Rangers fall to Jersey rivals, drop to 1-5 to start the season
Until the Rangers start taking proper care of the puck with smarter decisions, make a commitment to forechecking for more than a period at a time and find the net more often, they’re going to continue to lose games, as they did again Saturday night at home against the Devils, 3-2.
They’ve lost three in a row and five of six to open the season, the worst start of Alain Vigneault’s tenure here, and though the Rangers surely have the talent to be better than this, right now they’re not cutting it.
“I’ve never had a start like this in my career, so it’s tough mentally for sure,” Ryan McDonagh said. “By no means is this group going to quit, I know that for a fact. And I know that we will keep working here and trust our system and we’ll start playing the way we need to with a little more edge, a little bit more desperation. “Hopefully this is rock bottom here early on and a real gut-check time, and understanding what’s expected of us individually and as a group.”
The Rangers were as poor in the second period as they were strong in the first, dominating the opening 20 minutes with nothing to show for it except a 14-3 shot advantage. They had all five men forechecking together. It was their best start of this young season.
Then despite taking a 1-0 lead in the second on Rick Nash’s first goal of the season — finally rewarded on his 23rd shot on goal — the Blueshirts coughed up the puck too many times.
David Desharnais, who set up Nash’s goal, sent a clearance attempt right into Brian Gibbons, allowing Gibbons to take the puck into the corner and feed an open Adam Henrique for the tying goal. Miles Wood tipped a Ben Lovejoy shot for the go-ahead tally. Drew Stafford scored one minute into the third on a 4-on-3 after Tony DeAngelo’s cross-checking penalty. Kevin Shattenkirk pulled one back with 56.8 seconds remaining. Ondrej Pavelec made 16 saves in his first Rangers start.
“It’s been the story thus far in our season,” McDonagh said of a failure to put together a quality wire-to-wire effort. “There’s no one to blame but ourselves, the guys in this room here, the guys in the lineup every night. The coaches have been preparing us here, going through our meetings and we know what’s expected of us and we’re simply not performing. We’re not playing the way we need to play, every single one of us. We have maybe one or two guys going a night here and that’s not a winning formula.”
The Rangers have scored two or fewer goals in five of their six matches. They had a strong power play early in the third on which they couldn’t convert and came up short on a late push.
“Sooner or later, it’s not good enough to only get chances,” Nash said. “You’ve got to actually score.”
FAST FORWARD
Jesper Fast (hip surgery) made his season debut Saturday and was credited with seven hits in 15:14. Paul Carey and Adam Cracknell were scratched as Vigneault dressed seven defensemen, with DeAngelo returning after sitting out two games.