First Period:
- Adam Fox (8) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (16), Vincent Trocheck (30)
Second Period:
- Artemi Panarin (29) Assists: Adam Fox (27), K’Andre Miller (11)
Third Period:
- Nico Sturm (3) Unassisted
- Ryan Carpenter (3) Assists: Jan Rutta (8), Filip Zadina (8)
Overtime:
- Tomas Hertl (15) Assists: Jan Rutta (9), Alexander Barabanov (6)
Stats
Adam Rotter:
- They probably didn’t deserve to win this game, but it’s ridiculous that Alexis Lafreniere was interfered with/picked off twice and Mika Zibanejad once on the play that leads to the winner and there was no call.
- It’s a brutal way to end what was a big mess of a road trip. It sure felt like the Rangers were going to win this game. They weren’t great and they let the Sharks hang around, but they were up 2-0 going into the third and they were generating chances. But they couldn’t finish on those changes to build on the lead and the PP was shut out. San Jose was gifted their first goal off a terrible turnover from Gustafsson and they were the better team for stretches in this game, especially in the third period.
- It’s a point and that point is important, but not getting two against San Jose, especially when you have a 2-0 lead going into the third, is pretty close to unacceptable for a team that seems like and thinks it’s a contender.
- It almost seems like the Rangers season has gone in reverse. You’d expect inconsistency and losing games that you should win as the team learns under a new coach, but you expect that in the first two months of the year, not now. Instead, the Rangers were great those first two months and have now slipped badly.
- It’s the way hockey is, but this is likely a different result if one of Alexis Lafreniere’s four missed shots actually hit the net. Overall I thought Lafrenire was buzzing and was putting himself in positions to score, but he needs to finish. He should have 5-7 more goals this season, if not more, but he hasn’t been able to finish and find the net enough.
- This was a bad road trip by the Rangers. They only get one win, and they had to have a huge comeback to get it, three total points and a lot of poor decisions and poor hockey. Why they can’t seem to find the net consistently at even strength is confounding, but that has been a big issue at times over these last 2.5 years and it will, unless the PP is on fire, be the reason that the Rangers ultimately lose in the playoffs.
- They get Vegas on Friday and Ottawa on Saturday and then they get the All-Star break and bye week. They certainly seem like they need that time off to reset and find a way to get back to the team that got everyone excited at the start of the year and not this incredibly frustrating team they have been,