COLUMBUS, Ohio – What happened to the Rangers we saw in Buffalo?
They made it look easy in Thursday’s season-opening win against Sabres, but if you were expecting to see 81 more performances like that, you received a rude awakening Saturday night.
Coming in as heavy favorites against the host Blue Jackets, who have endured an offseason of turmoil, New York fell flat. The resulting 5-3 loss at Nationwide Arena served as a reminder that there is still much work to be done in the process of adapting to new head coach Peter Laviolette.
“The first game, we liked our game a lot,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “Today I thought you saw some things you didn’t like as much that we can clean up and focus on and continue to build our game. It’s still, I won’t say new, but we’re still learning this a little bit and kind of getting a feel for it. You’re going to get in different scenarios and situations, and we’ll get more and more comfortable as we go.”
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Three disallowed goals in one period
The start was promising enough. It took only 50 seconds for defenseman Erik Gustafsson to score his first goal with the Rangers (1-1), with his attempted pass deflecting off a Columbus player and in to provide a 1-0 lead. But things got wacky from there.
The first period featured just as many disallowed goals (three) as tallies that counted.
“It was weird,” defenseman Adam Fox said. “It seemed like the game was a little wonky from there and kind of lost a rhythm.”
The Rangers had two come off the board after a pair of successful Columbus challenges wiped away goals from Filip Chytil and Mika Zibanejad, both due to offside rulings. Meanwhile, Jackets forward Patrik Laine lost out on one that was saved by a lunging Trouba. A review showed that the Blueshirts’ captain cleared the puck just before it fully crossed the goal line.
“I thought all the calls were right,” Laviolette said. “It is what it is.”
Shaky night for young D pair
While any of those calls could have changed the course of the game had they gone the other way, the reality was that the Rangers didn’t defend nearly as well as they had two nights prior.
After allowing only six high-danger scoring chances in Buffalo, they surrendered 14 against the Jackets, according to Natural Stat Trick − including nine in the first period.
“It wasn’t a volume of defensive things, but there were some issues for me that could have been better,” Laviolette said. “There were some odd-man rushes that I didn’t like and some things that snuck back in there that you’ve got to take out. It wasn’t overwhelming amounts of them, but the ones that we didn’t take charge of, they came back the other way and bit us.”
Boone Jenner was at the center of a few backbreaking moments − three, to be exact.
The Columbus captain notched a hat trick before the second period was through, with each of those goals coming around the Rangers’ net.
“You want to clear out the front of the net and not let those tips (happen),” Fox said. “We score some goals like that that are around the net and tips. It’s hard for the goalie. There’s nothing they can really do on those, so it’s tough. We had some breakdowns, and they took advantage of it.”
The first came when Jenner pounced on a rebound off a shot from Johnny Gaudreau, tying the score at 1-1 with 9:36 elapsed in the game. He added a second before the period was through, this time by redirecting a shot from Gaudreau for a power-play goal that made it 2-1. Finally, Jenner would tip a wrister from Jake Bean to cause dozens of hats rain down on the ice at Nationwide Arena.
“We could have done a couple things better defensively – boxing out at the net, tying up a stick, blocking a shot, that sort of thing,” Laviolette said. “That’s why you unload pucks from the point. You try to get people back to the front of the net so they create some havoc and opportunities that can come off of those redirects. Even if it doesn’t go in, it can hit the goalie in a funny way and bounce out for rebounds. We were trying to do the same thing and didn’t have as much success getting our sticks on pucks. I think we can do a little bit better job of getting a body directly in front of the goaltender, as well.”
Two of those three goals were scored with the Rangers’ youthful defensive pair of Zac Jones and Braden Schneider on the ice. They came together after Ryan Lindgren, who practiced Friday and participated in Saturday’s morning skate, was ruled a late scratch due to an upper-body injury.
“That would be an excuse,” Laviolette said when asked how much Lindgren’s absence affected the team. “I liked the lineup we had dressed tonight. He’s upper body, day-to-day, to be evaluated when we get back home.”
Jones’ season debut left much to be desired. He and Schneider were shaky all night, especially on Jenner’s third and final tally. They both lost a puck battle behind the net that extended the Jackets’ possession on that sequence, then Jones failed to clear Jenner from the net front to allow the tip-in goal.
The loss furthered established how critical Lindgren is to this lineup. The Rangers have played 116 games without him since his 2019 debut and only won 47 of them (47-52-17). Meanwhile, they’re 149-82-27 when he does play.
“It always hurts when you don’t have a player of that caliber, but we were prepped,” Fox said. “We knew from the morning.”
Growing pains
It wasn’t just the young D pair that struggled Saturday.
Laviolette’s 1-3-1 forechecking system, which stymied the Sabres in the opener, didn’t have the same effectiveness. The Jackets were able to fly through the neutral zone and establish long offensive-zone possessions.
When the Rangers did get the puck back, their clear attempts weren’t nearly as crisp as they were in Buffalo. They were charged with 10 turnovers, but that low number feels generous.
After allowing virtually zero rush opportunities in game No. 1, game No. 2 seemed to feature one after another.
“We just kind of gave up those A-plus chances the other way, and it ended up in the back of the net,” Chris Kreider said. “It’s been a long time since we generated a lot of shots like that and drove the play like that and won faceoffs like that, so the process is good. But we can’t get impatient and ultimately get to a place where we’re giving up those big odd-man rush chances the other way. Any team will take advantage of that, especially a skilled, young group like that.”
David Jiricek ended the second period with a long wrist shot that a screened Igor Shesterkin didn’t seem to have a good look at, extending the Columbus lead to 4-1.
The Rangers pushed back in the third, with rookie Will Cuylle scoring his first NHL goal on a quick shot from the slot with 9:07 to play. But the damage had already been done.
The Jackets’ final blow came on Justin Danforth’s breakaway goal to make it 5-2 with 4:06 remaining, with Kreider notching a late power-play goal.
To be clear, it wasn’t all bad. The Rangers generated 42 shots on goal, 17 high-danger scoring chances and won 58% of their faceoffs, which are positives to build on. But needing to tighten up defensively is the primary takeaway here.
Consider it part of the growing pains that should be expected in a new season with a new coach and new system.
“I don’t think it was a bad game out of us,” Fox said. “I thought it was just a few cracks in our coverage that gave up a little too many high-end chances. But overall, I thought we were in their zone a lot. I thought we had some good looks. Maybe you want to get a few more shots and a little bit more traffic, but if you give a team enough chances – a breakaway here, an odd-man rush here and there – they’re going to capitalize.”
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame takeaways: Growing pains show up for NY Rangers in Columbus
