Rangers waste brilliant Jonathan Quick effort in 2-1 loss to Red Wings
Jonathan Quick did everything within his power to will the New York Rangers to victory Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. But even a brilliant 40-save performance by their almost 40-year-old goaltender wasn’t enough for the Rangers, who dropped a 2-1 decision to the Detroit Red Wings.
Quick not only battled until the final buzzer, but afterward as well. On the bench for a sixth attacker when the clock struck triple zero, Quick was enraged that Detroit forward Mason Appleton sent a shot into the Rangers’ empty net after the horn sounded. He charged onto the ice to confront Appleton, and instead met up with Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, who took a few shots to the face from the goalie’s blocker as both benches emptied.
At least one Rangers player showed fight from start to finish — and beyond. The Rangers (10-8-2) were outshot 42-19 and out-attempted 77-59. Over the final 40 minutes, Detroit outshot New York 33-13. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Red Wings had a 72.18 percent expected goal share in a dominant third period, when Lucas Raymond snapped a 1-1 tie at 16:13.
Raymond had a goal and an assist; and he, Patrick Kane, and Dylan Larkin each recorded seven shots on goal for the Red Wings, who blew a 4-1 lead and lost in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres the night before. Alex DeBrincat also scored for Detroit, and Cam Talbot finished with 18 saves.
Mika Zibanejad scored his team-high seventh goal for the Rangers, whose three-game winning streak ended. New York dropped to 1-7-1 at MSG this season.
Quick did some of his best work when the Rangers were short-handed in the second period, so it was a bit ironic that the Red Wings opened the scoring with a power-play goal. Raymond’s shot from the right circle crept between Quick’s pads, and as the puck rolled toward the goal line, DeBrincat pushed it across the goal line at 9:30 for his ninth goal of the season and fifth in the past three games.
Prior to the goal, Quick fought through traffic to make some big-time saves, but the Rangers failed to clear the puck out of their zone. Quick also had to deal with contact from Larkin that knocked him off balance, though the Rangers goalie did reset himself before Raymond’s shot.
Quick was furious with the officials after the goal.
“It was confusion. You’re getting tripped in your crease. That’s supposed to be a whistle right away,” he explained. “It’s tough enough killing a penalty as is. When you’ve got guys in the crease tripping you, it makes it more difficult.”
The Rangers weren’t thrilled with the officiating throughout. They ended up with two power plays compared with five for the Red Wings.
Earlier in the second period, Quick stopped all four shots on Detroit’s first power play of the game. That included a terrific 1-2 sequence at 4:30, when he made a sharp pad save and then denied Raymond’s rebound try, using his paddle on the ice to keep the low shot out of his cage.
Quick also caught a break near the start of that power play, when Simon Edvinsson whistled a backhand shot from the right circle across the grain far side and off the post at 3:30.
The Rangers tied things up with a power-play goal of their own by Zibanejad at 11:59 of the second period. But that was only after Quick kept the deficit at one, turning aside a short-handed scoring opportunity off the rush by Detroit’s J.T. Compher 30 seconds before Zibanejad’s goal.
Zibanejad buried a loose puck from the side of the net after Talbot lost sight of the puck following a save. It was his team-leading fourth power-play goal, and second in as many nights on the man advantage. He also scored a second-period power-play goal in a 2-1 shootout win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Zibanejad then had a partial break short-handed at 14:25, but his shot sailed wide from right wing, as he looked gassed at the end of his shift.
With the score tied 1-1 in the third period, the Red Wings looked like the fresher and hungrier team. But Quick remained the biggest difference maker on the ice, and the main reason why the Rangers weren’t run out of their own building.
Detroit recorded 10 of the first 11 shots in the period, many of which came on consecutive power plays at 6:39 and 8:38. Raymond, Larkin, and Kane were among the Red Wings flat-out robbed by Quick, who also caught a break when a Kane shot caught iron. Zibanejad and Vladislav Gavrikov made heady defensive plays during the PK to help out their goalie, as well.
Quick had another gem stored up when he made a sensational pad save on Nate Danielson’s blast off an odd-man rush, with the teams playing at even strength. But before he could pick up his 40th save on the night, Raymond scored the go-ahead goal for Detroit on a terrific solo effort with 3:47 remaining in regulation.
The Rangers now head out on a three-game road trip that begins Tuesday in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.
Key Rangers takeaways after frustrating 2-1 home loss to Red Wings
No Sully
Rangers coach Mike Sullivan wasn’t at Madison Square Garden to witness the latest home defeat nor Quick’s sensational night. He missed the game due to personal reasons.
But the Rangers were in good hands. David Quinn and Joe Sacco served as co-head coaches Sunday, which is fitting since each New York assistant has plenty of head coaching experience in the NHL. Of course, Quinn was Rangers coach for three seasons from 2018-21, and also coached the San Jose Sharks for two seasons before joining Sullivan’s staff with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season.
Sacco coached the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-13 and the Boston Bruins for the final 62 games last season after Jim Montgomery was fired.
“Obviously, from the coaches to the players of the organization, we certainly are thinking about Mike and his family,” Quinn told reporters postgame. “[It’s] never an easy situation when you’ve got to tend to your family. That’s all I can give you right now.”
Welcome to Broadway
Scott Morrow made his Rangers debut after the Rangers recalled the 23-year-old defenseman from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Sunday morning. He skated 15 shifts in total, including one on the second power-play unit, and partnered with fellow rookie Matthew Robertson on the third defense pair. The Rangers outshot the Red Wings 6-3 and were even in scoring chances (6-6) with Morrow out there 5v5.
Morrow got caught at the Red Wings’ blue line on his first shift five minutes into the game, but Quick bailed him out with a sharp pad save on Marco Kasper’s blast off a 2-on-1 rush. Morrow, who had 16 games of previous NHL experience with the Carolina Hurricanes, was called up since Will Borgen remained out with an upper-body injury.
Rookie forward Gabe Perreault was assigned to Hartford to make room on the roster for Morrow.
Centennial sartorial splendor
How about those centennial sweaters each team wore Sunday? Pure fire.
The Rangers and Red Wings are each celebrating their 100th season in the NHL. We’d already seen the awesome threads the Rangers wear on select home dates to commemorate their centennial, and they broke them out again Sunday for this Original Six clash.
What we didn’t expect was for the Red Wings to wear their equally impressive centennial sweaters in this one. Those lighter shade blues playing against the sharp classic reds on the white MSG ice? Yes, give us more of that please. A simply awesome, and classic, look.
Centennial sartorial splendor, for sure.
