Rangers pay big price for not doing little things in loss to Sabres
The New York Rangers believe they did a lot of good things against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately for the Blueshirts and the sellout crowd of 18,006 on “Fan Favorites Night,” winning wasn’t one of them.
The Rangers spent the night chasing the game and never did catch up in a 5-2 loss that left them at 20-19-6, four points behind the Sabres for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers lost even though they out-shot the Sabres 32-21, out-attempted them 64-48, out-hit them 32-16, were 32-19 in the face-off circle, and had a 56.88 percent expected goal share at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick.
Instead, the Sabres won for the 12th time in their past 13 games, and the Rangers fell to 5-11-4 on home ice.
“I thought we played a good game,” coach Mike Sullivan said postgame. “I thought we played hard. I thought we competed hard, thought we were trying to play the game the right way. I thought we generated a fair amount of scoring chances. I thought we defended pretty hard, but it wasn’t perfect by any means.”
That’s an understatement. A big reason they didn’t win was because they didn’t do the little things right.
Josh Doan’s goal 4:07 into the game came after the Rangers failed to clear the puck out of their own end, with Mika Zibanejad’s attempt up the middle intercepted. Alex Tuch’s goal at 6:58 of the second was a shot from the high slot; he was wide-open because Vincent Trocheck got tangled up at the other end of the ice, was slow getting back to the bench for a change, and left the Rangers effectively down a man as they tried to defend.
Rangers pay price for not doing little things right in loss to Sabres
But the killer came late in the third period. Trocheck made it 3-2 by scoring 51 seconds after the period began and Rangers kept the Sabres on their heels until forward Peyton Krebs was assessed a double minor for high-sticking Trocheck with 5:36 remaining.
The Garden was revved up, anticipating the Rangers would at least tie the game – if not take the lead – during the four-minute power play. Instead, things fell apart.
Alexis Lafreniere’s turnover seconds after the draw turned into a 2-on-1 rush for Buffalo. Jonathan Quick, playing in place of injured starter Igor Shesterkin, went down a bit early and Mattias Samuelsson’s short-handed shot from the bottom of the left circle zipped past his ear and into the net, restoring the Sabres’ two-goal lead and completely deflating the Rangers and the crowd.
“I thought the third period, that’s been our best period in a while,” Sullivan said. “Just the push, the energy, the willingness to compete, the physicality, both offensively and defensively. Getting inside at the net. All the things we’re asking them to do, I thought, were there. We had a number of opportunities to tie the game that was 3-2. Couldn’t seem to break through.
“We were all around the net. It’s unfortunate, when they get the short-handed goal, because we had a pretty good opportunity there.”
Lafreniere was on the ice in that situation because Trocheck was cut and had to go to the bench. Sullivan said the plan was for Trocheck to come on the ice as soon as the Rangers got the puck deep in the offensive zone — but that never happened.
The coach also pretty directly pointed the finger at Lafreniere for not sticking to the attack plan for the power play.
“We knew they were a team that’s gonna push out with three-point pressure in the high ice,” he said. “We were trying to encourage them to play in the low ice and use their aggression against them. The players, they have a game plan going in. They have an understanding of what they’re up against. At the end of the day, it’s a player’s game, and it boils down to decision-making and execution.”
The Rangers missed Shesterkin and their best defenseman, Adam Fox, who sustained lower-body injuries during Monday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth. Shesterkin is on injured reserve and his timeline is unknown; Fox is on LTIR and can’t return until Jan. 31 at the earliest.
For now, the Rangers must try to play catch-up in the standings without two of their best players.
“It hurts,” defenseman Braden Schneider said Thursday night. “It sucks not having them out there, but we gotta try and keep pushing forward. Our team still has a belief that we’re a good team and that we can win games.”
Without Shesterkin and Fox, the Rangers have even less margin for error. They’ve scored two goals or fewer a League-high 25 times and frittered away a winnable game on a night when all seven of the teams holding a playoff berth in the East that saw action, earned points.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Zibanejad, whose second-period goal made it 2-1. “It’s tough obviously when you don’t get anything for it.
“Obviously, we need the points. But compared to other games I feel there is more to build on or take away from this game than others.”
Their next chance to get points is Saturday afternoon in Boston, where they defeated the Bruins 6-2 on Black Friday. That was one of their best efforts of the season; they’ll need a lot more like it moving forward to make the playoffs.
