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Key Takeaways after Rangers shut out 3-0 by Penguins on opening night
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- Key Takeaways after Rangers shut out 3-0 by Penguins on opening night
Brad Penner-Imagn Images Brad Penner-Imagn Images
On second thought, maybe the New York Rangers could've benefitted from another week or so of training camp. At least that's how it looked, when the Rangers opened their centennial season Tuesday with a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden.
Though the final score was padded by a pair of empty-net goals scored by the Penguins late in the third period, the Rangers weren't sharp nor were they the better team.
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"They outplayed us for the majority of the game, I think," Rangers captain J.T. Miller stated postgame .
Igor Shesterkin was New York's best player, stopping 27 of 28 shots, including all 12 he faced in the third period before the Penguins netted a pair with him on the bench for a sixth attacker.
However, his counterpart, Arturs Silovs , made 25 saves in his Penguins debut for his first NHL shutout. Silovs played 19 games with the Vancouver Canucks before they traded him to the Penguins over the summer.
Another newcomer to Pittsburgh, Justin Brazeau , scored twice in his first game with the Penguins after they signed the free agent forward this past offseason. Blake Lizotte added an empty-net goal for the Penguins, who were shut out by the Rangers 6-0 on opening night a year ago.
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It was a frustrating night for new Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, who lost to his former team, one he coached for the previous 10 seasons and led to consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017. But his focus postgame was squarely on his current team, not his old one.
"We've got a long way to go to become the team we want to become," Sullivan said . "I'm not going to overreact to it. It's one game"
On the flip side, former Rangers assistant Dan Muse won his NHL head coaching debut with the Penguins, in a touch of irony.
The season nearly got off to a disastrous start when Shesterkin was forced to make a pair of alert saves on the first shift of the night, each against Sidney Crosby , after the Penguins captain flew past Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov . It was eerily reminiscent of last season, when the Rangers team defense wasn't exactly stout.
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The Penguins had the better of the play in the first period, especially below the dots, where they recorded five of their nine shots on goal. Yet it looked like the Rangers would escape the first period in a scoreless tie. However, Vincent Trocheck was beaten badly on a defensive zone face-off by Evgeni Malkin , and that led directly to a goal by Brazeau at 19:28 to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
Malkin pushed the puck between Trocheck's legs, and when multiple Rangers converged on him, Malkin found Brazeau wide-open in front of Shesterkin. The 6-foot-6 forward quickly went forehand, backhand to beat the Rangers goalie up high.
That face-off in the final minute of the period was set up after Shesterkin made a pair of point-blank saves on Brazeau and then froze the puck. Brazeau had three shots on that shift and led the Penguins with six on the night.
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The Penguins nearly doubled their advantage at 14:20 of the second period, when Ville Koivunen found himself alone in front with Shesterkin down. However, Koivunen's shot glanced off Shesterkin's glove and hit the post, denying the youngster of his first NHL goal.
Three minutes later, the Rangers had their best scoring chance. Mika Zibanejad intercepted an Erik Karlsson pass and flew in over the blue line before ripping a right-wing shot that Silovs denied with his glove. Shortly thereafter, Silovs fought off an Alexis Lafreniere shot from between the circles.
When Pittsburgh's Kris Letang was assessed a tripping minor at 18:55, the Rangers had a prime opportunity to score a last-minute goal themselves. But their power play fizzled, both to end the second period, and to start the third, and the Penguins maintained their 1-0 lead.
Again, it was up to Shesterkin to keep the deficit to one goal. He did just that, making a crucial save on Anthony Mantha 's rising shot from point-blank range 3:12 into the third period. Then twice on the same shift with under four minutes remaining in regulation, Shesterkin came up big, stoning Mantha and then Lizotte on near identical bull-rushes to the net from right wing.
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But Brazeau hit the empty net at 17:48 for his second career two-goal game. And 20 seconds later, Lizotte fired one long distance into the vacated net to finish off the Rangers.
These two teams will meet again Saturday in Pittsburgh. But before that, the Rangers travel to Buffalo to face-off against the Sabres on Thursday.
Here are some more key takeaways from New York's 3-0 season-opening loss to the Penguins.
1. Rangers top defense pair a work in progress
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This wasn't exactly how the Rangers envisioned their top defense pair to look after Gavrikov signed a seven-year, $49 million contract this summer to be Adam Fox 's partner. The Rangers were out-shot 13-3 when the top pair was on the ice 5v5 on Tuesday, and out-chanced 13-4, per Natural Stat Trick . Each had an xGF under 30 percent overall.
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Fox tied Artemi Panarin with a team-worst three giveaways, and Gavrikov had two. But the pair wasn't on ice for the only 5v5 goal scored in the game, though Fox was on for the two empty-netters. And Fox also had a game-high four takeaways.
It wasn't terrible, despite what the metrics showed. But it wasn't so good either. Like the rest of the Rangers, it's a work in progress.
2. Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere show plenty of jump despite Rangers loss
Far too often last season, Zibanejad and Lafreniere were noticeable for the wrong reasons — extended scoring slumps, questionable effort, defensive lapses. But Tuesday, they were New York's best forwards, and it wasn't close.
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Zibanejad led the Rangers with seven shots on goal and 12 shot attempts. He had several prime scoring chances, and nearly tied the game off a goal-mouth scramble with a little more than five minutes left in regulation. The 32-year-old was engaged throughout, and hustled back defensively on several occasions, including in the first period after Gavrikov was caught deep in the offensive end.
Lafreniere was equally involved, playing a physical two-way game. He was credited with three hits and six shots on goal. He and Zibanejad combined for more than half of New York's shot total (13 of 25), and no other Rangers player had more than two.
3. Rangers captain among those out of sync
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Miller said afterward that physically he felt "not great, about what I expected" after missing the latter stages of training camp with a lower-body injury. That about summed up how he looked out on the ice Tuesday, too. Slow, hesitant, simply not in sync with his linemates (Zibanejad and Will Cuylle ) and his own game.
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He wasn't the only one who appeared out of step. The Rangers had a disjointed preseason due to injuries and trying to get longer looks at several kids and prospects. On opening night, the Rangers looked like a group trying to find its way, but often a step late doing so. Whether that's to be blamed on injuries and the lack of cohesion in the preseason, we'll wait to judge. But it wasn't overly pretty out there against the Penguins.
Panarin logged more TOI (20:47) than any Rangers forward Tuesday, despite battling a pair of injuries in training camp and not playing a single preseason game. He had two shots on goal and four attempts, but spent most of the game on the perimeter and wasn't a big factor.
4. Looking good
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Those throwback centennial sweaters the Rangers debuted Tuesday? Looking pretty darn good.
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You know what — or who — else looked good? Rookie center Noah Laba did. He buzzed around the ice, hunting the puck all night in his first NHL game. The 22-year-old won five of seven face-offs (71 percent) and totaled nearly 14 minutes of ice time, including a shift each on the power play and penalty kill. The Rangers had an expected goal share of 64.24 percent with Laba on the ice 5v5. So, yeah, looking good.
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