That’s why the Rangers are such a tease. Therefore, they can be seventh in the NHL in goals scored per game and 12th in goals against every game, yet 18th in the overall standings and from the outside after the playoffs.
They just are not consistent enough. They cannot place success within context. They are unable to adapt against an opponent who eliminates their skill and forces them to play in a battle of narrow spaces and paint-by-the-number hockey.
Two nights after the hilarious victory over the injured Penguins took place, there was little but sadness after the Rangers’ 5-2 loss to the same (but very different) Pittsburgh group that their opponent would not be able to escape.
The Rangers could not deny their bread and butter. Their top two lines achieved almost nothing. They could not or did not want to get the pitch deep. They could not work on the walls. There was no puck possession to speak of under the gate marks. They were usually bad on the face down. Attention to detail was an imaginative force.
“They made it difficult for us and we were maybe a little too stubborn with the puck and our decisions,” said Mika Zibanejad, whose game was far below par and not in a masterful way. ‘We tried to force plays a little too much and did not really get a constant preview or suits on the net.
“They fed on it. They are a good team. We were a little too stubborn today. ‘
Zibanejad missed a wide open left side of the net with a brief two-to-one lead from Pavel Buchnevich 8:29 into the game, leaving the Rangers 1-0 at the time. His failure to clear led to Kris Letang’s goal at 3:23 of the second, giving the Penguins a 2-1 lead, just 1:21 after Colin Blackwell’s tie tied the score.
Later, Zibanejad lost a clean penalty draw against defensive zone Radim Zohorna. This directly led to a power play by Evan Rodrigues at 11:28 of the second to increase Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-1. 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 five-on-five goal in 13 games since March 13. He flutters all over the ice and can make no impact.
Kreider has been a ranger since 2012-’13 and leads the team in goals over that period. But in all that time, he was once chosen to go into the shootout. It was February 21, 2013 in Ottawa, when Kreider was the seventh and final last player to shoot against Ben Bishop. He was stopped, and the Blueshirts lost.
Since then, the Rangers have been in 58 shootings and have used 17 shooters, none of whom have the name Chris Kreider. On Thursday, the reasons were probably reinforced when Kreider awarded a penalty kick at 17:59 when Cody Ceci and his team took off from behind 3-1, shooting the kick into the pillows of Tristan Jarry.
The Rangers’ penchant for avoiding good shots to try worse has reached epidemic status. In the middle of the first period, Kaapo Kakko drove from the right side to the middle, but instead of shooting from the slot, it bounced wide so that Flip Chytil would have a worse angle. Halfway through the second row Chytil to the slot and sends it to the right circle, but his feed does not connect.
“There were a lot of things missing tonight,” coach David Quinn said. “Not shooting the target has been a problem all year, a problem since I was here.
‘Sometimes when you win a match [8-4, as the Rangers did Tuesday], you can change your mind a bit and if you do it at this level, you will get what you deserve. ‘
If things go smoothly, the Rangers could look like the Dynastic Oilers again. As things get tighter, it could look like the Rangers from 1997-2004. This is not a particularly flattering comparison.
It was the best guys and the team mentality. After Quinn raised the opportunistic Blackwell on Tuesday to ride with Panarin and Strome with a gun, Quinn brought him through the order with Vitali Kravtsov after only four turns. Kravtsov was one of the better Rangers, but it seemed odd to take the playing time away from a guy who was always willing to dig on a night when few people were in the mood. If Kravtsov had earned more ice time, it would probably have been at the expense of Kreider.
The Bruins won in Washington to extend their lead to seven points over the Rangers for the final playoff spot while holding two games in hand. What did Quinn say in a different context?
Oh, reg. You get what you deserve.