In a game that meant everything to the New York Rangers’ playoff hopes, they once again proved their undeservingness of the final playoff spot.
The Rangers’ subpar play in their own end again sabotaged them, and coupled with a failure to generate quality scoring chances, they allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to walk out of Madison Square Garden with an easy two points.
New York’s 4–3 Thursday loss to Toronto came 48 hours after a separate lackluster effort cost them in a 2–1 loss to the Calgary Flames. Thursday’s defeat wasn’t anything we haven’t seen them do before. They made mistakes, and as a whole did not resemble anything close to a playoff team. Most of all, their third consecutive defeat does them no good in the standings, where they still sit third in the Wild Card and deep in the abyss of several playoff-hopeful clubs.
Here are Thursday’s biggest takeaways.
Failure to execute fundamentals
All four of the Maple Leafs’ goals came at even strength. John Tavares, who led all skaters with three points, opened the scoring on a one-timer off the rush. K’Andre Miller had erroneously pinched on a Toronto breakout, leaving Artemi Panarin to cover for him. Panarin did not control the gap between himself and Tavares, and the latter snapped the puck over Igor Shesterkin’s glove.
“The part of the ice that we didn’t get to, they did get to,” said head coach Peter Laviolette. “We were too loose on the coverage.”
“I thought our effort was there tonight,” said Will Borgen. “But just a couple lapses that turned into pucks into the back of our net.”
On Tavares’ second goal, which came early in the second period after the Rangers had tied the game, Adam and Fox and Will Cuylle ran into each other in the slot after an errant Bobby McMann pass. The puck should’ve been cleared out of the Rangers’ zone. Instead, it was in the back of the net after the rebound off a Jake McCabe shot bounced right to Tavares near the circle.
“You make some costly mistakes against that team,” said Fox. “They make you pay.”
Later in the period, Fox missed an easy pass from K’Andre Miller in the Rangers’ end. William Nylander took the puck, then found Matthew Knies in the high slot. Knies beat Shesterkin high over the blocker for Toronto’s fourth goal, which held up as the game-winner.
“[Miller] bumps it back to me,” said Fox, “I’m just shoulder checking and it goes right by me, and then they score right after that. Mistakes like that just can’t happen, especially with where we’re at.”
These simple plays are a baseline for a competent hockey club — let alone one that hopes to earn a playoff berth by a few weeks’ time.
Lack of urgency and quality offense
The Rangers looked deflated in the third period. Even though they produced more scoring chances than the Maple Leafs, they squandered multiple opportunities to crawl back into the game.
The most telling statistic of Thursday’s offense was high danger scoring chances. The Rangers were outchanced 9–5 in this metric. Two of their three goals came off shots from just inside the blue line.
New York got a crucial power play midway through the frame — a game-changing opportunity despite the club’s struggles with their 25th-ranked man advantage this season. They produced two shots, neither of which was a high danger chance, and failed to score. As the two minutes wore on, the Rangers could not set up in the offensive zone.
“I would have liked to see more from the inside,” said Laviolette. “There was shots that came in, they found the net, the puck bounced, bounced through us or over us or we didn’t have somebody on the interior.”
Even in the final two minutes, after they pulled Shesterkin for an extra attacker, the Rangers did not seem to play with a ton of emotion or intensity. Chris Kreider tipped in a Panarin shot with 33 seconds to play, but it wouldn’t matter much, as New York failed to get through the neutral zone in the final half minute and wasted a valuable 30 seconds that they could’ve used to earn an extra point.
Playoff implications
Obviously, a loss at this point of the season doesn’t help the Rangers in any way. They needed the two points. They also needed them on Sunday and Tuesday.
Somehow, amid the chaos of this week, the Rangers are now below the New York Islanders in the standings — each New York club has 72 points, but the Islanders have amassed that total in two fewer games. The Islanders, who were all but out of the playoff race a few days ago, are third in the Wild Card. The Rangers are fourth.
The Ottawa Senators (77 points) and Montreal Canadiens (74 points) are now first and second in the Wild Card, respectively. The Columbus Blue Jackets (71 points) and Detroit Red Wings (70 points) are fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Rangers are back in action on Saturday afternoon, when they welcome the Western Conference playoff-hopeful Vancouver Canucks to Madison Square Garden and celebrate the 40-year career of legendary play-by-play announcer Sam Rosen. Puck drop is at 1 p.m. ET.
