Recap: Rangers Stars Continue to Fail Them, Lose 3-1 to Carolina

In the first of one more back-to-back stretch before taking off for the holiday break, the Rangers hosted the Carolina Hurricanes for their final home game of 2024. Following a big win on the road in Dallas, the Rangers had a great opportunity to leave the past behind and build a new turning point if they could pick up another pair of points. Unfortunately, it was a tale of two team’s as a strong start got lost in yet another disappointing effort that lay at the feet of some of their top players.

1st Period:

We’ve been very critical of this team’s starts as of late but that certainly wouldn’t be the case this time around. A nice look from Jimmy Vesey found Chad Ruhwedel right at the point which allowed for Vesey to push right to Carolina’s net. Ruhwedel did a great job of dishing a “shot-pass” in Vesey’s direction which allowed for a perfect redirect to find the back of the net. Rangers up 1-0 just 17 seconds into the game. 

Believe it or not, that came as Chad Ruhwedel’s first point as a New York Ranger since being acquired by the team at last year’s trade deadline. 

The early goal gave the Rangers a ton of momentum to start the game which really picked up on a great shift from the Zibanejad line. Reilly Smith drew back with the puck to patiently find Brett Berard with a pass. That shot created a great scoring chance as the puck was right on the doorstep for Zibanejad to battle with but couldn’t get enough on it to put it home. 

Carolina had as good a chance as you could get to tie the game up nearing the midway point of the opening period. On a 2-on-1, Sebastian Aho went back and forth with Seth Jarvis but brilliant positioning by Igor Shesterkin allowed for him to take care of the scoring chance. The Hurricanes came close a few minutes later on another scramble in front but the tip of Shesterkin’s glove was able to help push it out of harm’s way to keep things moving. 

The Rangers got the game's first power play as Tyson Jost was called for tripping after taking down Artemi Panarin in the neutral zone. Always aggressive on the penalty kill, the Hurricanes really gave that top power play unit trouble which left them ineffective through more than half of the man advantage. The same could be said through the second power play unit's efforts as the Rangers would start the night 0-for-1 on special teams. 

Things slowed down a great deal from there as the Rangers looked like a completely different team than what they’ve shown in recent stretches. They were skating well with the Hurricanes, defending hard and playing with a sense of tenacity we haven’t often seen from this group this year. 

With less than thirty seconds to go in the period, Adam Fox was called for an interference as he caught Martin Necas up high with a hit away from the puck. Nevertheless, the Rangers held Carolina off through the remainder of the period and took their 1-0 into the first intermission. It was a low event period in terms of shot quantity as the Hurricanes had the slight lead, 7-5. High danger chances were tied at two apiece with the Rangers behind in hits, attempts, face-offs and expected goals. Overall a good period but five shots on goal throughout a period is never a recipe for success. 

2nd Period:

The Rangers kicked off the second with a solid penalty kill as they took care of that late interference call. However, their fall off in the opening period seemed to continue on through the start of the second as they only picked up one shot on goal through the front half of the period. About seven minutes in, they headed back to the penalty kill as Berard sent the puck over the glass in an attempt to clear the zone. Chris Kreider had a great chance to pick up a shorthanded goal to give the team some insurance but couldn’t quite get the shot over the pad off Kochetkov.

It would technically be a successful kill for the Rangers but right as the teams returned to even strength, a shot from Jaccob Slavin at the point hit a post and bounced off of Will Carrier who was right in the dirty area to tie the game up 1-1. 

The Rangers didn’t do themselves any favors as just over a minute later, Alexis Lafrenière got the stick up high on former friend Jack Roslovic which drew some blood to result in a double minor high sticking infraction. The penalty killers continued to do their job and for 3 minutes and 57 seconds of the disadvantage, they were near perfect. Alas, in those final three seconds, Dmitri Orlov found, who else, but Jack Roslovic going hard to the net to guide the pass in perfectly to make it a 2-1 game. 

At this point, the Rangers were being out-shot 11-2 in the second period and things weren’t getting much better. The Hurricanes hit the post twice within a couple of minutes and the Rangers couldn’t get the puck out of their own end for the life of them. The Rangers best chance of the period came with roughly two minutes to go following a questionable decision by Shayne Ghostisbehere at the blue line. This created a clean breakout for the Rangers that sent Adam Edström in on an up close breakaway that nearly tied things up at an opportune time. 

With 50 seconds to go, Shesterkin flashed the glove for a highlight reel save to keep the Rangers within one. On the following shift, Zibanejad took a cross-check from Svechnikov that, along with the save from Igor, would give the Rangers a much needed chance at shifting momentum. 

They had some looks in the final 20 seconds of the period, but the Rangers couldn’t find the back of the net. With plenty of time on the power play remaining to start the final period of regulation, the Rangers absolutely needed to find a way to turn this thing around. Shots were now 22-13 at the end of two. 

3rd Period:

Continuing to have difficulties with the Hurricanes penalty killers, the Rangers were unable to generate anything on the man advantage they took into the third. With how aggressive the Hurricanes defend shorthanded, they leave no room for the Rangers to walk the puck in the zone which seemingly, left the Rangers unable to adjust. 

About five minutes in, Lafrenière made a beautiful play in the slot to find Trocheck right at the doorstep but somehow, Kochetkov kept the puck out despite it looking to be a surefire goal. This prompted a scramble in front for the puck that resulted in another Carolina penalty with Brent Burns going off for slashing. The Rangers started their third man advantage of the night with the second power play unit which became one of their better efforts but still didn’t result in a successful conversion. 

With twelve minutes to go, a bad turnover from Panarin sent Necas on an easy breakaway that required a massive save from Shesterkin. Somewhere along the way, Trocheck got the stick up on the backcheck which earned him a hooking penalty to send Carolina back to the power play. No harm associated with the foul as the Rangers fought off the penalty and kept the Hurricanes from adding to their lead which was a necessity if they wanted to find their way back in this contest. 

As the period went on, the Rangers were spending more time at the other end of the ice which was great, however time wasn’t going in their favor. With five minutes to go, the Hurricanes were pushing once again, holding the puck in the Rangers end of the ice. A much needed TV-timeout came with three minutes to go yet Peter Laviolette kept his fourth line out there who were really the only trio consistently contributing offensively throughout the afternoon. 

With two and a half to go, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker with their usual six skaters on the ice to try and get this thing knotted up. Problem with that is, those six skaters continue to play the game with a significantly low sense of urgency, specifically Zibanejad and Kreider. It would be another day where the final memory of the game would be 93 half-heartedly chasing what became an empty net goal as the Rangers let a great start go to waste and fall back to a .500 record. 

Not. Good. Enough. Plain and simple. The star players, the sixty minute effort, the compete levels, the urgency, none of it is good enough and the Rangers are continuing to learn that the hard way. They’ll have one last chance to go into the holiday break on a positive note with another afternoon matinee tomorrow in New Jersey. The future of this season truly could be up to how this game plays out tomorrow and this team’s leadership group needs to understand that.