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Jonathan Quick pulled again in Rangers’ 8-4 loss to Senators: takeaways
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- Jonathan Quick pulled again in Rangers’ 8-4 loss to Senators: takeaways
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
The good news for the home team Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden was that Gabe Perreault recorded the first two-goal game of his NHL career. The bad news is that the New York Rangers already were losing 6-0 by time their prized rookie found the back of the net, and ended up on the wrong side of a 8-4 final against the Ottawa Senators .
The loss extended their current skid to five games (0-4-1) and dropped the Rangers (20-22-6) to two games under the NHL version of .500. They're last in the Eastern Conference and remain stuck on five wins at MSG this season (5-13-4).
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For the second time in three games, Jonathan Quick didn't finish what he started. The future Hall-of-Famer got the hook in the second period, after allowing six goals on 17 shots. He also was pulled in the second period Saturday in Boston after surrendering six goals in a 10-2 loss to the Bruins .
Mika Zibanejad assisted on each of Perreault's goals, and extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, eight assists). Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and an assist, and Noah Laba added a power-play goal in the third period, when the Rangers scored three times.
Brady Tkachuk recorded four points for the Senators, who had eight different goal scorers in this one. Dylan Cozens (one goal, two assists) and Ridly Greig (three assists) each finished with three points. Goaltender Leevi Merilainen stopped 18 of 22 shots, one night after leading Ottawa to a 2-1 win at home over the Vancouver Canucks .
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The first period was an absolute horror show for the Rangers, who were booed off the ice trailing 4-0 after 20 minutes of play. They spent nearly the entire period defending — poorly — in their own end, and had only one scoring chance against the Senators, who held a whopping 84.29 percent expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick .
The dye was cast 1:33 into the game, when Vincent Trocheck took a senseless holding penalty in the offensive zone. It wasn't much of a surprise the way things are going for the Rangers that the Senators quickly cashed in with a power-play goal at 2:18. Quick made the initial save on Cozens' shot, but the puck leaked through his pads, and the unchecked Drake Batherson slammed it into the back of the net.
Bad play by the Rangers was followed by bad luck at 4:53, when Nick Jensen 's right-point shot hit Braden Schneider's skate blade in front and caromed into the cage to make it 2-0 Ottawa.
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For the record, the first loud, extended boos from the Blueshirts Faithful rained down on the home team a bit under six minutes into the game, when the Rangers lost a series of puck battles and simply couldn't exit their defensive zone.
There were more to come, though. Ottawa upped its lead to 3-0 at 15:01, when Tkachuk scored his 200th NHL goal off an odd-man rush and right-wing snipe that beat Quick to the far side. Schneider got caught deep in the offensive zone, allowing the Senators to break out 2-on-1 after Vladislav Gavrikov's shot was blocked.
That the Rangers allowed one more goal with 5.7 seconds remaining following another poor sequence defensively was a fitting capper to a simply atrocious first period. This time, Cozens was left all alone between the circles and beat Quick stick side to put the Rangers in a 4-0 hole.
For those counting at home, that was four goals on 14 shots for the Senators. They added another two on their first three shots of the second period to knock Quick out of the game. Jake Sanderson hammered a rising shot over Quick's glove at 5:57, before Thomas Chabot snuck a long shot past Quick's blocker at 12:23 to make it 6-0.
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Spencer Martin replaced Quick at that point and received loud applause when he stopped the first shot he faced. There were more cheers for the journeyman goalie after his quick outlet pass to Zibanejad started a rush up ice that led to Perreault's first goal of the night at 18:55.
The rookie forward scored again at 5:26 of the third period to make it 6-2. He finished off a 2-on-1 with Zibanejad with a pretty forehand-backhand finish when driving to the net.
After David Perron banked a bad-angle shot off Martin and over the goal line, Laba's power-play deflection made it 7-3 at 10:44. Five minutes later Lafreniere scored his 10th goal of the season, but with Martin pulled for the extra attacker, Ottawa closed this one out with Tim Stutzle 's empty-net goal at 19:11.
Key takeaways after Rangers lose 8-4 to Senators
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No Igor, big problem
Including the game he got hurt, the Rangers are 0-4-1 since Igor Shesterkin was helped off the ice due to a lower-body injury in the first period against the Utah Mammoth nine days ago. They've been out-scored 30-12 in those five games, three times allowing at least five goals. Their defensive structure, a strength and source of pride earlier in the season, has cratered and simply stinks right now.
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So, not all the blame falls on Quick. But he hasn't been nearly good enough either. It was just a couple of weeks ago that Quick was among the League leaders in save percentage and goals-against average for goalies who started at least 10 games. But since stepping in for the injured No. 1, Quick looks every bit like the 40-year-old he'll be next week.
In the bigger picture, the Rangers only won three games not started by Shesterkin this season, the most recent on Nov. 7. Though Quick could've sued for lack of support there for a while, he's winless in his past 11 decisions (0-9-2) since early November.
Might Dylan Garand get the call-up from Hartford of the American Hockey League to make his first NHL start Saturday in Philly against the Flyers? Just putting that out there.
Change of plans
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Mere hours after coach Mike Sullivan explained after the morning skate that there was no reason to break up Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin on the same line, he did just that after the Rangers fell behind 2-0 less than five minutes into the game Wednesday.
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Sullivan reunited Peter Laviolette's favorite line combination — Panarin with Trocheck and Lafreniere — and moved Zibanejad alongside Perreault and J.T. Miller . The idea clearly was to spread the wealth offensively, since Nos. 93 and 10 are just about the only Rangers consistently on the score sheet. Will Cuylle moved to the third line with Laba and Brennan Othmann .
Positive results weren't immediate, but they did come later on after the Senators took their foot off the gas. Let's see if Sullivan keeps Perreault and Zibanejad on the same line after the rookie broke out against the Senators.
Gabe's breakout
Speaking of Perreault, good on him to draw something positive out of this game. He had one goal in 14 games this season — and one in 19 NHL games dating back to last spring — and limited scoring chances recently with the Rangers. But he scored a pair of beauties Wednesday, showing off those high-end offensive skills we've all been waiting for.
The silky mitts were on display on his first goal; and there was even more of his skill set showed off on his second of the game. Now let's see if he can carry that forward with some renewed confidence.
Lipstick on a pig
As much as you love to see Perreault finally break through and Laba also find the back of the net, it's difficult to get behind Miller's postgame commentary: "Bad first period. We responded. Played pretty well after that."
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The captain understood how that first period buried them, but doubled down on his first take.
"No shit. We'd like to not be down 4-0 after the first but after that we responded well. Played with some pride."
He even contended that the Rangers "out-played them" after the first period. Of course, we know Miller's just searching for positives on another crappy night. But … yeesh.
Scoring four goals and losing 8-4 is better than what we saw in that embarrassment up in Boston. But it also brings to mind that old phrase about putting lipstick on a pig.
'Nuf said.
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