The Rangers began the 2020-21 season sprint Thursday night against the Islanders, and already appear to have tibia splints.
You know, that pain shot along the bone of the cane that appears when there is a sudden increase in physical activity and an excess of muscle work. The Rangers must have felt this sting as they were shut out 4-0 at Madison Square Garden in the first of their eight meetings with the Islanders this season.
The Rangers have said they don’t want to be defined by their three abysmal losses in the Toronto bubble last postseason, but they sure looked a lot like the same team that was beaten, beaten and beaten five months ago.
The Islanders, on the other hand, looked like a team that was ready to follow the conference finals race last season.
Maybe there were only three rookies on the ice for the Rangers, but the rookie mistakes spread throughout the lineup. The Rangers were abbreviated eight times, getting three penalties in the first 20 minutes and trailing 3-0 before.
This first game has a small sample of what will come to the Rangers. But if the first period was an indication of how this young squad faces the rest of the East, their sprint became much harder.
Rookie goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin lit up four goals in 33 shots, one or two of which he would surely like to return to on his first initial outing. Semyon Varlamov got his third finish with an Islanders shirt and the 28th of his career, leaving aside the 24 shots he faced.
The Rangers were on par with the fall of the puck after defender Jack Johnson, in his first game with a red and blue jersey, was called upon to hold on to put the Islanders ahead of the man before.
Brock Nelson started things for the Islands, burying one at 2:33 of the Islanders ’first goal of the season.
A K’Andre Miller turnover left Shesterkin out to dry just over a minute later and the Islanders ’captain Anders Lee turned it into a two-on-one run for a 2-0 lead. Subsequently, Mathew Barzal made it 3-0 after waltzing around Tony DeAngelo to spit at Shesterkin over the glove.
The rookie mistakes kept coming, as Alexis Lafreniere played the puck while making a change and got the Rangers screaming too many men on the ice.
The Rangers tipped the ice in the second period and had plenty of time in the offensive zone, but their strategy of multiplying fell short each time. Lafreniere committed his second penalty of the night when he was called up for hitting at 2:13 p.m., which led to a Jordan Eberle power play goal about 50 seconds later.