Rangers must ‘keep on fighting’ despite historic struggles on home ice
Maybe it’s a good thing for the New York Rangers that their next game is more than 600 miles away from Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers take a 6-1-1 road record and a three-game winning streak away from the Garden into their game against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Friday — three nights after making some dubious home history with a 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Rangers have lost their first six home games (0-5-1) for the first time in the franchise’s 100 NHL seasons. The six-game winless streak to start the season matches the World War II-ravaged 1943-44 team (lost its first five games before a 2-2 tie against the Montreal Canadiens) and the 1950-51 team (three losses, three ties). These Rangers have lost five times in regulation and once in overtime – a sloppy 6-5 loss to the previously winless San Jose Sharks on Oct. 23.
They’ve scored six goals at home — and given up six empty-netters.
“It’s frustrating,” forward Mika Zibanejad said of the struggles at the Garden. “No one wants to win at home more than we do right now.”
The Rangers are now in a five-way tie for the third-longest home losing streak from the start of a season in NHL history; only the 1971-72 Los Angeles Kings (8) and 1983-84 Pittsburgh Penguins (7) had longer season-opening stretches of home futility.
Perhaps the heartiest cheers from MSG Faithful on Tuesday were for Jaromir Jagr, who owns the team records for goals (54) and points (123) in a season, set 20 years ago.
In contrast, boos rained down on the current Blueshirts as the game went on and it became apparent that the Rangers weren’t going to score even if the game went all night. They had 13 shots on goal in the first 8:40 of the game but later went without a shot for a stretch of 21:18 — the final 8:08 of the second period through the first 13:10 of the third, when a long-range bouncer hopped off goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov for his 25th and final save. It was their only shot of the period.
“Maybe frustration and other emotions kind of got to us in the third,” Zibanejad said of a lackluster performance in the final 20 minutes.
Rangers seek answers after another shutout loss at home
Coach Mike Sullivan said he couldn’t have asked for much more from his players through the first 40 minutes Tuesday.
“I thought when you look at how the game was played in the first two periods there was a lot to like about our game,” he explained. “Some of the quality looks, I’m not sure we could get better looks. ‘Bread’ (Artemi Panarin) was in alone. J.T. (Miller) had a rebound chance right in the slot. Jonny Brodzinski had a Grade-A chance right in the slot.
“There’s three off the top of my head that you don’t get many better looks than those. That’s just the way it’s going for us right now.”
One reason for the scoring drought is that the power play continues to struggle. An 0-for-3 performance despite getting several prime chances among their nine shots with the extra man dropped the Rangers to 4-for-36 (a League-worst 11.1 percent) this season, including 1-for-15 (6.7 percent) at The Garden. It’s not that the Blueshirts didn’t get good looks, but they aren’t converting them into goals.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of something like this before in terms of getting looks and not scoring,” a frustrated Zibanejad said. “I feel like we’re at three or four or maybe five Grade As and we don’t score. The puck just has got to go in. Other than that we have to keep going.”
In contrast, Carolina was 1-for-3 after going 3-for-32 in its first 11 games. Nikolaj Ehlers’ first-period PPG put the ’Canes up 1-0 and let a lot of the air out of The Garden.
“Power plays are difference-makers,” said defenseman Adam Fox, who quarterbacks the top power-play unit. “They get one, we don’t. That’s the difference right there, especially early in the game, when you can get the lead. That team gets a lead, they’re hard to play against.
“But for us, I think even if you’re not scoring, you want to get momentum. We’ve done that on a few power plays, but then similar to five-on-five, we get a little frustrated and we start doing things differently.”
The Rangers will try to end their home frustration when the archrival New York Islanders come to The Garden on Saturday night. Sullivan said his team has to put the slow start at the Garden in the rear-view mirror.
“We want to be a team that prides itself on being good at home, being stingy at home, making this a tough place for people to play,” Sullivan explained. “We’ve just got to keep on fighting.”
