The New York Rangers lost their second straight one-goal game, falling 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. New York, facing one of the best shot-suppression teams in the league, struggled to get pucks on net, finishing with just 19 shots on goal. Special teams, as they usually do, played a major role in the outcome, with Vegas notching two power-play goals and New York none.
#NYR lines against Vegas:
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Miller
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Sheary-Laba-Brodzinski
Pärssinen-Carrick-Raddysh
Gavrikov-Fox
Soucy-Borgen
Robertson-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Adam Edström was replaced by Jusso Parsinnen for the latter’s first game since November 8. The move was made to “provide another look” to the bottom six.
Scott Morrow, praised by coach Mike Sullivan that morning, say for Mathew Robertson. A game where New York struggled to generate offense and could have used production from the blueline, saw their second-best pick moving d-man in the press box.
A few thoughts:
1) JT Miller continues to struggle offensively. With just 10 points in 21 games, Miller is not providing what he and the team expected on that side of the ice. Defensively, for the most part, he has been better, producing his best net defensive rating. However, that rating was well before the highlight below. If the slogan is no BS and you were brought in to provide leadership and rattle cages, you might want to show a certain level of effort on each play. (Granted, Igor Shesterkin should have stopped Ben Hutton’s shot. That, however, doesn’t obviate and forgive Miller’s lack of effort).
2) Special teams – after scoring goals in three straight games, Sullivan decided to move Will Cuylle off the first power play unit. The net result was a disjointed power play that generated two weak shots in their one-man advantage.
Vegas went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Sullivan said that he thought the team was a step slow shorthanded, reacting instead of being aggressive. Struggling to score in general, when the PK has issues, winning becomes that much harder. New York is just 20-for-31 while down a man in their past 11 contests. Ugly numbers.
3) Line shifts: During the game, Sullivan moved Cuylle off the first line to play with Noah Laba and Jonny Brodzinski. That trio was New York’s most effective unit in the game. Cuylle has chemistry with Laba, while Brodzinski provides consistent effort, scoring last night and having a second goal overturned due to offside.
4) Shot opportunities: as noted above, Vegas does a great job of suppressing shots. The Knights have yet to allow 30 shots on net in a contest this year. Tuesday was no different. The Rangers attempted 56 shots, but the Golden Knights blocked 21 shots and 16 others missed the net. Part of that is great defense, part of that is finding a way to get to the dirty areas and pressure the D and goalie. New York didn’t do enough of either last night.
But hey, it certainly gets easier facing Colorado and Utah next (sarcasm dripping)
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