Patrick Kane made his Rangers debut Thursday night at the Garden and was, predictably, cheered when he was introduced and serenaded with “Shoooot” several times when he had the puck. He was clearly quite welcome at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
But No. 88’s presence wasn’t enough to jolt the Blueshirts past the Ottawa Senators.
“Showtime” took four shots but did not score and two Ranger lapses doomed them to a 5-3 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 18,006.
Here are the takeaways:
– Early in the third period, the Senators scored two quick goals, their second two-goal binge of the game, to take a 4-3 lead. First, Derick Brassard got the puck alone in front of Halak and spun around to plant a backhand behind the Ranger goal at the 1:35 mark, tying the score at 3.
Nearly two minutes later, Claude Giroux scored his 26th goal. The Senators nearly had another goal two minutes after that, but a tap-in by Brady Tkachuk was disallowed after the play was reviewed and Ottawa was deemed offsides.
-The Rangers tried to be aggressive late in the third by pulling Jaroslav Halak for an extra skater, but Ottawa tallied on an empty-net goal by Time Stutzle for a 5-3 advantage with 2:45 remaining.
– Playing the second of back-to-back nights after beating the Flyers in Philadelphia Wednesday, the Rangers went ahead, 1-0, at the 6:31 mark of the first period Thursday on Chris Kreider’s fourth shorthanded goal of the season. The Senators were on a power play after Jimmy Vesey was whistled for high-sticking, but Kreider got loose on a breakaway and slipped a backhand past Ottawa goalie Cam Talbot. It was Kreider’s 27th goal of the season. Oh, and the Rangers killed off the penalty.
– With 7:11 left in the first period, the Rangers got a five-minute power play when Ottawa’s Austin Watson was given a penalty for charging and a game misconduct. He smashed into Tyler Motte along the boards and hit him in the face with an elbow. Motte left the game. But the Rangers could not take advantage of the deluxe chance against the Senators’ sixth-ranked penalty kill and failed to score.
– Ottawa scored two goals in a 21-second span in the second period to take a brief 2-1 lead. The first came when Shane Pinto whacked the puck in through traffic in front of the net with 10:18 left in the period. It was his 16th goal of the season. The Senators kept up the pressure and scored again quickly when Brassard tallied for the 10th time this season.
– The Rangers pumped in two quick goals of their own, though not quite as fast as Ottawa. First, Jacob Trouba scored his fifth at the 12:15 mark and, little more than two minutes later, Vladimir Tarasenko made a nifty backhand move to push the puck around Talbot’s left skate. It was his 14th goal of the season and his fourth with the Rangers.
– Former Ranger Julien Gauthier was welcomed back on the scoreboard in the first period and heard cheers. The Rangers traded Gauthier to Ottawa Feb. 19 along with a draft pick for Motte.
Brassard, another ex-Ranger, was also recognized on the scoreboard for playing in his 1,000th NHL game.
