You could say this is a long time coming, but this type of underperformance has been a recurring theme over the past five weeks, with the Rangers winning eight of their last 16 games (8-7-1). While we are winning, we are losing by three or two. Five more goals.
So Monday night's 6-3 loss to a Canucks team at the Garden, despite having the most points in the entire league at 5-on-5 and boasting the NHL's best point differential at plus-53, was a special case. It wasn't an event. The team, which has gone 4-4-1 over its past nine games, has seen its playoff cushion gradually deflate.
There was too much turnover in key areas. Too many bad decisions were made with and without the puck. I repeat. There were too many mistakes in terms of position. Igor Shesterkin had too many Grade A chances and once again had to contend.
The defensive zone coverage and defensive play reminded me of the good old days when Dave Kalpa and Igor Ulanov were on the blue line.Well, maybe not that bad. On second thought, this may have been the night Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander scored a circus goal 1 minute, 14 seconds apart late in the second period after the Blueshirts were up 3-2. unknown.
“It was certainly more than just one or two games,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “I think [lack of detail] We drifted into the game. ”
Also. This is nothing new for a club that has been in something of a binge and purge, starting with a then-shocking 6-2 loss to Ottawa on Dec. 5. . It's good that they got back up after being knocked down, but there were too many Kayos for a team that was supposed to be protected by its organizational structure.
The problem, and I'm sure I used this phrase when Kalpa and Ulanov roamed the Earth, is that the structure of the club looks as solid as papier-mâché. It looked ugly there.
However, this game was a tough one for head coach Peter, who decided to sit Brennan Osman for all but two shifts in the second period, when he double-shifted Artemi Panarin from the first drop of the puck after the first period. – stands out due to Laviolette's strange decisions. 1 On the contrary. Panarin skated with both Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, as well as his usual companions Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere.
This dropped Blake Wheeler, at least temporarily, to the third/fourth line alongside Will Quill and Nick Bonino. Quill himself only worked four second shifts, which amounted to 2 hours and 50 minutes of ice time. But it was weird. Trocheck clocked just 4 minutes, 48 seconds, while Wheeler took the ice in 5 minutes, 04 seconds.
Perhaps it was the club's lack of depth up front that manifested itself through coaching decisions, but nevertheless, after 20 minutes it looked as if Laviolette had put up his index finger very quickly. He looked terrible at scoring two goals, and he didn't leave Quandre Miller on the bench, who together with his partner Trouba scored three goals.
Laviolette said he had no problem with Osman's work in the first period of the 21-year-old's third NHL game. That should not have been interpreted as a benching. In fact, Osman fought 2:32 into the third period in a semi-normal rotation until Laviolette fought back-to-back and side-by-side with Zibanejad's and Trocheck's forces from 5:57 to 9:18 of the third period. He made 4 changes, each of which was equivalent to a second. The third.
Kaapo Kakko is currently on the road to recovery, but it looks like he won't be able to make a comeback anytime soon. Perhaps he'll be reunited with Zibanejad and Kreider in a repeat of the line that was intact for the first 11 games of the season. And after playing 7 minutes, 16 seconds in Montreal, Osman, who played a total of 7 minutes, 33 seconds, will likely return to Hartford, where he has a shaky split.
“We had guys that we thought were really going to be in the game, so we were trying to get them out there in two shifts,” Laviolette said. “When you do that, you sacrifice a lot of different players.
“If you work three or four shifts in a period, someone has to sit down. [Othmann] There were still some changes over the course of the game. That's not what he did or what I said to him. It was more about trying to get what we saw on the ice, the players were really clicking and trying to push more. ”
But clearly the manager had no confidence in elevating Osman to a top-six role. At the same time, it's also true that the Rangers were not short on creating multiple chances, giving Thatcher Demko 42 shots, including quite a few Grade-A players. In that respect, Ottoman's attack could not be overlooked.
But here we are almost halfway through the season. To put it kindly, the bottom six is a mixed bag. A top six appears to be lacking for Zibanejad's unit. The long absences of the twins Kakko and Filip Chytil have been a huge blow. The team started playing defense like a flashback to the Ron Lowe era.
If you dare, kids, check it out.
It wasn't very beautiful.
For the past five weeks, this hasn't been the case either.
