The Rangers started the 2020-21 season sprint against the islanders on Thursday night – and it looks like they already have shins.
You know, the shooting pain along the shin that flares up when there is a sudden increase in physical activity and overwork of the muscles. The Rangers must have felt the feeling when they were eliminated 4-0 in Madison Square Garden during their first of eight meetings with the Islanders this season.
The Rangers have said they do not want to be defined by their three horrific losses in the Toronto bubble this past post-season, but they certainly look a lot like the same team that was overwhelmed, worked out and manipulated five months ago.
The Islanders, on the other hand, looked like a team ready to build on their run-up to the final of the conference.
There were maybe only three rookies on the ice for the Rangers, but the rookie bugs expanded throughout the series. The Rangers found themselves eight times with shorthand, taking three penalties in the first 20 minutes and falling behind early 3-0.
This first game is a small sample size of what’s coming for the Rangers. But if the first period was an indication of how this young group turned up against the rest of the East, the sprint just got a little harder.
Rookie just less Igor Shesterkin was fired on 33 shots for four goals, one or two of which definitely started in his first opening night. Semyon Varlamov hit his third finish in an Islanders jersey and the 28th of his career, and he turned down all 24 shots he faced.
The Rangers were on the heels of the bag after defender Jack Johnson in his first game in a red and blue jersey called for putting the Islanders ahead early.
Brock Nelson started business for the islands and buried one out of the slot at 2:33 for the islanders’ first goal of the season.
A K’Andre Miller turnover allowed Shesterkin to dry just over a minute later, and Lions captain Anders Lee made it 2-0 in a two-on-one rush . Mathew Barzal later made it 3-0 after slinging around Tony DeAngelo to snatch Shesterkin over the glove.
The rookie mistakes just kept coming as Alexis Lafreniere played the poke while making a change and had the Rangers calling for too many men on the ice.
The Rangers tipped the ice in the second period and had plenty of time in the attacking zone, but their crowd-around-the-crease strategy fell short each time. Lafreniere then committed his second penalty of the evening when he was asked to hook at 14:13, which about 50 seconds later led to a power play goal from Jordan Eberle.