ISLES SPANK YOUNG RANGERS
Isles blow past Blueshirts to open season
The Rangers began the sprint of the 2020-21 season Thursday night against the Islanders — and they already appear to have shin splints.
You know, that shooting pain along the shin bone that flairs up when there’s a sudden increase in physical activity and overworking of the muscles. The Rangers must’ve been feeling that sting as they were shut out 4-0 at Madison Square Garden in their first of eight meetings with the Islanders this season.
The Rangers have said they don’t want to be defined by their three abysmal losses in the Toronto bubble last postseason, but they sure looked a lot like the same team that was overpowered, outworked and outmaneuvered more than five months ago.
The Islanders, on the other hand, looked like a team that’s ready to build on its run to the conference finals last season.
“We just weren’t prepared to play the right way right from the get-go,” David Quinn said on a Zoom call after the loss. “I just thought that we went back to doing some of the things we were doing in the bubble, cheating the game. There’s no shortcuts in this game, there’s zero shortcuts in this game. We were just playing hope hockey.”
There may have been just three rookies on the ice for the Rangers, but the rookie mistakes extended throughout the lineup. The Islanders capitalized on a flustered Rangers group that came out flat and took penalties left and right, commanding a 3-0 lead early.
This first game is a small sample size of what’s to come for the Rangers. But if the first period was any indication of how this young squad stacks up against the rest of the East, their sprint just got a whole lot steeper.
“One, they’re very good at what they do,” Quinn said of the Islanders. “They’re very structured, well-coached, they’ve got guys that understand how to win at this level. They don’t beat themselves. Unfortunately for us right now — and it’s one game — we didn’t play fast enough, we didn’t use our speed to our advantage. Every time we got a puck, we stood and looked to see who we could make a pass to on the other side of the ice.
“That approach doesn’t work against anybody, let alone the Islanders.”
Rookie netminder Igor Shesterkin was lit up for four goals on 33 shots, one or two of which he certainly would like back in his first opening night start. Semyon Varlamov notched his third shutout in an Islanders jersey and the 28th of his career, turning aside all 24 shots he faced.
The Rangers were on their heels from puck drop after defenseman Jack Johnson, in his first game in a red and blue sweater, was called for holding to put the Islanders on the man-advantage early.
Brock Nelson made quick work of that opportunity, burying one from the slot at 2:33 for the Islanders’ first goal of the season. Islanders captain Anders Lee converted a two-on-one rush for a 2-0 lead just over a minute later.
Mathew Barzal rounded out the Islanders’ first-period scoring after waltzing around Tony DeAngelo to snipe Shesterkin over the glove. A power-play goal from Lee off a slick feed from Jordan Eberle late in the second period capped off the scoring for the night.
The Rangers tilted the ice for most of the second period and had ample time in the offensive zone, but their crowd-thecrease strategy fell short each time.
“I think it was a good lesson for our young group tonight in patient hockey and what it takes to win at this level,” Chris Kreider said. “That’s a very detailed team, they don’t give you a whole lot. Anything you get, you’ve got to earn. We relied a little bit too much on our east-west play, a little too much on our skill. We need to use our legs, use the things we’ve been working on the last week, and drive them deep and force them to skate, hit second layers and get bodies to the net. We didn’t do that.”
The Knicks opened the season playing surprisingly good defense. Team legend and MSG analyst Clyde Frazier constantly praised them on the network for playing “tenacious D.”
Tom Thibodeau’s team has strayed, however, from the principles that spurred its surprising 5-3 start while losing four consecutive games entering Friday’s visit to Cleveland.
In each of the four games, their opponents exceeded their season scoring average, and connected on at least 11 attempts from 3-point range.
That coincided with a shooting slump of their own, and the Knicks clearly don’t have the margin for error to revert to lackadaisical play in their own end.
“Disappointed that we could have played better, defensively, yes, but more determined to get it right,” Thibodeau said after Wednesday’s 116-109 loss to the Nets at the Garden. “We have to get back to practicing. I like the fight we showed at the end, but it was too late. We got in too big of a hole.
“We have to get back to work. Sometimes you go through stretches where you don’t have an opportunity to practice too much, so I think practice would be good for us.”
Thibodeau acknowledged after practice Thursday that he reinforced defensive principles at the start of the session, working on running the floor and getting back on defense, before switching off to other issues that have arisen during their four-game skid.
“We worked on our defense for a while and then covered some offensive things we wanted to work on,” Thibodeau said. “The main thing was trying to get up and down and practice out of the full court. I felt we needed work in that area, as well.
“I think the big challenge is when you have a number of areas that you’d like to shore up you have to prioritize. You can’t work on all of them every day. So you pick three or four things that you’d like to get into and improve upon and that’s what we did.”
During their first eight games, the Knicks held opponents to 43.4 percent shooting from the field and 29.8 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers have risen to 48.6 percent overall and 39.0 percent from long distance during the fourgame losing streak.
The Nets still had Kevin Durant in their lineup Wednesday, but they were missing Kyrie Irving and the traded trio of Caris LeVert,
Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince while awaiting completion of the blockbuster deal for James Harden.
Defensively active starter Reggie Bullock has missed the past two games with a sore hip for the Knicks. He’s listed as questionable to return against the Cavaliers, whom the Knicks defeated, 95-86, on Dec. 29. Alec Burks (sprained ankle) is doubtful, while Frank Ntilikina remains out with a sprained right knee.
“We’ve got to stay with it,” said forward Julius Randle, who ranked third in the NBA through Wednesday in minutes per game (37.3). “It’s a long season, a lot of games to be played. It’s not at the end of the world after 12 games. Just stick with it, keep working how we’ve been working and things will turn it around.”