isn’t a way to sugar coat this one as it was just a disastrous performance full of defensive shortcomings, bad goals and inability to capitalize on scoring chances.

1st Period:

The Rangers got off to a phenomenal start as they spent the first two minutes of play in Vegas’ zone, registering three shots on goal and really applying pressure right out the gate. Not long after their early surge, Ryan Lindgren set up Kaapo Kakko for a grade A scoring chance that tested Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson as did a scramble in front of the net on the very next shift. With all the offensive zone pressure New York was applying, it was only a matter of time before it drew a Vegas penalty and sure enough, about nine and a half minutes in, Byron Froese was sent off for hooking.

Both Rangers power play units had some good looks but Logan Thompson continued to match all their best chances to keep them off the board through the man advantage. Just a couple of minutes later, the Rangers had a bit of a defensive lapse which cost them as Jonathan Marchessault found the back of the net to give Vegas an early 1-0 lead. Not a great goal for Igor Shesterkin to give up but certainly not a great defensive effort to precede it.

With five minutes to go in the first, Jacob Trouba made a terrible play in the defensive zone where he threw a half-hearted hit and got caught chasing Nicholas Roy towards the goal line. Roy threw a pass over to Ivan Barbashev who redirected the puck off his skates into the back of the net. The officials took a second look at the play but it was pretty clearly not a kicking motion, therefore wasn’t much of a surprise that the call on the ice stood, 2-0 game.

About a minute later, a defensive zone turnover led to Adam Fox getting called for hooking to give Vegas their first power play of the night. The Rangers were dangerously close to going down 3-0 but Igor Shesterkin came up with a massive save off the left lag pad that resulted in a bit of a fumble for the loose puck before finally getting the whistle. The Rangers would manage to kill the penalty on Fox but all the momentum established early on in the period was pretty much gone at this point. After the first twenty shots were 11-10 in favor of New York who got off to a great start but really fell apart once Vegas put themselves on the scoreboard.

2nd Period:

Things slowed down pretty significantly through the first half of the second period. The Rangers were still seeing shots on goal but couldn’t find a way to crack Logan Thompson as it always seems that the Rangers struggle tremendously when it comes to scoring on right handed catching goaltenders. On top of that, for as many pucks as the Rangers were getting on net, they were sending quite a few of them over the net. That being said, the majority of the period was rather uneventful.

With about three and a half to go in the second, Braden Schneider was called for interference against Ivan Barbashev which sent Vegas back to the power play. A minute and a half into the power play, it would be Ivan Barbashev sending the puck to the back of the net as Mark Stone fed him rather perfectly as he was left completely unbothered by the Rangers penalty killers. 3-0 Vegas.

Just 25 seconds later, Kaiden Korczak led the rush for Vegas and let a shot go that took a redirect off the stick of Keegan Kolesar to find its way past Shesterkin and into the back of the net to extend Vegas’ lead 4-0.

With 30 seconds to go in the period, Byron Froese sent the puck into the crowd which earned him a delay of game penalty to bring the Rangers power play back to the ice. With not much time to get anything going, the teams would head into the second intermission with the game being far from close. The Blueshirts seriously had their work cut out for them as they just looked incredibly lifeless from the moment they allowed that first goal in the opening period. Rangers still had the advantage in shots on goal 19-17 but really didn’t seem to have any tenacity to their game as only one of those second period shots resulted in a high danger scoring chance.

3rd Period:

Starting the final period of regulation with a minute and a half of power play time remaining, the Rangers finally found the back of the net. 40 seconds into the period, a shot from Artemiy Panarin was redirected off the stick of Chris Kreider right to Mika Zibanejad who was wide open at the back door to bang the puck home, spoiling Thompson’s shutout on the night, 4-1.

The Rangers had another great opportunity to put themselves on the board but Thompson came up with a flurry of saves against the Rangers top line to keep the score the same. The intensity was picking up a bit as play was getting a little more physical and for the first time since the beginning of the opening period, it felt like both sides were really competing. At least for the time being.

It would be another two-penalty-night for Adam Fox as he was sent off for hooking just over the midway point of the period. Wasn’t a great penalty kill but effective enough as the Rangers were able to run out the two minutes and return to even strength. At this point in the game, it was pretty evident that things had run its course. Down three goals with time continuing to run out, the Rangers weren’t showing enough urgency to find their way back in it and even if they were, it just had that “too little too late feel”.

With three and a half minutes to go, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker. Marchessault ended up taking a slashing penalty in the defensive zone which would give the Rangers a 6-on-4 for the majority of the game’s remaining play. Alexis Lafrenière saw one good scoring chance on the rush that Thompson may have gotten a piece of. Aside from that, Adam Fox had a rough turnover and former friend Brett Howden sealed the deal with an empty-netter to make it a 5-1 game.

Honestly, you’d be hard pressed to draw up a worse showing to start the West Coast road trip. This team got off to such a dominant start but just completely lost it once Vegas registered that first goal. This will undoubtedly become a burn the tape kind of night as the race in the Metropolitan standings grows a little tighter and the concern levels regarding this group rise just a tad. The Rangers are back at it for an even later puck drop on Saturday Night as they’ll head to California to take on the Los Angeles Kings.