3 Rangers takeaways after OT loss to Ducks keeps them outside a playoff spot in the East
There are good overtime points, and then there are bad ones. The one the New York Rangers got in their 5-4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday night was as bad as it gets – and it left them outside the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.
The Rangers never trailed after Adam Fox put them ahead 3:20 into the game. They led 2-1 after one period, 3-1 after two and 4-2 with less than six minutes left in the third period. The Ducks gave the Rangers four power plays in just over 11 minutes after Mika Zibanejad scored New York’s lone man-advantage goal 4:35 into the final period – and the visitors did nothing with them.
Instead, the Ducks got within one on a goal by Cutter Gauthier with 5:48 remaining and tied the game 4-4 on Olen Zellweger’s sixth of the season less than four minutes later. The Rangers never even touched the puck in overtime before Mason McTavish’s goal 59 seconds into OT sent them off to San Jose with just one point – and outside the top eight in the East.
The Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens are tied in points for the second wild card. But the Blue Jackets, who rallied for a 7-6 shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks, have played 71 games, one fewer than the Canadiens (4-1 losers to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh) and two fewer than the Rangers. New York would have had the last playoff spot in the East all to itself with a win – instead, the Rangers went home with the door prize instead of the new car.
“That was two points you’ve got to have,” Fox said postgame. “That was an inexcusable third period. Good teams do not lose a game like that.
“They got chances that we can’t let happen and they capitalized on them. There’s not much to say to that – the third period especially.”
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Three Rangers takeaways from 5-4 overtime loss to Ducks
Here are three takeaways from perhaps the Rangers’ most painful loss of the season.
1. Overtime is not Rangers time
The Rangers have lost seven of their nine games decided in 3-on-3 overtime. In six of the seven, they led the game in the third period but allowed the game-tying goal before coughing up the winner in OT. The loss Friday was the second time this month that the Rangers lost in extra time after they couldn’t hold a two-goal lead in the last few minutes of regulation.
For the season, that’s six lost points – the difference between chasing the second wild card and pushing the New Jersey Devils for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
No one was more frustrated to see another win the Rangers should have had turn into a loss than coach Peter Laviolette.
“We’re in charge of a game going into the third period, twice, and we don’t execute and get it done,” Laviolette said during a postgame media conference that lasted all of about 45 seconds. “That’s about as disappointing as it gets.”
2. Power outage
Mika Zibanejad’s power-play goal early in the third period put the Rangers ahead 4-2 and appeared to put the game away. But the Blueshirts wasted four more man advantages, including a long 5-on-3, and the power play’s failure to capitalize on a string of bad penalties by the Ducks came back to bite the Rangers badly.
The last failed power play was the most damaging. Not only did the Rangers fail to score when Radko Gudas took a senseless cross-checking penalty with 3:54 remaining, but the Ducks broke out of their own zone just as the Anaheim captain was returning to the ice. All three Rangers forwards were trapped, and Zellweger capped the 4-on-2 rush by beating Igor Shesterkin with 1:45 remaining to tie the game 4-4.
In all, the power play was 1-for-7 – and surrendered a first-period short-handed goal to Alex Killorn.
Forward J.T. Miller, whose unit was on the ice for the goals by Killorn and Zellweger, blamed his group for the loss.
“Our (power-play) unit basically gave them the game a little bit today,” he said. “They scored basically twice against us. It’s on us.”
3. No time to mope
Perhaps the only good thing is that the Rangers don’t have any time to think about the point that got away.
The Blueshirts went right from a somber locker room in Anaheim to the airport for a flight to San Jose, where they face the Sharks on Saturday night.
That loss Friday makes this game against the woeful Sharks even more important. The Sharks are last in the NHL, but they’re coming off a 6-5 shootout win against the powerful Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, a game that saw them win in a tiebreaker after blowing a 5-3 lead in the final minute of regulation. Young players like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith are already showing that the future is bright in San Jose, even if the present isn’t.
With Shesterkin having started nine straight games, a career high, expect Jonathan Quick to be in goal for the second of back-to-back games. They’re likely to be facing former teammate Alexandar Georgiev, who would like nothing more than to make his old team’s life a little more miserable by sending them home from their three-game California trip without a win.
This is a game the Rangers absolutely can’t lose. Fox said the Rangers have to look forward to the next game rather than ponder the one that got away.
“We’re still in this with nine (games) to go and a quick turnaround tomorrow,” he said. “Not much has to be said.”
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