The New York Rangers road dominance has taken a hit the past two games. New York fell 3-2 to Vegas on Tuesday and 6-3 to Colorado two nights later. The Avalanche’s big name players lived up to that moniker, dominating action throughout the contest and their high level of play was unable to be matched by the Blueshirts. New York tries to avoid a sweep away from MSG on Saturday in Utah.
Game recap:
Rangers lineup in Denver:
Panarin-Trocheck-Miller
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Sheary-Laba-Brodzinski
Edström-Carrick-Raddysh
Gavrikov-Fox
Soucy-Schneider
Robertson-Morrow
Shesterkin
[Quick]
Scratches: Borgen (upper-body injury), Pärssinen, Vaakanainen
LTIR: Rempe (upper-body injury)
A few Rangers thoughts:
1) Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar: Colorado’s M & M boys were dominant. Any time the Avalanche needed a big play, those two answered the bell. MacKinnon’s speed and power through the neutral zone is unmatched while Makar controls the play from the blueline. He put nine shots on net while hitting two posts.
The problem is that the Rangers’ top players are either incapable of failing to match that level of play. My view is that it’s more that they are incapable of reaching that level, at least consistently, which drives the failure. Igor Shesterkin had his moments yesterday while under siege but was unable to sustain it and steal a game. Granted, his defense certainly did not help him. But some games you need your big-money goalie to put the team on his back and carry them to an unexpected or undeserved win. Yesterday was one of those games, and the end result was another loss.
2) Artemi Panarin: he is a world class talent who has been more engaged defensively. But yesterday, the only appropriate term is woof bad. Panarin was flat out brutal, with his poor defense resulting in at least the first goal against and maybe the first two. You cannot give an offensive team like the Avalanche bad turnovers and easy chances and that’s what happened Thursday.
Peter Baugh in the Athletic did a great job of explaining both failures:
“Panarin got the puck along the boards in the defensive zone and chipped it toward the middle of the ice, thinking a teammate was there. Instead it went right to Colorado’s Martin Nečas, who continued his team’s offensive zone shift. It ended with the puck in the Rangers’ net: MacKinnon redirected in a Nečas shot that bounced off Vladislav Gavrikov and right onto his stick” It was an ill-advised pass. Up 1-0 late in the first period with all the momentum, the goal is to get to intermission with the lead. You cannot under any circumstances make a blind pass to the middle of the ice in your own zone.
“He lost Makar in the defensive zone late in the second period. The star defenseman blazed behind the Rangers’ net and scored a wrap around. For the second time in the game, Colorado’s elite players delivered after a defensive-zone mistake from the Rangers’ star winger.” You could say this one was a little less egregious as maybe his zone area is to the side of the net. But that also may be generous, as he watched Makar go around the net with no one on the other side to stop him.
Coach Mike Sullivan was pretty spot on and could have thrown Panarin even more under the bus, but he didn’t. Wondering if Panarin is a fit for this system is certainly a valid question and a deal out of town could most certainly be a possibility. If Panarin does go and/or is not bad next season, then what. Only Alex Tuch remains from the potential blockbuster 2026 free agent class, as the remainder of that list has already resigned.
“We don’t expect (Panarin) to be the best defensive player out there, but everyone is required to play defense,” coach Mike Sullivan said after the loss. “Those are the conversations that I’ve had with him: recognizing when those situations are where you’ve got to lock down. … Everybody knows he drives offense. He’s a talented player, but I think he’s also capable of defending when he’s committed.”
3) Line blender: Sullivan mixed up the top-six. Guess what? Time to do it again. New York was outclassed with the second line on the ice, especially Panarin. I would expect more shuffling Saturday as the numbers below are as ugly as can be..
“The Rangers had only 10.65 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share against Colorado with Panarin on the ice at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, which was worst among Rangers’ forwards.
Panarin’s line with Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller frequently played against MacKinnon and Nečas, and Colorado outscored New York 2-0 in those minutes. Led by their best players, the Avalanche had 77 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share in the game, per Natural Stat Trick.
4) Special Teams: better last night, the one area where New York excelled. The Rangers got a pair of power play deflection goals from Miller, who got the monkey off his back. On the flip side, the Blueshirts stopped five of six power plays. If Mika Zibanejad and Sam Carrick had converted on the 2-on-1, they would have been perfect. Carrick was stoned by Scott Wedgewod, the Avalanche went the other way with numbers and scored. At least this is one positive to build on.
This team continues to just hurt my eyes. Panarin production has slipped, but was expected but the rest of the top six need more and of course we arent getting enough production from the bottom 6 at all. Mika continues his decline, Miller isnt the PPG player he once was and Laffy in on a milk carton. Defense just sucks, Fox has missed numerous assignments leading to goals. Brutal. Aside from Quick stealing 2 games for us, we would be neck and neck with Buffalo. Oh wait we are!!!