Recap: Rangers Boo'd Off Ice, Dismantled by Kings in 5-1 Loss

Today was a day of opportunity for the Rangers. It's a chance to build some momentum and string together back-to-back wins. They had pulled it out against the Buffalo Sabres, but the Los Angeles Kings are currently a top Western Conference team and are one of the best in the league at shot suppression. This would be a genuine challenge for the Rangers against a competitive team. The result today was painful to watch. This will be a short one, as I don't necessarily like twisting the dagger that the Rangers' apathetic play had already plunged into us.

1st Period

The Rangers weren't able to generate much this period. Most of their chances, even ones where they were put in a high-danger area, felt toothless. Shortly after the Blueshirts killed off a penalty, Alex Turcotte fed Adrian Kempe a pass, breaking into the Rangers zone. Kempe threaded it back over to Turcotte, who put the puck perfectly past a sprawling Shesterkin.

The Rangers were never able to recover from this as the Kings continued to dominate, maintaining possession all over the ice. Byfield pulled off a particular set of impressive dekes behind the net and fed the puck out front, where Foegle got a shot off and quickly followed up to put his rebound past Igor to go up 2-0.

The theme in this game has been the Rangers skaters watching the puck, bystanders to their own demise. It's hard to feel optimistic about almost anything in their game. Watching each defensive gaffe and misplay or, even worse, lack of a play lead to the Kings creating tic-tac-toe offensive opportunities that are embarrassing whichever netminder the Rangers have in the net hurts more each time.

2nd and 3rd Period

We're combining these periods because they were truly just more of the same. Analysts and fans alike see the team's lethargic lack of initiative. The Kings came out of the gates taking advantage of the Blueshirts' attitude, quickly putting three goals in and increasing their lead to an embarrassing 5-0. Again, the Rangers had some players back each time, but they were chasing players, leading to wide-open opportunities and not getting their sticks in lanes. This is basic defensive hockey, and something about the Rangers is broken right now. Having multiple highlight reel Sportscenter Top Ten plays happen against your team should elicit some response, but the Rangers had little to no answer. Laviolette took Igor out of the game, hoping to give him a break or inject something into the rest of the team, but it had little to no effect. This game wasn't at the feet of the goalies by any means. There are examples upon examples from the game where the Ranger's lack of urgency was on display.

Later in the period, on what felt like an attempt to get the puck to the net, Chytil broke Kuemper's shutout bid.

The Rangers had a few quality chances to wrap up the game, but it felt doomed from the start. Zibanejad on a breakaway, no goal. Trocheck stickhandling through traffic, no goal. Cuylle's power play one timer, no goal. At the end of the game, the Rangers had far more shots than one would have guessed, but boy, it felt hopeless from five minutes in.

This is a depressing recap, and I apologize, but the Rangers have been a depressing team. One must think how much longer things go on like this before Drury makes a big decision. Is Laviolette safe? Does he sell off some big names and focus on the draft? We'll see. We're halfway through December, and the Rangers are officially out of playoff position.