New York Rangers Daily: No way to lose Monday, John Tavares hat trick in Maple Leafs win
Let’s start your Monday morning with a double dose of positive New York Rangers news.
First, the Rangers do not play on Monday. They don’t practice either. All good. There’s been just too much on-ice ugly for the Rangers lately. There won’t be any on-ice ugliness Monday.
Second, their next game is against the a team even more disappointing than they’ve been this season. The Rangers visit the last-overall Nashville Predators on Tuesday. The Predators (8-17-6) make the Rangers look like an absolute juggernaut by comparison, and are easily a bigger disappointment after the signings of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei this past offseason.
That’ll all be for our three things to watch for preview story on Tuesday. Unfortunately, so, too, will be the fact that recently the Rangers faced another last-overall team, the Chicago Blackhawks. And lost 2-1. So, yeah, so it goes.
The Rangers (15-14-1) just had another lost weekend; they were hammered 5-1 at home by the Los Angeles Kings before losing 3-2 on the road to the St. Louis Blues. They’ve dropped four of five and are 3-10-0 in their past 13 games.
New York is in a three-way tie for fifth in the Metropolitan Division with 31 points, just two ahead of the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets. The Rangers sit 10th in the Eastern Conference, passed this weekend by the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators in the standings. Yeesh.
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New York Rangers news
Here are three takeaways from the Rangers’ latest loss to the Blues, as the seat gets hotter under coach Peter Laviolette.
Adding to their woes, the Rangers were without leading scorer Artemi Panarin on Sunday. Panarin is day to day with an upper-body injury. Oh, and Kappo Kakko was a healthy scratch, too, against the Blues.
The Rangers goals scored Sunday came off the sticks of a pair of 22-year-old forwards, Brett Berard and Will Cuylle. That was a positive.
NHL news
Petr Mrazek is expected to skate with the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday for the first time since the goalie sustained a groin injury nine days ago.
Former NHL defenseman Justin Schultz, who played eight games in Switzerland this season, announced his retirement.
Reports out of Buffalo are that owner Terry Pegula will meet the team in Montreal on Monday, either to make a coaching or general manager change, or to speak with the team, which has lost 10 straight games.
The Sabres latest loss came at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. WATCH John Tavares net a hat trick, the 14th of his NHL career, in Toronto’s 5-3 victory.
The Islanders got Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech back in the lineup, but Connor Bedard scored the tie-breaking goal with less than a minute remaining in the third period in Chicago’s 5-3 win.
In a battle between two of the top teams in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights edged the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Victor Olofsson’s third-period goal. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov scored twice and is tied with Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl for the League’s goal scoring lead with 22.
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