The New York Rangers lose a rather lifeless match 4-1 at the hands of a rebuilding Nashville Predators squad before a long five-game road trip.
New Yor City, N.Y - The Ranger's night consisted of perimeter play, limited neutral zone pressure, eight odd-man rushes against, sloppy zone exits, and little to no offense.
An uneventful first period saw the Rangers do what the club does best, allowing two goals to an unlikely skater
Cole Smith scored 4 goals in 69 games last season as a Predator and has skated in four seasons at the national level. He scored two tonight, a garbage goal in front at 11:24 of the 1st and a breakaway snipe at the 16:22 mark.
To start the second period, the Predators scored almost instantly on a tic-tac-toe goal, finished by Ryan O'Reilly. The 2nd worst NHL powerplay (11% before this game) scored a man-advantage goal in a lifeless Madison Square Garden.
It got worse as Filip Forsberg rocketed a slapshot at the 6:09 mark of the second frame, ending Shesterkin's night. Quick replaced the Vezina-caliber keeper, making his debut as a New York Ranger.
For Quick it was achieving a childhood dream, to play for the team he rooted for as a kid. For Peter Laviolette, it was about getting reps in, "Johnathans going to on the road for one. The game had not gone the way we wanted it to up to that point."
He followed by stating, "It's not a reflection of him [Shesterkin], it's just a chance to get Johnathan some work."
Shesterkin finished with 18 saves and 4 goals against on the night, logging 33:51 of TOI. Quick would play the remaining 26:07, facing 9 shots including a Kiefer Sherwood breakaway in the third period.
Following Forsberg's tally in the second period, Adam Fox drew a penalty to send the Rangers to a 5-on-3 powerplay, where Fox would score a goal looking for Trocheck on the two-man advantage.
In the third period, it appeared Vincent Trocheck scored on a lucky bounce, but the play was quickly deemed offside on a goal review. That would conclude the rather spiritless hockey game.
Peter Laviolette concluded with a simple assessment of his team's game, "We [still] gave up eight odd-man rushes tonight and two breakaways. You're just not gonna find success tonight unless you button that up...We had that problem in Columbus as well, but in Columbus, we competed."
It's clockwork for Jacob Trouba and the team to address a loss of this nature, the focus is on what lies ahead, "[We will] see what went wrong, discuss it as a group as to what happened, and turn the page. We have a big road trip ahead going out west, and [if] we have a good road trip we're in a good spot coming home."
Adam Fox took accountability for the team's penalties, as the Rangers fouled the Predators four times, two hooks committed by the star rearguard, "It's tough to win hockey games when you're giving teams two powerplays and you have a great penalty kill but teams are going to capitalize on them...those were easily avoidable."
The Rangers embark on a five-game road trip playing the Seattle Kraken. Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets. The club's next home game will be on November 2nd against the Carolina Hurricanes.
It was a matter of time before the club's first dud. All (new) systems go for a long western road trip.
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