Rangers Lose 5-2 to Blues There's been an excess of fretting and fuming in the Township of Rangerville lately; something about the Beloved Blueshirts being in (ahem) a slump. Egad! Others of the worrying persuasion have even gone so far as saying that -- perish the thought -- -the Metropolitan Division leaders are in a fade-away funk. But to one who knows Peter Laviolette's skaters best -- meaning The Maven -- I figure that this latest dip in deportment -- 5-2 loss last night to the Blues -- was just a bit of first-place tom-foolery at The Mound City's Enterprise Center. Face it, folks; the Rangers ARE in a three-straight loss slump, but the big question is this: what kind of slump are we talking about -- because You and The Maven both know that there are two varieties of slumps. One kind of slump is just a momentary lull in a very winning season that has led Lavvy's guys doing a Rip Van Winkle imitation.. (But Old Rip slept for 20 years; New York's skaters should be up in about twenty minutes preparing for their next game tomorrow in Washington.) The other kind of slump is more serious, but we won't worry about that -- unless they lose to the Capitals to mark the halfway point in the season. (Important memo from The Maven: BEAT WASHINGTON, OR ELSE!) That said, we cannot avoid a few pertinent questions like: Yoo-hoo; where's the goalkeeping Comrade Shesterkin? Hmmm? While his mates tried to make it easy for him by taking 43 shots at Jordan Binnington, all St. Lou needed was a paltry -- repeat, paltry -- 19 at Iggie. Man, oh, man, that's more than twice as many, and Shesterkin couldn't come up with a W. His game is about as far away from a Vezina as the Cocos Islands. (Jonathan Quick, sharpen those goalie skates, You have to save the day vs Washington.) Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAzNTc2MjcyNzg0MjA1Njg2/usatsi_22271191.jpg] For a very short while last night, there was some good, old Blueshirt hope. Adam Fox scored early in the first period and for a short time -- very short, in fact -- the Rangers looked their old, invincible self. But they turned very vincible after Jordan Kyrou got through with them. JK scored a career-high 37 goals last season and got himself a three-goal hat trick courtesy of Shesterkin. So, what went wrong? "We played a pretty good game," said Fox, "but we were chasing and didn't capitalize." It didn't help that the lingering illness Mika Zibanejad has been battling forced a game time scratch. Nor did it help that Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists. (You member him as a fruitful Ranger who was dealt to St. Louis. In return, New York obtained Samuel Blais and a second-rounder. 'Nuff said) Ah, but there's good news today. Coach Lavvy expects Mika to be his healthy, scoring self tomorrow. Then there's Vinnie Trocheck, who scored late and has a hot hand lately. "We had tons of chances," Vinnie concluded. So you did, my good friend; so you did. But only ounces of results!
