Key takeaways after Rangers ‘look helpless’ in 10-2 loss to Bruins
Former Rangers center turned ABC analyst Ray Ferraro said his old team “looked helpless” during the second period of their 10-2 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday. He was being kind.
The Rangers grabbed a quick lead when Mika Zibanejad scored 1:24 into the game. That was just about the last thing they did right all afternoon – the sellout crowd of 17,850 had a swell time watching their team have its way with the Blueshirts, who looked discombobulated for long stretches, showed little resistance and often left goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Spencer Martin on their own to deal with a bunch of buzzing Bruins.
It was the most goals the Bruins have scored against the Rangers since their 10-3 win at Boston Garden on March 10, 1977, and the most scored by any team in an NHL game this season.
Mike Sullivan, who will have to wait a while longer to become the 30th coach in NHL history to win 500 games, mercifully pulled Quick after Pavel Zacha completed his first NHL hat trick at 11:26 of the second period. Ferraro called it a “mercy pull,” noting that the winningest U.S.-born goaltender in League history “has been on his own this afternoon.”
Martin, a journeyman signed by the Rangers in November and recalled from AHL Hartford this week, allowed four goals on 14 shots in his first appearance for the Blueshirts, who fell to 1-4-2 in their seven games since the Christmas break and dropped to the NHL’s version of .500 at 20-20-6.
“We should be embarrassed right now, and I think we are,” said center Vincent Trocheck, who failed to convert a second-period penalty shot.
Rookie Marat Khusnutdinov, who had five goals entering the game, completed his first NHL hat trick 3:51 into the third period and added a fourth goal with 1:29 remaining. David Pastrnak had the first six-assist game of his NHL career. Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman finished with 27 saves.
The Rangers got off to a fast start. Swayman couldn’t control a long floater by Matthew Robertson, Artemi Panarin grabbed the loose puck and found Zibanejad in the right circle. His one-timer was in the net in an instant, and the Rangers had a 1-0 lead just 64 seconds into the game.
But it didn’t last long.
Quick stopped a breakaway by Alex Steeves nine seconds after Zibanejad’s goal, but the Bruins capitalized on another breakaway opportunity less than a minute later to tie the game 1-1. Khusnutdinov picked up a pass from David Pastrnak, blew past Bradon Schneider and beat Quick at 2:31.
Boston went ahead 2-1 at 7:16 on Pavel Zacha’s first goal. Zacha picked off Matthew Robertson’s pass in the neutral zone, raced into the left circle and was left wide open when Rangers defenseman Will Borgen lost his footing and fell. He zipped a shot past Quick to put Boston ahead.
It looked like the Rangers had escaped the period down just one goal despite a late 5-on-3 Boston power play – but a video review showed that a shot by Zacha had completely crossed the goal line with 32.9 seconds remaining to put the Bruins ahead 3-1. Boston had a 17-6 advantage in scoring chances and a 7-2 edge in high-danger chances in the first 20 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Bruins kept pouring it on in the second period, and the Rangers could do nothing to stop them.
Fraser Minten found himself alone in the slot and beat Quick at 2:12, a goal that came after Borgen failed to clear the zone. Khusnutdinov made it 5-1 at 6:41 and Zacha completed his hat trick less than five minutes later with a rocket from the left circle after another botched clearing effort.
J.T. Miller cut the deficit to 6-2 with a power-play goal at 14:04, but B’s defenseman (and Long Island native) Charlie McAvoy tapped in Pastrnak’s perfect backdoor pass at 15:47 to restore Boston’s five-goal margin.
Khusnutdinov completed his hat trick 3:51 into the third period, tipping Pastrnak’s long shot down and past Martin. Fans who hadn’t thrown hats onto the ice after Zacha’s third goal got a second chance when Khusnutdinov matched him. The rookie’s fourth goal merely made life a little more miserable on a day that left the Rangers with a long flight home.
“That’s as bad as it gets,” Miller said. “The only thing that really matters now is this should sting, like this should suck. This should make you want to puke, and then respond tomorrow and the next day. The only thing that matters is a response.”
Key takeaways after Rangers get blown out 10-2 by Bruins
D gets an “F”
The Rangers’ defense looked lost in its second game without Adam Fox, who’s on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury sustained in Monday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth — and it was a group effort.
Schneider was the culprit on each or Khusnutdinov’s goals; Borgen lost his footing on Zacha’s first goal, and his inability to get the puck out of the zone led to Minten’s tally. Scott Morrow ended up out of position and left McAvoy alone for his goal.
In all, the D was minus-16; Carson Soucy and Morrow, who became a pairing this week, were each minus-4 – and even Vladislav Gavrikov, their best defenseman, was minus-2. All six blueliners were minus players. They were overwhelmed all afternoon, struggled to get the puck out of their zone cleanly and were a step (or more) slow against a team that was a lot more ready to play than they were.
Road worriers
The Rangers were one of the NHL’s best road teams from opening night through the Christmas break. They’ve managed to compensate for their struggles at Madison Square Garden, where they’re 5-11-4, because of their success on the road.
But that success has disappeared in the two weeks since play resumed.
New York is 1-3-1 in its past five games away from Madison Square Garden. That includes 0-3-1 in games played in an opponent’s building – the win was a 5-1 victory against the Florida Panthers in the NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot Park in Miami on Jan. 2 – a game played before a crowd that included thousands of Rangers fans who made the trip south.
The Blueshirts have home games against the Seattle Kraken on Monday and the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday, then visit the Philadelphia Flyers next Saturday before a three-game California trip. If they have any hopes of making the playoffs, their road magic had better return quickly.
Depth scoring is MIA
Third-line center Noah Laba returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury. But it’s not like he made an impression – he had no points, no shots on goal, one hit and went 4-for-8 in the face-off circle.
But Laba had plenty of company in his invisibility on the score sheet. This was the fourth straight game that the third and fourth lines finished without a point. The last point by a forward who’s not on the top two lines came when Gabe Perreault had an assist on Schneider’s meaningless goal late in the third period of a 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on New Year’s Eve.
Bottom-six forwards aren’t expected to produce big offensive numbers. But they are expected to contribute – and the Rangers’ bottom six isn’t doing the job on the attack.
When the final buzzer isn’t final
There’s always something new in hockey, but even an ABC crew that included Mark Messier, P.K. Subban and Ray Ferraro couldn’t recall seeing a goal awarded after the end of a period. But that’s what happened Saturday, when the buzzer ending the period sounded and ABC went back to its between-periods studio show – only to flip back to the game telecast after a video review showed that Zacha’s shot had slid barely over the line.
The non-goal-turned-goal was a big one. Getting out of a period in which they were dominated down by only one goal would have been big for the Rangers. Instead, they took the ice in the second period trailing by two, showed little interest in competing and got run out of the building.
