First Period:
- Rickard Rakell (23) (Power Play) Assists: Sidney Crosby (50), Evgeni Malkin (46)
- Barclay Goodrow (11) Assists: Jimmy Vesey (13), Tyler Motte (8)
Second Period:
- Jason Zucker (24) Assists: Brian Dumoulin (17)
Third Period:
Ad
- Chris Kreider (28) Assists: Vincent Trocheck (31)
Overtime:
- Kris Letang (9) (Power Play) Assists: Evgeni Malkin (47), Sidney Crosby (51)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- They won yesterday on a PP in OT and they lost today on a PP in OT.
- On this three game trip the Rangers picked up five of six points, which is good, but went past regulation each time, not so good, and looked out of sync for large, large sections of it.
- The results and picking up the points to make sure they stay in third place is important, but this team has reverted back to a lot of how they looked earlier in the year and not much like the team that stormed up the standings for those two months.
- They didn’t always play great during that big stretch from December until the middle of February, but they were playing with a swagger and a confidence that carried them. They have lost that swagger for the most part, but they know that their skill keeps them in every game.
- Overall they are just turning too many pucks over, trying to make cross-ice passes and getting them broken up or intercepted. It was no surprise that the Rangers best line today was the fourth line and they were the ones putting the pucks deep and battling down low. You don’t expect the Rangers turn their skill players into grinders, but they need to be smarter with how they manage the puck. It’s been an issue dating back to last season and it’s no surprise that the Rangers play their best and most confident when they make smarter/boring plays rather than the exciting/hope plays that when they work are incredible, but when it’s 1 out of 10 of those plays that work, it means 9 of 10 are coming back towards Shesterkin/Halak/shoddy defensive coverage.
- The hope was that some of these issues would be cleared up with the two practice days last week and days of rest between games, but they weren’t and they will have to figure it out on the fly with games every other day for nearly two weeks.
- The Caps are next on Tuesday and then it’s two straight against the Pens at MSG on Thursday and Saturday.