Rangers fall to Flyers; incoming roster jam forces trade of Brendan Lemieux
The Blueshirts didn’t play a bad game. They also didn’t play a very good game either. The Flyers came out with a lot of energy and maintained it for the entirety of the game. If not for Igor Shesterkin this game would’ve been lost much sooner than it was.
Rangers vs Flyers: Philadephia responds to Rangers blowouts
What did people expect, that Alain Vigneault would let his team roll over and die again against the Rangers? He had his team prepared but a penalty by Travis Konecny led to another Mika Zibanejad goal. The Blueshirts would skate out the first period with a 1-0 lead after Igor Shesterkin stopped all 17 shots hurled his way.
Unfortunately, the Rangers goalie could not stop two of the final 20 he saw the rest of the way. Nolan Patrick would tie it in the second on the power play and Samuel Morin used a screen in the third for the winner. It wasn’t a spectacular goal since he just threw it at the net with traffic. Shesterkin didn’t see it and that was the game.
“That was a hungry and desperate team obviously,” Zibanejad said. “They came out hot in the beginning. I thought they were throwing pucks on net, they were spreading us in our own zone. … We didn’t do a good enough job to get the pucks behind them and try to outwork them. They were good today, but we didn’t really come up to our level.”
A step back and look at recent Rangers play shows the team is playing very well. They are 5-2-1 in their last 8 games with a home game against the Capitals tomorrow.
Roster jam forces trade of Brendan Lemieux
Brendan Lemieux was traded to the L.A. Kings for a fourth round pick. There’s some whispers that Vitali Kravtsov could make his debut with the club tomorrow, but the Rangers needed to make room for other players too. With Phil Di Giuseppe off the COVID list and Brett Howden soon to follow there’s a log jam.
Forever Blueshirts has also learned that Morgan Barron will eventually get a call up this season. The winger who is also being tried at center is performing very well in Hartford. His time is coming soon.
PRESS RELEASE:
NEW YORK, March 27, 2021 – The New York Rangers announced today that the team has acquired a fourth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Brendan Lemieux. The pick the Blueshirts acquired is Los Angeles’ own fourth-round pick.
The Rangers now have nine picks in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, including six picks in the first four rounds and three picks in the fourth round.
Lemieux skated in 109 games with the Rangers over parts of three seasons (2018-19 – 2020-21), registering 11 goals and 20 assists for 31 points, along with 214 penalty minutes.
Related: Rangers trade Brendan Lemieux
Post Game Notes:
- The Rangers were 1-for-4 on the power play in today’s contest. The Blueshirts have recorded at least one power play goal in each of the last three games (6-for-12; 50.0%) and in five of the last six games (8-for-22; 36.4% over the span).
- Mika Zibanejad tallied a power play goal, drew the penalty that led to the power play goal, tied for the team-high with three shots on goal, registered three blocked shots, and was credited with three hits in 22:58 of ice time.
- Adam Fox tallied a power play assist, tied for the team-high with three shots on goal, led all skaters with four blocked shots, and drew a penalty while skating in a team-high 25:28 of ice time. Fox extended his assist/point streak to six games (one goal, 11 assists over the span).
- Ryan Strome recorded a power play assist and registered two shots on goal. He extended his point streak to eight games (two goals, 11 assists over the span) and his assist streak to seven games. Strome’s seven-game assist streak is a career-high and his eight-game point streak is tied for his career-high.
Next Game: Tomorrow, Sunday, Mar. 28 at Washington (12:00 p.m. ET – TV: NBC)
Notes courtesy NYR
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