That’s why the Rangers are such jokes. That’s why they could be seventh in the NHL in goals scored per game and 12th in goals scored per game, even though they would be 18th in the overall standings and out looking at the playoffs.
They are simply not consistent enough. They are not able to put success in context. They are unable to adapt against an opponent who eliminates their skill game and forces them into a battle of confined spaces and to paint for hockey.
Two nights after the excitement came in a win over the penguins destroyed by injuries, there was little grief, following the Rangers’ 5-2 defeat to the same (but very different) Pittsburgh squad that would not allow to your opponent spin freely.
The Rangers could not cope. Its two main lines achieved almost nothing. They couldn’t or didn’t want to delve deeper into the record. They could not work the walls. There was no disk possession below the hash marks. They were usually lousy in clashes. The attention to detail was a figment of the imagination.
“They made it hard for us and maybe we were a little too stubborn with the record and our decisions,” said Mika Zibanejad, whose game was well below parity and not in a Masters way. “We tried to force the plays a little too much and we didn’t really get an early review or twists on the net.
“It simply came to our notice then. They are a good team. Today we were a little too stubborn. “
Zibanejad missed what appeared to be an open left-back from the net on an abbreviated two-for-two score by Pavel Buchnevich at 8:29 of the match, which the Rangers followed 1-0 at the time. His failure to clear resulted in Kris Letang’s goal at 3:23 of the second, which gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at just 1:21 after Colin Blackwell’s play had tied. the marker.
Zibanejad later lost a clean penalty kick in the defensive zone against four-game veteran Radim Zohorna. This led directly to a power goal from Evan Rodrigues at 11:28 of the second to increase Pittsburgh’s 3-1 lead. No, it was not a good night for Zibanejad.
But he was hardly alone. Neither Artemi Panarin nor Ryan Strome had much. And Chris Kreider had nothing. Again. Kreider has not scored a goal against five in 13 games since March 13. It’s hovering all over the ice, unable to impact.
Kreider has been a ranger since 2012-13 and leads the team in goals during this period. But during all this time, he has been selected once to take part in the shooting. It was on February 21, 2013 in Ottawa, when Kreider was the seventh and final player to shoot Ben Bishop. He was stopped and the Blueshirts lost.
Since then, the Rangers have participated in 58 shootouts and used 17 shooters, none of whom have been named Chris Kreider. On Thursday, the grounds were probably reinforced when Kreider, who received a penalty at 5:59 p.m. when he was pulled back by Cody Ceci and his team 3-1, fired the disc at Tristan Jarry’s pads.
The Rangers’ predisposition to run away from good shots to try worse has reached the state of epidemic. In the middle of the first period, Kaapo Kakko drove to the center from the right side, but instead of shooting from the slot, he threw it again so that Flip Chytil had a worse angle. In the middle of the second, Chytil drove up to the slot and passed it in the right circle, but his feed did not connect.
“A lot of things were missing tonight,” coach David Quinn said. “Not shooting the puck has been a problem all year, a problem since I’ve been here.
“Sometimes when you win a game [8-4, as the Rangers did Tuesday], you can change your mindset a little bit and if you do it at that level, you will get what you deserve. “
Again, when things get easy, the Rangers can look like the Dynastic Oilers. When things get tight, they may look like the 1997-2004 Rangers. This is not a particularly flattering comparison.
That was one of the best men and the mentality of the team. After lifting the opportunist Blackwell to mount the shotgun with Panarin and Strome on Tuesday, Quinn turned around Vitali Kravtsov after just four laps. Kravtsov was one of the best rangers, but it seemed strange to walk away from a man who was always willing to dig in a night when few were in the mood. If Kravtsov deserved more ice time, he probably should have been at Kreider’s expense.
The Bruins beat Washington to extend their seven-point lead over the Rangers for the final approach of the playoffs while holding two games in hand. What did Quinn say in a different context?
Oh okay. You get what you deserve.