Recap: When It Rains It Pours, NYR lose 5-2

It’s been a weird couple of days in Rangersland. Following a disastrous loss to wrap up their West Coast road trip with the Sharks, the Rangers recalled Jake Leschyshyn from Hartford, decided to waive veteran Center Nick Bonino, and welcomed Filip Chytil back to New York after spending time conditioning in his homeland of Czechia. Then just this morning, during an optional skate, Chytil, who took the ice in a non-contact-jersey, ended up needing a lot of assistance in getting off the ice as it appears he has re-agitated his existing injury.

What do all of these things have in common? Honestly, nothing much aside from the fact that this team was in dire need of a win going into this rematch with the Vegas Golden Knights. They were back home after a brutal road trip where they haven’t looked like the team they established themselves to be this season and with time running out before the break, they needed to find their way back. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work out that way.

Couple of changes to the Rangers lineup as Tyler Pitlick slots back in for Nick Bonino. Blake Wheeler moves back up to the top line sending Kaapo Kakko down to the third line with Jonny Brodzinski and Will Cuylle. The defense pairings would also see a couple of changes as Adam Fox would be paired with Erik Gustafsson, moving Ryan Lindgren to the left side of Braden Schneider. This leaves the pair that potentially needs a shake up the most, the only one unchanged.

1st Period:

The Rangers got off to a much better start in this one as they were playing a more complete effort in both ends of the ice. They were finishing checks, getting all their players on the ice back when defending and were all over the Golden Knights in the offensive zone. Through those first five minutes of the period, there was great pace to the overall play but despite the better start for New York, Vegas was still there pressing just as hard.

Once again, it would be the Rangers giving up an early first period goal. Paul Cotter picked up a crisp pass from Nic Hague at the point that prompted him to cut towards the slot and let a quick shot go through some traffic in front. Initially, it looked as if it deflected off of Sheldon Rempal, who just recently picked up his first career goal, but after the first batch of replays, it looked as if the shot from Cotter passed through Braden Schneider and Igor Shesterkin cleanly. Nevertheless, the call would stand and Rempal would pick up his second of the season to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.

Thankfully, the lead wouldn’t stand too long as just 91 seconds later, Blake Wheeler was found all alone to Vegas Goaltender Adin Hill’s left where he let a quick shot go to the back of the net off a nice feed from Erik Gustafsson at the point, 1-1 game.

As if the Rangers didn’t have enough bad news relative to injuries to deal with today, Ryan Lindgren would take a hard hit from Keegan Kolesar behind the play that sent him straight to the Rangers locker room.

Always a tough sight seeing one of the toughest guys on this roster go down with an injury and definitely not an encouraging look as he skated straight to the Rangers locker room.

With about eight minutes to go in the first, the Rangers would be awarded the first power play of the night as Alex Pietrangelo was sent off for tripping after taking Fox down in front of Vegas’ net. It’s no secret that a huge part of why this team is going through it right now is because they aren’t getting enough from their top players and sure enough, those top players wouldn’t find a way to convert on the man advantage as the two minutes came and went rather quickly and without much threat to the scoreboard.

After the first twenty, the Rangers were out-shooting the Golden Knights 15-6, generating way more high danger chances and scoring attempts but just couldn’t find ways to get the puck in the back of the net. Vegas had the advantage in face-offs winning just over half of them throughout the period but it was quite evident the Rangers needed to find a way to start capitalizing on some of their bigger chances.

2nd Period:

Some bad news for the Rangers to start the second as word broke that Ryan Lindgren would not return after missing the majority of the games opening period after that hit from Kolesar.

Just about thirty seconds into the new period, it was the Rangers heading to the penalty box for the first time this evening as Mika Zibanejad had slashed the stick out of Pavel Dorofeyev’s hands. This brought Vegas’ power play unit out but the Rangers penalty killers were able to fight them off for the two minute advantage.

Not long after the teams returned to even strength, Keegan Kolesar made a nice play at Vegas’ blueline, blocking an attempted pass with his stick to put himself on a breakaway. Kolesar would let a clean shot go off the post and in to beat Shesterkin and regain the lead for Vegas, 2-1.

If there is one thing we’ve learned about this team by now… if they give up a goal, using a timeout should be in consideration. The amount of times this team has allowed a pair of goals within less than a minute or so of each other is unfathomable and sure enough, here we go again. 46 seconds later it was Jonathan Marchessault tipping in a quick shot from Ivan Barbashev in front of the net to redirect into the back of the Rangers net.. 3-1 Vegas.

Peter Baugh of The Athletic would provide some further insight on that with this not so fun stat below:

As if that didn’t kill any and all potential for momentum, Jonny Brodzinski was sent off for interference in the offensive zone which is neer a good place to take a penalty. Vegas would head to the power play for the second time as we were just a couple of minutes out from the games midway mark with the Rangers not registering a shot on goal for the majority of the second period.

Rangers did a good job of killing the man advantage as Jimmy Vesey had one of the better scoring chances on the night as he made a great play of cutting towards the slot to get a shot off just as the time on the penalty was running out. The rest of 5-on-5 play throughout the second was quite lifeless. Vegas had their lead, therefore had no extra incentive to pursue an overly aggressive style of play. Meanwhile, the Rangers were looking just completely defeated

With about 35 seconds to go in the second, Nicholas Roy was sent off for holding the stick of Blake Wheeler which gave the Rangers a massive power play opportunity. With not a lot of time to get much done, they got at least one shot off but before they knew it, the horn sounded and sent the teams to the final intermission of regulation. After forty minutes, the Rangers were down 3-1 despite out-shooting the Golden Knights 22-14. This team needed a real gut check period and would start the third with a minute and a half of man advantage time.

3rd Period:

Sure enough, it isn’t easy taking advantage of a power play that carries over from the period prior. After fumbling with possession for about a minute, the Rangers finally took the zone and Chris Kreider redirected what would be his first shot on goal for the evening. Team’s would return to even strength and practically all hope fled out of the World’s Most Famous as Marchessault picked up his second of the night after a wide shot bounced to the opposite side of the net which was of course wide open.

A brutal look for K’Andre Miller who showed no urgency to back check and waited until it was far too late to make a diving effort to poke the puck away. That one play pretty much summed up the collective effort from this group. You have a small handful of exceptions, (Cuylle, Vesey, Trocheck, Kakko) but other than that, there is no life with this team. No one showed any urgency, no one played with any fire, Vegas got on the board and this team just gave up.

The Rangers pulled Shesterkin with about four minutes to go in regulation and eventually called their precious timeout that wouldn’t dare be wasted earlier in the game when it could potentially stop the snowball from rolling. The Rangers set up on their 6-on-5 while Vegas defended with just the right amount of caution which was all it took to hold off the Rangers, for the most part. After an iced puck from Vegas, Kaapo Kakko put home a rebound off a quick shot following the face-off to bring his team within two, albeit far too late.

Sure enough, Jonathan Marchessault, who was on hat-trick watch for the majority of the night, found his third on the empty net to solidify the score of this dumpster fire 5-2.

Frustrations are at an all time high for the New York Rangers at this point. There isn’t much to say about it other than the Rangers have only won three of their last eleven games. That’s extremely concerning considering how they have played in that same stretch. There’s plenty to talk about, plenty to worry about but with how high frustrations are right now, it’s tough to do so productively.

The Rangers will cross the border into Ottawa from here as they head into part two of this weekend’s back-to-back. Whatever they do in these next 24 hours, they absolutely need to find a way to head into the All-Star break with a win.