Rangers have no answers in dismal 5-1 loss to Devils
Any good feelings the New York Rangers had after ending their five-game losing streak over the weekend with a win against the Montreal Canadiens were quickly snuffed out Monday. In fact, they had no answers for the high-flying New Jersey Devils in a 5-1 loss at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers (13-10-1) weren’t great 5v5 in that win Saturday against the Canadiens; however, they scored three power-play goals and eked out a 4-3 win, their first in six games. But on Monday, they weren’t playing the 30th-overall Canadiens — and the Devils made sure the Rangers were well aware of that fact.
The Devils (17-9-2) jumped the Rangers early — sound familiar? — and never really had to sweat out the result. New Jersey was far better 5v5 and scored two power-play goals to move into first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Devils are nine points ahead of the Rangers, albeit having played four more games.
“We’re a good hockey team. Right now, we’re not playing very good hockey,” said coach Peter Laviolette, who didn’t come out to meet the media for more than a half-hour. “We need to be better, and those are things that are in our control. Those answers are in the room, and those are the answers that we need to figure out as a group.”
Jack Hughes scored twice and had an assist for the Devils, and Jesper Bratt had a four-point game (one goal, three assists). Dougie Hamilton had a goal and an assist and Dawson Mercer also scored. Goalie Jacob Markstrom finished with 38 saves.
Chris Kreider scored New York’s only goal on a second-period power play. Igor Shesterkin allowed at least five goals for the fourth time this season. He made 23 saves and lost his fifth straight decision and for the seventh time in his past nine starts since Nov. 7.
“We’re finding different ways to lose games right now instead of finding ways to win,” Kreider said postgame.
Related: Brett Berard out against Devils with upper-body injury
New Jersey Devils 5 – New York Rangers 1
It was another miserable start for the Rangers, who allowed a goal just 87 seconds into the game and trailed 2-0 by the 7:10 mark of the first period. And it easily could have been 4-0 by the midway point of the opening period.
Bratt scored off the rush, a 2-on-1 up left wing, beating Shesterkin on a quick release to give the Devils a 1-0 lead before the Blueshirts faithful had time to settle into their seats. But that’s nothing new. This was a replay of so many games in the past month, where the Rangers are chasing things after surrendering an early goal before finding any semblance of their footing. They’ve lost 10 of their past 18 games.
Mercer doubled New Jersey’s lead at 7:10 when he drifted left to right through the slot and slipped a shot against the grain that went under Shesterkin’s right pad to make it 2-0 with his sixth goal of the season.
Thirty-nine seconds later, Shesterkin made a huge left-pad save to stop Jack Hughes on a clean breakaway. Less than three minutes after that, Bratt missed wide on a backhand attempt off a short-handed breakaway during a Rangers power play.
It was not pretty at all for the home team.
On that same power play, New York’s first of the game, New Jersey blocked three shots in a wild sequence in front of Markstrom. Brett Pesce had the first block, off his ankle, and later made another, even though he was hobbled by the first. Erik Haula also threw himself in front of a Rangers shot.
A few minutes later, the Devils just missed again trying to make it 3-0. This time, Mercer fired an in-tight shot off the post during a scramble in front of Shesterkin at 14:55. The Rangers came close to halving their deficit at 17:47 when K’Andre Miller snapped a shot through an Adam Edstrom screen and off the post.
“I hate the first goal,” Laviolette said. “We talk about not giving up odd-man rushes from the offensive zone and we did. You leave the first period and you’re down 2-0, that’s not the way you want to start a division game against the New Jersey Devils. It’s not good. It’s not where we want to be.”
The Rangers were fortunate to be down just two goals at the first intermission, and even luckier early in the second period when Shesterkin made a lightning-quick save with his right pad on a Timo Meier blast at 1:40 and Ondrej Palat’s rebound attempt hit the top of the crossbar at 2:25.
Markstrom made two sharp saves against Vincent Trocheck seconds apart during a Rangers power play roughly 4 1/2 minutes into the second. Three minutes later Bratt hit the post on a power-play shot and 10 seconds later Kreider fanned on a 2-on-0 short-handed break.
The Devils finally added to their lead at 9:04 when Hamilton ripped a one-timer past Shesterkin for a 5-on-3 power-play goal. Then Jack Hughes got behind Sam Carrick to bury a rebound to make it 4-0 in favor of the Devils at 12:38.
Less than a minute later, Kreider scored his 10th goal, fourth on the power play, at 13:29 to get the Rangers on the board.
But the Rangers couldn’t get any closer, and the Devils scored again on the power play before the period ended to take a 5-1 lead. Jack Hughes ripped a shot through a Nico Hischier screen for a 4-on-3 power-play goal at 18:56.
The Rangers outshot the Devils 10-2 in the scoreless third period but never really put up a threat.
“Things haven’t been going how we’ve wanted to lately,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “Right now, these aren’t fun times to go through — but like I said, these are where teams get built. You’ve got to find your way through adversity to get to the good stuff.”
The Rangers have three days to find some answers before their next game, Friday at home against Sidney Crosby and the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins. They know they have to be a lot better.
“To get out of this, we have to play a brand of hockey that leaves no doubt,” Kreider summed up.
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