NEW YORK — The Rangers were good in the opening minutes of Sunday’s matinée against the Carolina Hurricanes. They scored quickly, just 17 seconds in. They were up the ice. They were first to pucks and to the front of the Carolina net.
And then …
“You see how we can play — the first 10 minutes we’re all over them,” Will Cuylle said. “And then after that, it’s like we’re a completely different team. It’s not good enough.”
The 3-1 loss hit too many of the same low notes we’ve seen during this 4-12-0 slide that now has the Rangers back at .500 with a Monday afternoon visit to Newark remaining before the holiday break. The power play went 0-for-4 and managed just one shot on goal in the first three opportunities, two of which came early in the third period with the Rangers down a goal.
The top Rangers forwards were mostly invisible, save for a couple of third-period shifts. Peter Laviolette decided to adjust his longstanding power-play units in the third, moving Adam Fox to the usual second-unit group to start a man advantage with 15:35 to go, but that didn’t do a whole lot. The Canes did Canes things in a dominating second period, scoring a power-play goal and controlling play.
And it ended with yet another home loss — the sixth in the last eight games at Madison Square Garden — lots of boos and even a few “Fire Drury” chants.
Ultimately, this was a Carolina team that’s been good this season working a Rangers team that’s been bad into submission. You probably can’t question the Rangers’ effort but you can question whether they’re just not quick enough and forceful enough to take the Hurricanes out of their game, especially right now.
Some more observations:
• This would have been an uneven game regardless with nine power plays between the two teams, so five-on-five time wasn’t evenly distributed. But Laviolette got his message across in a couple of small ways.
The Adam Edström–Sam Carrick–Jimmy Vesey line started the game, and it was Vesey who converted a very pretty give-and-go with Chad Ruhwedel to beat Pyotr Kochetkov just 17 seconds in. No one on that line got more than 10 minutes of even-strength time on Sunday, but it was that line Laviolette sent out for a neutral-zone faceoff with 2:56 to go and a 2-1 deficit out of the last TV timeout.
Carrick won the draw and the Rangers dumped the puck, went to work and generated a couple good stretches before another whistle. Laviolette went with the Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck–Alexis Lafrenière line; they got the puck in, Igor Shesterkin went to the bench for an extra skater and the Canes had an empty net goal barely 25 seconds later.
Lafrenière and his linemates had a decent third period but were a no-show in the first 40 minutes. Lafrenière also took a crucial four-minute high-sticking penalty in the second, chipping two of former teammate Jack Roslovic’s teeth in the Carolina zone; it was Roslovic who scored the eventual game winner just before Lafrenière exited the penalty box.
Kochetkov had to come up big on two occasions in the third with the game still in doubt but the nominal top two lines, the Trocheck line and the Chris Kreider-Filip Chytil-Cuylle line, weren’t strong enough to contend with Carolina’s relentlessness.
• Lots of us thought Kreider was being a little too forthcoming about his back woes just after GM Chris Drury’s “make me an offer” text went out to the 31 other GMs back on Nov. 24, that maybe Kreider was just trying to subtly signal that no one should try to trade for him. Watching him labor around the ice on Sunday, it’s more likely that Kreider’s back, or some other part of his body, is bothering him more than anyone is letting on.
Kreider played 16:11 on Sunday, below his 17:28 season average but not drastically so. More notable is that Kreider played just 8:04 at even strength, more than only Vesey and Edström. Part of the issue with the top power-play unit was Mika Zibanejad still looking for the back-post redirect from his man Kreider; it simply looked like Kreider couldn’t get into a solid position to turn a fast-moving puck on net.
The three-day break is coming at the right time for every Ranger, but maybe for No. 20 most of all.
• Laviolette’s third-period power-play adjustment perhaps signals some willingness to move things around for a stagnant power play that’s now 6-for-45 (13.3 percent) since Nov. 14. But the main issue, especially with K’Andre Miller (upper body, day to day) still sidelined, is that unless Fox is running things crisply, neither unit has a real chance.
Braden Schneider was on the opposite PP unit from Fox with Zac Jones a scratch on Sunday, but the Rangers might as well try going with five forwards sometime. Fox has logged 101:42 of power-play time this season and has just 17 shot attempts. He had 49 attempts in 254:31 last season with six PPGs. It’s not Fox being so drastically off on his attempt numbers that hurts most; it’s that he’s not even offering as an option, especially when Zibanejad is scuffling, Kreider may not be 100 percent healthy, etc.
The best power plays in the league have a shot threat from the top. Fox isn’t giving the Rangers that right now and they have precious few options behind him with the D-corps in flux.
• Monday’s game in Newark against a New Jersey Devils team that’s allowed five goals in their last four games feels bigger than usual for the Rangers. Another loss, especially an ugly one, would put the team under .500 for the first time since Mar. 19, 2021, midway through the COVID-19-shortened season. It would also keep Drury on his plan to completely revamp the roster during the season if possible, which is partly what’s keeping this group in its prolonged funk.
The Rangers need wins to even think of participating in the playoff race this season. But they also need them to avoid total irrelevance and show that at least the bulk of this core is still salvageable.
“Our performance today just wasn’t good enough,” Cuylle said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Carolina or any other team. We play like that, it doesn’t matter who it is.”
(Photo of William Carrier celebrating with Jordan Staal after scoring against the Rangers: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)
