The New York Rangers were quick to point out that even with Patrick Kane now with the team, the franchise hasn’t won anything yet.
They got a clear reminder of that Thursday night.
Ottawa used a dominant three-goal third period to pull away from the Rangers in Kane’s debut to stun the home MSG crowd by a 5-3 final.
“Like I said earlier this morning, I don’t think this is something that’s going to happen overnight. It’ll be nice to settle in and understand the way they want to play.” Kane said after his debut with the Rangers.
New York’s offense got the scoring started early when, on the penalty kill, Chris Kreider notched his 27th goal of the season. Passes from Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad set up the breakaway score, and had the Rangers off and running early against a desperate Senators club.
But the game would flip with a key injury. Austin Watson would get a game misconduct penalty for taking a shot at Tyler Motte late in the period, but New York would be unable to score on the five-minute major and ended up losing Motte for the rest of the game with an upper-body injury.
Spurred with the ejection, Ottawa would eventually take the lead in the second period from goals by former Ranger Derick Brassard and Shane Pinto.
Even with the excitement surrounding Kane’s debut, it was Vladimir Tarasenko that provided an offensive spurt for New York. Tarasenko scored on a breakaway late in the second to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead going into the final frame.
But Brassard and Brady Tkachuk would haunt the Rangers and Jaro Halak in the third period. Both forwards scored points, Brassard’s second of the game, to put the Senators in front 4-3. Ottawa would not relinquish the lead and spoil the excitement of the debut of Patrick Kane as a member of the Blueshirts.
The loss bumps the Rangers to 34-18-9 and supplanted in third place in the Metro division. They will be back on the ice Saturday afternoon against the Boston Bruins.
“It’ll be nice to get a few days off, it will be nice to get a couple of practices with the guys too. Big game Saturday.” Kane concluded.
Game Notes
- Much of Tuesday’s game centered around Kane’s debut in a Blueshirts jersey and his partnership with Artemi Panarin, but it was clear that practice time would be needed for both, especially on the powerplay. New York went 0-4 in the game with the man advantage and failed to capitalize on several great offensive chances.
- New York wasn’t the only team unveiling a recent trade acquisition. Jakob Chychrun was traded from Arizona to Ottawa on March 1st for multiple draft picks. Chychrun suffered an injury late in the third period though from Filip Chytil and did not return to the game.
- The Rangers may have been fully healthy with their 12 forwards, but they once again had to play short-handed on the defensive side. With Ryan Lindgren out with an injury and K’Andre Miller in the second game of his three-game suspension. New York was deemed ineligible by the NHL to apply for an emergency call-up due to the decision to trade for Patrick Kane.
- Kreider’s short-handed goal in the first period was his fourth shorty of the season and seventh in the last two years. Both are tops across the NHL. It was also Kreider’s fifth goal in his last six games against the Senators.
