Almost every Knicks at the Garden game has been a lovefest lately, but the Rangers had a completely different experience Friday night with an understandably restless and disgruntled home crowd. did.
The once-hot Rangers are barely holding on to first place in the Metro Division after a booed 5-2 loss to the Golden Knights, falling below -0.500 in the NHL and limping into the All-Star break. The last 25 games since early December.
Inconsistent All-Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin scored three points on his first nine shots and four points on 19 total, and Jonathan Marchessault had a hat trick in Las Vegas, but the Blueshirts Since December 5th, they have fallen to 11 wins, 12 losses, and 2 draws. They started 18-4-1 under first-year coach Peter Laviolette.
“Early on we definitely had things going our way and the bounces were going our way, and now they're definitely working against us,” veteran winger Blake Wheeler said. “We have to be firmly rooted in the fact that what we want to achieve is very difficult to achieve. Much more difficult than this.
“But great teams are built in fire. We're certainly in fire right now.”
Before the suspension, Saturday's visit to Ottawa was the only game remaining, and in the metro, the Rangers led the Hurricanes by two points and the Flyers by five points, and both teams will play Saturday.
“Trying desperately to create something and get something done is not a good enough approach,” Mika Zibanejad said. “We're obviously tired of losing and we're trying to do everything we can to get out of this situation.
“Things are not going as planned right now, but you don't have to feel sorry for yourself. If you don't keep trying, there will definitely be a backlash.”
Laviolette started the game by splitting a pair of longtime top defensemen, with Adam Fox working with Erik Gustafsson and Ryan Lindgren, as the team has played 3-5-2 over the past 10 games. skated alongside Braden Schneider.
The duo of K'Andre Miller and captain Jacob Trouba were unharmed, but Lindgren left midway through the first period with an upper-body injury, forcing a five-man rotation for the rest of the game.
The new pair of Schneider and Lindgren were on the ice to score the first goal of the game, but at 5:02 into the first game, Paul Cotter's shot beat Shesterkin on a redirect from Sheldon Rempal, leading to the Golden Knights ( 29-14-6). period.
One minute, 29 seconds later, Fox and Gustafsson assisted on the tying goal, and Wheeler scored his eighth goal of the season from the left circle.
Las Vegas goaltender Adin Hill gloved Alexis Lafreniere (1 goal in 15 games), who had a slump late in the game, even though the Rangers had a 15-6 shot advantage in the game. When pressed, he denied that he had maintained a 1-1 record.
Still, the Knights beat Shesterkin on each of their first two shots midway through the session, within 46 seconds of each other, and led 3-1 by the 4:04 mark of the second period.
It was the ninth time this season that the Rangers scored two goals within one minute.
“When something like that happens, you definitely feel the air leave the bench a little bit,” Laviolette said. “We're putting pressure on to win the hockey game. I thought we could have scored three or four goals in the first period, but we ended up tied 1-1.”
Kolesar stole the puck from Artemi Panarin and ran in on his own, beating Shesterkin with an off-wing lister from the left circle over his glove to the far post and scoring unassisted at 3:18.
Less than a minute later, Marchessault connected with a chip-in-goal, prompting more groans and boos from the MSG faithful.
Marchessault also homered his second one just two minutes into the third in a 4-1 contest. He completed his hat-trick by scoring an empty net after Kaapo Kakko scored too late for Rangers.
“We're in that place right now. At the end of the day, we're losing games and we're not good enough,” Laviolette said.
“We've got to somehow dig in and improve in all areas. Improve our defense, be more determined on offense and find a way to win hockey games.”
