Lack Of Effort Leads To Rangers 4-1 Loss To Nashville

NEW YORK, NY -- The New York Rangers didn't have anything going for what felt like the entire game, ultimately resulting in a tough 4-1 loss at home to the Nashville Predators. 

LINEUP: 

Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko
Panarin-Chytil-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Trocheck-Wheeler
Goodrow-Bonino-Vesey

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider

Shesterkin

1ST PERIOD:

The Rangers seemed to have no life in the opening period of tonight's game. Jacob Trouba had the only strong scoring chance as he found himself below the offensive goal line before making a stuff-in attempt. 

Nashville would score the games first goal, an ugly one at that. Cole Smith whacked home a loose puck in the blue paint and landed on top of Igor Shesterkin. The energy in the building was non-existent in first 20 minutes. 

I asked Smith if he was surprised that he went untouched after making contact with Shesterkin. Smith told me "Hahah, not so much, accidental contact, I mean, I’ll take it if they want to come, but it’s part of the game. We wanted to crash the net and establish ourselves there. Stuff like that is gonna happen.”

Apprently Smith's night was just getting started. He was the recipient of a K'Andre Miller pass right as he got out of the penalty box which fled him free on a breakaway, beating Shesterkin low glove side to put the Predators up 2-0. 

The first 20 minutes was very ugly for the Rangers.

2ND PERIOD:

The middle frame wasn't much better for the Rangers. Adam Fox took his 2nd Hooking penalty of the game in first few minutes. It didn't take Nashville long for Ryan O'Reilly to convert on the man-advantage, extending their lead to 3-0. 

To me, this was the difference in the first half of the game. The Rangers had nothing going because Nashville wasn't allowing them to generate. 

I asked the Predators captain, Roman Josi, if staying inside the dots was a key focus to their gameplan. Josi said “Kreider, those guys, they’re really good in front of the net, good at tipping so tried to keep them to the outside, obviously they have a lot of skill, don’t want to give them too much room, but we did a good job of not giving them too many Grade- A’s.”

Things got a whole lot worse for the Rangers as this period continued. Filip Forsberg danced through the entire team, before letting a laser go on Shesterkin to make it a 4-0 lead for Nashville. 

This goal was the final action that Shesterkin saw as Jonathan Quick went in the game as his relief. 

Finally, the Rangers got a lucky bounce late in the period. Fox was looking backdoor for Vincent Trocheck, but the puck would hit off of McDonagh and beat Saros, cutting Nashville's lead to 4-1. 

3RD PERIOD:

The final frame had a whole lot of nothing, but the Rangers almost caught another lucky bounce. A puck caromed off of Trocheck and went in, but the goal was reviewed and deemed offside. 

The final score would end up being 4-1 in favor of Nashville and the Predators social media team wasted no time in celebrating the win. 

The Rangers won't be home again until the 2nd of November when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes.