First Period:
- Drake Batherson (18) (Power Play) Assists: Dylan Cozens (20), Brady Tkachuk (14)
- Nick Jensen (3) Assists: Ridly Greig (11), Dylan Cozens (21)
- Brady Tkachuk (9) Assists: Ridly Greig (12), Nick Jensen (9)
- Dylan Cozens (13) Assists: Ridly Greig (13), Brady Tkachuk (15)
Second Period:
- Jake Sanderson (9) Assists: Artem Zub (11), Nick Cousins (5)
- Thomas Chabot (5) Assists: Nick Cousins (6), David Perron (14)
- Gabe Perreault (2) Assists: J.T. Miller (14), Mika Zibanejad (24)
Third Period:
- Gabe Perreault (3) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (25), J.T. Miller (15)
- David Perron (9) Unassisted
- Noah Laba (6) (Power Play) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (16), Scott Morrow (4)
- Alexis Lafreniere (10) Assists: Artemi Panarin (35), Carson Soucy (5)
- Tim Stutzle (20) (Empty Net) Assists: Brady Tkachuk (16), Jake Sanderson (26)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- Another ugly, sloppy game from the Rangers. They made it easy for an Ottawa team that played last night and has been going through their own issues on and off the ice this season. There were a lot of missed assignments, a lot of poor coverage, an inability to clear the puck and just more misery. They were never even in this game and the 8-4 score is a lot closer than it actually was.
- For about half of the first period the Rangers went with new lines and promoted Alexis Lafreniere back to the top line. Then Ottawa scored a couple and Lafreniere was put back with Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin and Gabe Perreault was moved up to play with Mika Zibanejad and JT Miller. As I kind of suspected, it seems Lafrenire’s drop to the third line against Seattle was effectively meant to send a message without creating the media storm that healthy scratching him would have caused. Again, the game was over by then but Lafreniere did end up with a goal and an assist in the third period. He wasn’t impactful until that, but scoring is still scoring.
- The only real bright spot was Gabe Perreault scoring two nice goals. I don’t think it was wrong to have him on the third line as he continues to adjust to the NHL, but I think he’s going to see more top-six minutes and he should. If the season is lost, and it sure seems like it is, then the rest of the year is about developing Perreault.
- I assume that the Rangers will go back with Jonathan Quick since they don’t play until Saturday, but at some point I have to think that Spencer Martin is going to start. He’s no answer in net but Quick can’t play every game. I still want to see Dylan Garand but clearly they don’t think he’s either ready or capable of being better than Martin is.
- It’s just a mess and it’s different than last year. Last year seemed like a lost year but also held the promise of, likely, a new coach, a full season of JT Miller and whatever other moves they were going to make last summer. This year it’s hard to see what changes are going to come. We don’t think Chris Drury is going anywhere, Mike Sullivan is certainly not going anywhere, maybe David Quinn or Joe Sacco will get pushed out but the Rangers aren’t winning or losing because of their assistant coaches.
- The only change that we are pretty sure is going to happen is that they are going to lose one of the best offensive players that this team has ever had. I can’t imagine that Artemi Panarin is going to want to stick around if this is how things are going to be and so I’d expect at some point soon the Rangers are going to work with him on an exit plan and to send him somewhere he wants to go.
- Next up is Philly on Saturday.