Recap: Rangers Lose Kakko, Fall 5-1 to Buffalo

Right back at it after a back-to-back weekend with travel, the Rangers kick off another busy week playing host to the Buffalo Sabres. This was the second meeting of the season between the two teams as the Rangers opened their season with a 5-1 win in Buffalo back in October. Since then, the Rangers have put themselves in a position where they sit atop the league standings as the Sabres, who are the youngest team in the league, continue fumbling their way through the growing pains of a major rebuild. With some exciting young names finding their footing and adding a spark to this team, the Sabres would pose to be much more of a challenge the second time around.

1st Period:

After a couple of whistles within the first thirty seconds of the game, Jacob Trouba bounced a pass off the boards to Mika Zibanejad that was left overskated and ended up on the stick of Jeff Skinner. A quick shot from Skinner was robbed by the glove of Igor Shesterkin who wasted no time standing out after Quick got the start on Saturday. From that moment on, the Rangers were a bit hesitant in taking control of play as turnovers and defensive zone mishaps were giving the Sabres their share of chances.

The Rangers drew the first penalty of the night as Alex Tuch was sent off for hooking with under twelve minutes to go in the opening period. The Rangers power play got some momentum going but couldn’t find the back of the net. Right after the penalty expired, Blake Wheeler cut around the side of the net and smacked a loose puck past Ukko-Pekka Luukonen. However just as he made contact with the puck, a whistle blew which resulted in the goal being waved off. Prior to Wheeler touching the puck, Cuylle kind of punched at the bouncing puck as it deflected off a stick by the glass.

A bit of a strange call seeing as hand passes are traditionally a result of a player actually grabbing the puck but nevertheless, the call on the ice stood and the game would remain scoreless for the time being. Wouldn’t take long for the momentum to shift as just a couple of minutes later, a turnover from Ryan Lindgren would lead to Owen Power keeping the puck in the Rangers zone. JJ Peterka then found the puck low in the slot and ripped a shot off the post and in to put the Sabres up 1-0 just over the midway mark of the period.

JJ Peterka now has a four game goal streak against the Rangers as he’s quickly establishing himself as someone who loves to play against the Blueshirts. Zach Benson nearly made it a 2-0 game as he was fed a perfect pass at the hash marks that required another big save from Igor Shesterkin. Artemiy Panarin would get the next big scoring chance as he was sneakily all alone at the Sabres blue line and ended up on a quick breakaway that was turned away by Luukkonen. The rebound was then right there for Alexis Lafrenière but the Sabres netminder was showing no signs of him being beaten anytime soon.

The Rangers would return to the power play with just under two minutes to go in the first as Vincent Trocheck was taken down by Mattias Samuelsson on a rush in Buffalo’s zone. After an action packed start to the man advantage, the Rangers had a couple of great opportunities to tie the game up but nevertheless, the Sabres held onto their lead through the games first twenty.

Shots were 12-9 in favor of the Rangers but for the most part, Buffalo had completely out-played them. Outside of a couple of solid chances in the offensive zone, the Rangers were very sloppy, especially in their own end of the ice. Lots of turnovers and lost battles resulted in grade A chances for the Sabres and had it not been for the strong goaltending of Shesterkin, things could have looked real different heading into the second.

2nd Period:

With less than a full shift’s worth of time remaining on the Samuelsson penalty, the teams returned to even strength as the Sabres rushed the puck into the Rangers zone. Again, the Rangers were struggling with making simple passes and continued overskating the puck on more than one occasion. Close to five minutes in, the Rangers took their first penalty of the night on their sixth too-many men infraction of the season.

Will Cuylle would serve the Rangers bench minor as the Sabres power play took the ice and pushed to extend their lead for the next two minutes. The Rangers penalty killers continued their dominance and shortly after, picked up another great opportunity to tie the game but again, it was Ukko Pekka Luukkonen coming up with a massive save to keep his team ahead.

The Rangers were having a slightly better second period but unfortunately, so were the Sabres who continued to make the most of their chances and get plenty of pucks on net.

With just under five minutes to go in the second, Kaapo Kakko went down awkwardly after a collision with Erik Johnson that left him in severe pain holding his leg.

It’s far too early to jump to any conclusions on what the injury could be but between Kakko needing help to get off the ice and with how bad the replay looked, there’s definitely concern that Kakko could miss an extended amount of time.

As play resumed, the scorekeeper at MSG got a little trigger happy as a shot from Alexis Lafrenière took a strange route to the goal, landing on the side of the net. Despite the goal horn going off, the officials waved it off and kept the play going. On that same shift, Vincent Trocheck had a great opportunity but whiffed on a one-timer. Between Kakko going down and the Rangers getting absolutely goalie’d by Luukkonen, morale in MSG wasn’t very high.

With less than thirty seconds left in the second, Alex Tuch capitalized on a rebound in front of Shesterkin to extend the Sabres lead to 2-0.

Through the first two periods of the night, it just wasn’t looking to be the Rangers night. Shots were fairly close with the Rangers having the slight edge 23-22. While they were still generating a fair amount of offense, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was standing on his head, shutting down each of the Rangers best chances. The one positive up to this point was that the Rangers had only lost five of thirty face-offs on the night but as they trail 2-0 and now find themselves down a man, they certainly had their work cut out for them.

3rd Period:

The Rangers needed something to happen early on in the third period if they wanted to get back in this one and frankly, the exact opposite happened. Blake Wheeler fed Will Cuylle a perfect pass across the slot and a desperate diving effort from Luukkonen absolutely robbed the Rangers of a massive goal.

Shortly after the big save, Tyler Pitlick finished a check on JJ Peterka which resulted in an extremely questionable interference call from the officials. It was barely even a full second after Peterka got rid of the puck that Pitlick made contact with him on a very clean hit

Perhaps the officials decided to make up for the terrible call against the Rangers as soon after the penalty kill ended, they called Zach Benson on an extremely weak cross-check to give the Rangers a power play chance. Didn’t take much time at all for the Rangers power play to get to work as Mika Zibanejad was finally able to beat Luukkonen on a rocket of a one timer from his sweet spot to bring his team within one.

That goal gave the Rangers the jump they needed with plenty of time still remaining. There were moments that kept the push going but as more time came and went, the Rangers were still trailing. With close to four minutes left in regulation, Alex Tuch picked up his second of the night which pretty much killed any remaining hope the Rangers had in making a game out of this one.

With two minutes to go, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker and after about thirty seconds of possession, Jeff Skinner poked the puck free which allowed Casey Mittlestadt to take it down to the empty net to make it a 4-1 game. The Rangers gave up one more as Kyle Okposo put away a one timer on the left wing side extending the Sabres lead to 5-1.

It was certainly one of those nights as the Rangers just couldn’t seem to get going the way they normally do as they dropped their fifth loss of the season to the Buffalo Sabres. On the bright side, Adam Fox who was an active participant in Rangers practice this morning is eligible to return in their next game and when you remember that the Rangers have gone 7-3 in their last ten games without him (plus Chytil and Shesterkin) it’s a little easier to shake it off and look to the next one.

The Rangers are back at it on Garden Ice Wednesday as they’ll take on the Detroit Red Wings for a national broadcast Original Six matchup.