A top six Rangers team fully loaded by two big acquisitions at the trade deadline must have left their dynamic play in New Jersey.
Since their first two games at the Prudential Center, the Rangers have only scored two goals – one in each contest – from their first two streaks.
“That was the difference,” said head coach Gerard Gallant, when asked about the failure of his best guns to lead the way after the Rangers lost 3-1 to the Devils in Game 4 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
This is not to say that these two disappointing home ice defeats, which brought the series together at two games apiece, all rest on the shoulders of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanijad, Patrick Kane, Artemy Panarin, Vincent Troczyk and Vladimir Tarasenko.
It was a misfire effort from the entire lineup.
Between a lack of production from power play and a lack of secondary scoring, the Rangers couldn’t stay on the two goals they conceded from the first six members, Kreider and Troschek.
For the first two to go from explosiveness and decisiveness with the puck in the first two games to the passivity and listlessness with which they played in the next two, it was obvious.
Rangers may have only conceded three equal-strength goals from the top six in the club’s two victories, but their success in holding the attacking zone and applying pressure to every crack in the ice made them very effective early in the game. Series.
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The top six achieved 30 shots on goal through Games 1 and 2.
This was not the case once Rangers returned home in those previous two competitions.
said Mika Zibanejad, who was limited to one shot on goal in Monday’s loss. “This applies to all five men on the ice. To open up, to move the disc, and to help each other. We allow them to prepare. It’s hard for us to get to their area, it’s easier for them to regroup, get the puck and go the other way.”
The series returns to New Jersey for Game 5 on Thursday, so maybe the top six can rediscover their glow.
Rangers guard Igor Shesterkin stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced in the Game 4 loss.
The Rangers will start on Tuesday before returning to training on Wednesday at the MSG Training Center.
Power plays
Three stars
1. Jonas Seigenthaler
Leading the Devils by two points, Seigenthaler scored the winning goal in the third period off a Niko Hischer cross after scoring the base pass on Jack Hughes’ opening score in the first frame.
2. Jack Hughes
Hughes scored his third goal of the series, opening the scoring on the night with a superb breakaway move on Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin less than three minutes into the game.
3. Akira Schmid
The 22-year-old rookie goaltender stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced in the Devils’ tied Game 4 victory after backstopping the club to its first victory of the series in Game 3 on Saturday.
An important moment
After evening the score at 1-1 less than two minutes into the third period, the Rangers didn’t gather much momentum, instead letting the Devils carve out the no-man’s-land before Jonas Seigenthaler finally scored the go-ahead.
quote from today
“We didn’t come. We didn’t play hard enough. We didn’t compete hard enough. All we did was piss on the line officials because they got kicked out of the confrontations.”
Gerard Gallant
