NEW YORK — Monday began with news that New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury wanted to light a fire under his veterans.
Monday ended with another dud of a loss in which an opponent outworked and out-chanced the Rangers in a significant way.
The 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues, in their first game with new coach Jim Montgomery, was a tie game entering the third. But the Rangers had a breakdown during an early four-on-four sequence, fell behind and never answered. Will Cuylle had both Rangers goals and Brett Berard had an assist in his NHL debut, but this was more of the same from the previous losses in Calgary and Edmonton.
The Blues were the third straight team to put over 30 shots on the Rangers net through two periods and the Rangers struggled to exit their zone cleanly, struggled to generate meaningful offensive-zone time and struggled to maintain D-zone coverage against a Blues team that came in ranked 26th in the league in goals per game and 28th in shots on goal per game.
“At times (the energy) was there and at times it wasn’t,” Cuylle said. “We have to be a bit more consistent … it’s not the standard we have here.”
Here are some takeaways after another bad night, this one at home that ended with a chorus of boos from the Madison Square Garden crowd:
Veteran Rangers still adrift
Drury’s message to the league’s other GMs singling out Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba as being available in a trade was intended to spark the Rangers’ veteran core, which hasn’t led the charge this season. Kreider missed Monday’s game with an upper-body injury so he couldn’t respond on the ice.
Trouba played, though, and was on the ice for three Blues goals, alongside Ryan Lindgren. The Blues tied the score at 11:45 of the first when Mika Zibanejad’s soft pass never reached a stationary Trouba, with Brayden Schenn muscling past the Rangers captain to secure the puck and feed Jordan Kyrou for a slam dunk past Igor Shesterkin.
Zibanejad, playing between Cuylle and Berard, had an assist on Cuylle’s second goal but was otherwise not impactful. The Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafrenière line had some of the precious little offensive zone time at even strength Monday but didn’t convert anything.
Peter Laviolette wouldn’t hang this loss or any of the others in what’s now a 7-7-0 skid after a 5-0-1 start on his leadership group.
“Everybody needs to be better,” a clearly frustrated Laviolette said. “No matter what question you want to ask, it’s got to be better. There’s three games in a row where we’re playing to a level and a standard that’s not us, not what we want to be. So it’s got to get better.”
In the postgame dressing room, the only player who wears a captain’s or alternate’s letter that addressed the media was Panarin. Trouba, Trocheck, Zibanejad and Adam Fox weren’t available.
Cuylle keeps rolling
The 22-year-old wing has six goals in his last nine games, with the first one Monday going in off his skate from a Kaapo Kakko toss at the net and the other a nice look from Zibanejad after Cuylle’s forecheck forced a turnover.
Will Cuylle heater? Cuylle heater 🔥
8 points in his last 7 games 👀 pic.twitter.com/A1Mc9OtYDf
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 26, 2024
Cuylle also did his part physically, mixing it up after the second-period whistle with Blues forward Jake Neighbours. Even with Matt Rempe called up and back in the Rangers lineup, Cuylle has been the most forceful Rangers forward, maybe even more than Panarin, so far this season.
And he’s doing it with simplicity.
“I think it never hurts to have a simple approach,” he said. “We’ve been getting outshot a lot and it looks like other teams are just throwing everything at the net. Maybe sometimes we’re trying to be a little too cute with it when we just need to get some quantity.”
Berard debuts, Rempe returns
Following on the news of Drury’s shot across the bow at Kreider and Trouba the Rangers made some lineup changes. Berard was part necessity and part shakeup; Rempe was all shakeup, trying to recapture some of the heat he brought to the team in the middle of last season. Berard looked a bit overmatched physically at times but the 5-foot-9 wing also showed some of the same moxie and skill that earned him a call-up, and his wrap attempt led to Cuylle’s second goal and his first NHL point.
“I thought he worked really hard,” Laviolette said of Berard, who played 11:13 in his debut, including 1:55 of power-play work. “I thought he was trying to make a difference.”
Rempe did that too, in his own way. He took a silly roughing penalty in the third with the Rangers down a goal, burying Neighbours well away from the puck, but Rempe had some jump and kept it simple all game. If Kreider and Filip Chytil remain out, Rempe should get another couple of games this week.
Defensive-zone follies continue
Whether it was multiple failed zone exits or too much open ice in the high slot, the Rangers again turned a game into a shooting gallery for their goalie. Shesterkin made a few eye-popping saves, but the Blues dominated below the hashmarks in the Rangers zone, leaving the Rangers fumbling for pucks or coverage way too often.
They’re playing slow, either to react to plays coming at them or to their own possession getting up the ice, and even low-scoring teams like the Blues are capitalizing. That’s been an issue that goes beyond these three losses.
“We’re talking about it in the room. It’s got to be quick,” Laviolette said. “There’s got to be more speed to it, moving the puck a little bit, moving our feet a little bit, finding the next level behind that.”
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
