CALGARY — The New York Rangers skaters did not look ready for action the first half of Thursday’s game against the Calgary Flames.
“We weren’t doing anything right in the first period,” Will Cuylle said after his team’s 3-2 loss to the Flames.
Fortunately for them, their goalie was. Igor Shesterkin once again showed why he turned down what would have been a record-setting contract extension, stopping all but one of the 20 shots he saw in the frame. On the other end, the Rangers mustered only five.
Shesterkin, who finished with 46 saves, continued to show his brilliance in the second. At one point, with the Rangers down 2, Jonathan Huberdeau fired a loose puck at a seemingly vacated net. Shesterkin somehow regained positioning enough to get a piece of the puck with his blocker, sending it over the crossbar and out of danger.
The goaltender’s performance kept the Rangers close enough to at one point tie the score. But the Rangers’ poor play early was too much to overcome. Connor Zary scored midway through the third, and New York couldn’t generate another equalizer.
Here are five takeaways from the game.
Hand-pass ruling angers Rangers
The Rangers didn’t play like they deserved a break through half the game, but they certainly wanted one. Calgary’s Yegor Sharangovich chipped a puck in during a second-period power play, and Huberdeau tried to catch it. He missed. The puck deflected off his glove as he tried to put it down on the ice, and the Flames retained possession. Sharangovich scored shortly after on a slap shot.
Coach Peter Laviolette challenged the play, arguing there was a hand pass on the play. The officials disagreed. After a review, the referee said the play was a deflection, not a hand pass. The Rangers bench was not happy.
“He opened up his hand to play the puck, and he goes to grab it,” Laviolette said. “It bats off of his hand and goes right to the player. It got called two more times in the game. The exact same plays. It gets called dead every time. Any time it ever happens on the ice it gets called dead. I don’t understand. I still don’t understand.”
Indeed, Vincent Trocheck pointed out similar plays as the game went on and eventually got called for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was the second penalty the Rangers took as a result of the play; they had already received an automatic delay of game penalty for losing the challenge.
“We can’t take those penalties, but we were frustrated on the bench,” Laviolette said of the Trocheck minor.
The official rulebook says a player can bat the puck in the air or push the puck along the ice with his hand, but play should not be stopped unless “he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequent possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team.”
“I don’t know the exact definition of the rule,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “I thought it was definitely worth a challenge. Pucks hit gloves that are kind of in the air and it’s deemed a hand pass, and this game it’s kind of a similar play.”
Added Ryan Lindgren simply: “I saw it. I thought it was a hand pass.”
Disastrous first period
The good news about the Rangers first period: They didn’t allow a goal in the first minute of play for the fifth time in 12 games.
The bad news about the Rangers’ first period: They were utterly dominated in the 19 minutes that followed.
In the game’s opening frame, Calgary led 20-5 in shots and 11-4 in five-on-five scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, which also said the Flames had 81 percent of the even-strength expected goal share. The Rangers allowed a goal off the rush — a weakness at points this season — and committed two penalties.
“We got outworked tonight in the first period,” Laviolette said.
“They were all over us,” Lindgren said. “They were forechecking us hard. We didn’t do a good job of getting the puck out. When we did get it out we weren’t getting it in. We were turning it over and they were coming right back at us.”
The period was a complete dud, especially considering the team was coming off one of its best wins of the season in Vancouver. It could have been even worse. Mika Zibanejad missed the end of the period after blocking a shot from countryman Rasmus Andersson. He skated immediately to the dressing room and didn’t return for the rest of the frame. Fortunately for New York, he was back in the second.
Rangers benefit from going to the net
Will Cuylle loves going to the net and fighting for goals in front of it. It’s something he’s always done, he said recently.
That philosophy paid off twice for the Rangers in 16 seconds. With Calgary controlling play, Jacob Trouba put a puck on net in the second period. Alexis Lafrenière gathered the rebound and put it past the previously impenetrable Dustin Wolf.
Calgary coach Ryan Huska, perhaps wanting to avoid a shift in momentum, called timeout. It didn’t work. The next shift, K’Andre Miller shot from the point, and Cuylle tipped it in. Kaapo Kakko, whom Laviolette experimented with at center, won the draw that led to the sequence.
“I think if you look at all our games when we’re dominating, playing really well, I think we’re keeping it simple and just getting pucks out of our end, through the neutral zone and into their end,” Cuylle said. “More of a simple mindset.”
COOLS IN FRONT.
You love to see it. pic.twitter.com/UMGeg3i7te
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) November 22, 2024
Kakko gets shot at center
Jonny Brodzinski did not have a strong start to the game. In 6:16 of five-on-five time with him on the ice through two periods, Calgary led 15-1 in shot attempts. That led Laviolette to try Kakko at center between Cuylle and Jimmy Vesey. The coach noted the team had discussed the idea and tried it out when dropping down to three lines.
“He’s good,” Laviolette said. “He played center prior to getting to the NHL. He’s got center experience. He’s pretty good in the faceoff circle. They produced a goal for us to tie the game.”
Kakko won six of the nine faceoffs he took, including four in a row on one power play. The Cuylle-Kakko-Vesey line had only 3:01 of ice time, but it was an eventful few minutes. The line generated Cuylle’s tip-in, but it was also on for Calgary’s game-winning goal. A Huberdeau redirect got a MacKenzie Weegar breakout pass past Vesey, and Zary carried it through the offensive zone. He managed to gain just enough space on net and beat Shesterkin on a sharp-angle shot. It was the first five-on-five goal Cuylle and Kakko had been on the ice for together this season.
Filip Chytil skates with extras, doesn’t play
Filip Chytil arrived in Calgary but did not take part in the main morning skate. He got on at the end and skated with extras Chad Ruhwedel and Jake Leschyshyn. Laviolette didn’t offer much insight into Chytil’s timeline or whether he could play Saturday in Edmonton. He just said the center is day to day.
(Photo: Sergei Belski / Imagn Images)
