To their credit, the Buffalo Sabres came into Manhattan and played a very strong 60-minute game. They outworked the Rangers for most of the evening, earning the 5-1 victory.
NEW YORK, NY -- The New York Rangers had one of their most uncharacteristic performances of the season. They were sloppy in their own end right from the start of the game and it cost them in the long run.
LINEUP:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Bonino-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Miller-Trouba
Lindgren-Gustafsson
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
1ST PERIOD:
The New York Rangers looked a little sloppy in the opening minutes, well, everyone besides Igor Shesterkin at least.
Right from this moment, you had a sense that the team wasn't ready to go tonight.
The Rangers had two or three really bad turnovers in their own zone, but Shesterkin answered the challenge each time.
After the game I spoke with Vincent Trocheck about the teams energy level. Remember, this was the Rangers fourth game in six days. Trocheck said "I thought our energy level was fine. Just some uncharacteristic turnovers in the 1st period that ended up haunting us the rest of the game.”
Buffalo would commit the games first penalty, as Alex Tuch was called for Hooking at the 8:26 mark of the period. The Rangers didn't convert on the man-advantage, but shortly after Tuch's penalty expired, it appeared that Blake Wheeler had the game's first goal.
However, it was immediately waived off due to a hand pass by Will Cuylle. Keeping the tradition of the Rangers losing reviews alive.
The sloppiness in the defensive zone continued for the Rangers, as JJ Peterka would score the game's first official goal. He hammered a loose puck home from the slot which was in result to the turnovers that Trocheck aforementioned.
To his credit, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made some pretty strong saves on the few chances that the Rangers had.
The teams would trade opportunities at the end of the period, but Luukkonen continued to impress in the Buffalo crease.
The Sabres would carry a 1-0 lead into the middle period.
2ND PERIOD:
Neither side had a strong start to the middle frame, but the Sabres would get their first man-advantage of the night due to a miscommunication on the Ranger bench. It feels like the Rangers have taken a ton of Too Many Men penalties this season, but they were able to kill it off successfully.
There was a very somber moment in the second period. Kaapo Kakko was hit awkwardly by Erik Johnson which resulted in Kakko aching in pain behind the play as both teams skated down the other end.
This did not look good. Laviolette said that he's being evaluated for a lower-body injury and that we will know more tomorrow.
Things got worse for the Rangers. Late in the period, Tuch out-muscled K'Andre Miller in front of the net. He banged home a rebound to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead going into the final frame. This was Tuch's first goal of the evening.
Nothing was going the Rangers way.
3RD PERIOD:
The Rangers bad luck would continue. They had their best scoring chance in the early going of the final frame. Blake Wheeler fed Jimmy Vesey with an unbelievable cross-seem pass, which set up what might be the save of the year from Luukkonen.
That net couldn't have been more wide open.
Not too long after, the Rangers finally caught a break. Seven seconds into their third power play of the night, a Mika Zibanejad blast beat Luukkonen clean, cutting the Sabres lead to 2-1.
Momentum appeared to be on the Rangers side for the first time in the evening, until Tuch found his second goal of the game, which was a beauty I may add. This goal sucked the life out of the Garden.
The team was playing a little too loose in the defensive zone all night, and it cost them, like Trocheck said.
Buffalo would win by the final score of 5-1.
It was just that kind of night.
This loss felt very similar to the game against Nashville on October 19th when the team lost 4-1 on home ice. If you remember correctly, after that loss the Rangers went on to win 10 of their next 11 games.
I asked the Rangers head coach, Peter Laviolette, a pretty long-winded question after the game. I said "You never want to lose games obviously, but if you think back to that Nashville game, it was somewhat of a mental reset for this group and they go on that incredible 10-game run. Can this loss be taken in that direction as a mental reset after after beating a really strong Boston team, to then lose to a 'weaker' team tonight."
Laviolette said "Really no such thing as a weaker team. That's on us tonight. We didn't play the way we need to in order to be successful. That's why we sit here the way we sit right now. And so, we need to reset and we need to be ready to play. We need to fix things, we will and we'll be ready to play."
Laviolette was about as angry as I've seen him all year long. It was clear he wasn't happy with the execution tonight.