Noah Laba 1st NHL goal not enough, Rangers lose 5-1 to Flames: key takeaways
Not even Noah Laba’s timely first NHL goal was enough to shake the New York Rangers out of their recent doldrums Sunday night, when they opened a four-game road trip with a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.
The 22-year-old rookie scored on the very next shift after the Flames increased their lead to 2-0 in the first period. Instead of building momentum, the Rangers surrendered the next three goals and lost to one of the League’s bottom feeders yet again.
Even with the win, the Flames (2-7-1) are last in the NHL. They entered play winless in their previous eight games (0-7-1). But the League’s lowest-scoring team never trailed against the Rangers, who lost 6-5 in overtime to the woeful San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
The Rangers (3-5-2) are winless in their past three games overall (0-2-1) and lost for the first time in regulation on the road this season (3-1-1).
Flames goalie Dustin Wolf shut down the Rangers with 30 saves Sunday. Blake Coleman scored two goals and now leads the Flames with five this season. Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist; Kevin Bahl and Yegor Sharangovich also scored for Calgary.
Igor Shesterkin allowed five goals on 30 shots for New York.
For the seventh time in 10 games this season, the Rangers allowed the first goal. And in what’s becoming a recurring issue, the Rangers again started slowly and fell behind within the first couple minutes of play.
“We were champing at the bit to get going,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said postgame. “It’s so frustrating to come out flat on the road.”
Kadri wired his second goal of the season over Shesterkin’s glove just 1:42 into play. And the Flames doubled their lead at 9:21, when Bahl’s shot from the blue line found its way past Shesterkin glove-side to make it 2-0 Calgary.
Shesterkin threw his arms up in frustration after the red light went on, apparently frustrated that his own teammate, Alexis Lafreniere, screened him on the shot.
Laba, though, injected some life back into the Rangers by scoring his first NHL goal just 10 seconds later. Will Cuylle drew two Flames to him and then chipped the puck off the boards and over the blue line. Laba swooped in to collect it, before skating toward the net and beating Wolf over the glove with a pretty forehand finish at 9:31.
There wasn’t much more offensive push by the Rangers in the first period. They were outshot 12-5 and out-attempted 32-16. The visitors were credited four high-danger chances in the opening 20 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick. However the best of those was a break-in by Miller, who’s shot sailed over the net, after a terrible Calgary turnover at its own blue line
The Rangers had some Grade-A chances in the second period, but Wolf was up to the challenge. The Flames goalie stoned Laba’s 1-on-1 backhand try after a takeaway early in the period, and later robbed Mika Zibanejad near the midpoint with an athletic left-pad save, after the Rangers center sprung out of the penalty box and had a clear breakaway.
Wolf then made the save of the night at 16:22, diving to his right to somehow get his arm on Lafreniere’s wide-open opportunity.
The Flames scored the only goal of the second period at 12:28, when the Rangers didn’t properly pick up Sharangovich skating down the middle. He banged a shot off Shesterkin and in for his first goal of the season, extending Calgary’s lead to 3-1.
Coleman buried a give-and-go feed from Mikael Backlund for a short-handed goal 6:22 into the third period to make it 4-1. It was the first shortie surrendered by the Rangers this season. A second nearly was scored against them roughly one minute later, but Joel Farabee rang his short-handed shot off the post after the Flames stormed Shesterkin on a clear 2-on-0 break.
Coleman scored his second goal of the night when his shot deflected off Lafreniere’s back and past Shesterkin at 14:27.
The Rangers look to get on track Tuesday, when the road trip continues in Vancouver with a game against the Canucks.
Key takeaways from Rangers’ sloppy 5-1 loss to Flames
1. Night to remember for Noah Laba
Not only did Laba score his first NHL goal, he logged a career-high (in 10 games) 14:19 TOI, and was New York’s best forward Sunday. And he accomplished this after a recent downturn in his game that led to fewer shifts and less ice time, that coach Mike Sullivan explained as the natural “rollercoaster ride” for a rookie in the NHL.
Perhaps energized by his goal, Laba was flying Sunday. Skating fast and with purpose, Laba got in the forecheck, won a slew of puck battles, had another great scoring chance, and led a 3-on-2 rush which led to a scoring chance for Brennan Othmann in the second period.
And his goal? It was a beaut.
“A little bit of a shock,” Laba said on MSG during the first intermission. “I didn’t know what to do (after scoring).”
2. Mixed bag for Brennan Othmann in season debut
Othmann was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League and drew into the Rangers lineup with Matt Rempe sidelined by an upper-body injury. The 22-year-old skated on the third line, centered by Laba and with Cuylle on the other wing. Though he didn’t stand out, Othmann wasn’t bad by any means.
He could’ve helped his cause had he not badly missed the net on a glorious scoring chance in the second period. The puckk found Othmann all alone in front, and he was 1-on-1 against Wolf before misfiring. Othmann ended up with one shot on goal, two shot attempts, and two hits.
Othmann was tagged with a minus on his first shift of the season, though hardly at fault when Kadri scored. He also went hard to the net to be an option, when Laba instead chose to shoot, and subsequently score, in the first period. And he received another minus on a complete five-man fail when Sharangovich scored in the second period.
3. Sloppy play and missed chances prove costly for Rangers
The Rangers began this season so defensively sound. But they were really sloppy Sunday, continuing a recent trend that’s reminiscent of how they played defensively much of last season. The compete level appears to be there. The execution is not. And that includes on the offensive side of the puck, where, again, the Rangers could hardly buy a goal against Wolf.
A pair of missed chances at one end of the rink stood out when the Flames came back the other way to score immediately afterward. The first was when Othmann missed badly on his open look, and roughly 10 seconds later Sharangovich scored. Instead of possibly being tied 2-2, the Rangers were down 3-1.
Then in the third period, the Rangers not only failed on their only power play of the night, but surrendered a short-handed goal. And seconds before surrendering that goal, Lafreniere could’ve drawn a hooking call against Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson, and then Zibanejad whiffed on a point-blank shot, sending Coleman and Backlund out the other way on the fateful 2-on-1.
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