2020-21 Rangers

Rangers sluggish in 5-2 loss to Pens

Posted on by Adam Rotter in 2020-21 Rangers

First Period:

  • Radim Zohorna (2) Assists: Kris Letang (25), Marcus Pettersson (4)

Second Period:

  • Colin Blackwell (11) (Power Play) Assists: Kaapo Kakko (4), Pavel Buchnevich (20)
  • Kris Letang (7) Assists: Jake Guentzel (23), Brian Dumoulin (6)
  • Evan Rodrigues (5) (Power Play) Assists: Radim Zohorna (2), Jason Zucker (4)

Third Period:

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  • Jason Zucker (6) Assists: Evan Rodrigues (5), Cody Ceci (7)
  • Kevin Rooney (6) Assists: Adam Fox (32)
  • Mark Jankowski (4) Assists: Zach Aston-Reese (3)

Stats:

Adam Rotter:

  • The Rangers looked slow and disjointed from the drop of the puck, yet they could have been in this game if they buried the big chances and wide-open nets that they had. The Rangers scored in bunches on Tuesday because they were opportunistic. When the Rangers had their opportunities tonight they missed the net.
  • The Rangers had a slow start to this game in every sense of the word. Their foot speed was slow, they were slow to battles and the Penguins jumped on them, but it was still 1-0 going into the second. The Rangers seemed to struggle with how aggressive the Penguins were and forced them into turnovers, bad passes, deflected passes, and an overall game where they weren’t sharp.
  • The Rangers best players were anything but tonight. It started with Mika Zibanejad missing that wide open net and they never really picked up their game. Chris Kreider had that chance on the penalty shot, but for the most part the Rangers top six struggled.
  • The lines got all thrown around, but it was nice to see Vitali Kravtsov get a few shifts, and look relatively comfortable, with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.
  • I don’t think they will move him, but you figure that some teams have to be calling the Rangers about Colin Blackwell. He’s taken nearly every opportunity he’s been given and run with it.
  • The Rangers were right to go with Shesterkin tonight and ride him the past five games, but I think we are going to see Alex Georgiev tomorrow and his performance will then dictate who goes on Sunday. It’s been a while for Georgiev, but he has that bizarre success against the Isles and it’s time for Shesterkin to get a rest after a really solid streak.
  • It doesn’t get easier as the Rangers see the Isles for the first time in a while on Friday. We have seen the Rangers bounce back after slugging performances before and hopefully that is what we see tomorrow.