A guest recap by the blog’s resident hater of penguins, St. Pete Eli (aka ‘the Minx’)
After honoring Jonathan Quick for top the wins list for American goalies at 392, our boys in blue took the ice at MSG, facing-off against their steel town rival Pittsburg Penguins. Their plan was to take the night off, and extend their winning streak to 6 games. Unfortunately, that strategy infrequently turns out well. From my perspective the Rangers quietly dominated possession for most of the contest. Aside from their blunders, the play of the Crosby/Rust combo, and the outstanding performance by Alex Nedeljkovic turned out to be the difference. It was a difficult game for me to watch because I detest the Pens and in my opinion losing to them on home ice, for me, is hockey sacrilege. Nevertheless it’s a long season and we must be ready to accept the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would also add that the pairing of Trouba/Miller is and was a disaster. Well, anyway as my grandson often says when faced with a challenge. “Let’s do this.” So on to period 1.
1st period
The game started out in typical Ranger, fashion falling behind early. At 0:18 of the first Rust his 25th, knocked in a rebound assisted by Crosby, his 45th and Smith, his 23rd. This off a turnover by our beloved Captain. Before I had my feet up on my ottoman, it was 1 zip pens. Miller backing up at his own blue line looked like he had no idea what to do. Shesterkin was not prepared for the Crosby shot and gave up that tasty rebound. The Rangers spent most of the time in the Penguins zone, but were unable to get one past Nedeljkovic. With 11:58 to go, Crosby fed Rust who was wide open in the slot and believe it or not Miller made a nice play deflecting his shot out of play. Then with 10:34 left, O’Connor slipped around Miller at the right circle and Shesterkin made the save. At this point I had a pretty good idea where this game was headed. Sure enough with the Rangers 1st or 2 nd line, take your pick, (Krusty Posto Busto) scrambling around in their own zone, at 10:39 Crosby his 36th deflected a shot from Joseph his 8th and Letang his 36th , 2- zip Pens, SMH. Laviolette challenged for an off sides only to lose the challenge, our favorite Ref Wes McCauley with the call. With 8:39 left Karlsson kicked Trouba’s dropped stick and our boys went on the PP. At 13:79 Nedeljkovic makes a nice save on Kreider, Nedeljkovic was stopping everything. For the rest of the period you could hear a pin drop in the Garden. An uninspired 1st period for the Rangers.
2nd period
At 2:02 of the 2nd Malkin goes off for slashing on Fox, the Rangers go on their 2nd PP. Trocheck hits the post, what’s new? Then Zibanejad scored but Kreider was called for goalie interference, even though he was nudged into the crease and into Nedeljkovic by Letang. Smart play by Letang, veteran move. His skate hooked his pad. I have no doubt Nedeljkovic would not have stopped the shot anyway but our favorite Ref. McCauley again with the call, no goal. The Rangers continued to dominate play with nothing to show for it and it was at least for me beginning to feel like a Nedeljkovic shut out. With 8:36 to go, the Pens had only 9 shots on goal. Shesty with a great save on Malkin with 7:19 to go, just moments before he had a nice exchange with Crosby behind the net, angry Igor. With 2:19 to go, Rakell crosschecks Wennberg from behind into the boards, and after a short scrum, play on. Up to this point the Pens have blocked 13 shots and Nedeljkovic has made 19 saves.
3rd period
I would like to have seen the Rangers come out on fire, instead they iced the puck right off the bat. Crosby steals the puck from Miller and just missed the net at the 28 second mark. The Rangers were pretty sloppy for most of the 3rd , they just didn’t seem to want it as much as the Pens. Zibanejad with a nice shot with 16:30 left but no cigar. Then with 10:10 left in the game, Bemmstrom scores his 7th assisted by Puljujarvi, his 1st after a Cuylle turnover at the blue line. 3- zip Pens and for all intents and purposes the game looked over. Then with 9:18 left, Kakko scored his 12th , assisted by Fox, his 51st, and Panarin, his 64th, to make it 3-1. At first it appeared Nedeljkovic made the save, but after review his glove hand was inside the net and with the puck behind the post. The Rangers, as they always seem to do, turned it up a notch, and with 3:07 left Roslovic scored his 8th from a Zibanejad, his 40th, a shot off the back boards to cut the lead to 3-2. Then to my dismay, Laviolette pulls Shesterkin with a little over 2 minutes left before the Rangers gain possession, just stupid, and cost them a possible chance to get the Bettman point (an Islander specialty) and maybe the extra point in the OT. The two empty netters by Rust and Crosby sealed the deal.
Since I’m not sure I got all the times right and this is my first attempt, I will accept any tomatoes coming my way. They easily could have won this game with a serious 60 minute effort; they are the better team. The Minx Has Spoken! I hate the Pens!
Next up, NJ Devils on Wednesday night at MSG, 7:00 PM EDT on TNT/TRU/MAX.
84 responses to “Rangers 2, Penguins 5 (SMH)”
Hat tips to the Minx for his detailed review! Hopefully not in too bad shape afterhaving to recount the most recent Minxmare 😉
Brooks reports that Gustafsson is in a regular jersey today.
Jones to the booth.
Nice of Eli to wake up and do his job 😉
Ideal is to win the conference but avoid the President’s Trophy curse.
Great job, minx!
Eli!
Good work, Eli. Would you compare writing that fine review to having a root canal without novocaine?
Upstate
No. More like waking up in the morning and seeing my ex-wife next to me.
The shot by Bemmstrom flashed by Twerkins glove so fast that Sam actually thought he saved it.
I just watched the disallowed goal and I have no idea how it would have gone if Lavy challenged it. There was less contact than the one in Phoenix that was waved off. The NHL has no standard for that call so it’s a crap shoot. It’s early in the game so no reason to take a penalty. Later in the game you roll the dice.
The Minxcan exhale and grab a beer now that he is finished with that chore.
This was a stellar review. A- (marks off for not reviewing a win instead. blame the messenger)
For those who look at +/-, The Helmet Kissers were each -1 vs Pens last night and 0 vs the Yotees three days ago.
someone tell me how to interpret this? Are they more valuable in losses than wins? Are they not impacting the game and we just live or die by how the Bread line performs with extreme swings game to game?
LAF make the exact same play right before the Cuylle fur ball but Jones was there to cover for him and it was no problem. Cuylle did it with Miller/Trouba as his D. Neither of them was in a position to help and the GWG was scored. Going forward splitting those two up should be considered.
Solid work Pete!
bobbyo
Thanks, I was juggling 3 things at the same time.
ORF can’t split Trouba/Miller up as egos might be bruised. Does that make Miller/Schneider the top pair? Jones/Trouba?
great write-up; ooh, the pain!
Mika/Kreider leading forwards in plus/minus because they play responsible steady D which will limit the offensive zone chances but prevent prime scoring opps.
Bread is focused on O, sometimes at the expense of D.
Plus/minus is not prescriptive in the short run as evidenced in the last 2 games with Breads line but is descriptive in the long run of the overall impact on both sides of the ice.
I know Brooks is worried that putting Rempe in for the Devils game is like waving a red cape but the reality is NYR are not a team of self-starters. They need a guy like Rempe that just goes out and wants to run his motor at full speed, whether banging on the forecheck or fighting in front or the corners, to get the rest of them engaged.
Good news! Another “smiling” Finn on the way!
UPDATE: Brandon Scanlin has been assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack.
I suspect Quillan from Quinnipiac was focused on the Leafs. He must have had that contract with him ready to sing as soon as they were eliminated. I remember when Mike Mottau signed with the Rangers out of BC it was an open secret where he was going to sign. If the Bruins are out on Graf that’s a plus since he is from Lincoln and played for the Junior Bruins for 2 years.
are you guys seriously looking to move Trouba to 3rd pair after coming back from injury?
highlight of game Sam saying save Shesterkin!!!! When the puck almost broke through the twine
Is it Trouba moving to third pair or Miller moving to third pair?
I think we can all agree that Sam has lost alot on his fast ball over the years. Remember he is not a spring chicken.
neither one is moving to 3rd pair
Then there shouldn’t be a problem splitting them up.
In news I know all of you were waiting for… the ECHL Board of Governors has voted to terminate the league membership of the Newfoundland Growlers.
Financial troubles.
understandable the leafs saving some money on luxuries like supporting an echl affiliate, when Pajama Boy is going to need another new contract after next season
Devils went from up 3-1 to down 6-3 pretty quickly in the 3rd.
devils probably saving their energy for us.
Like a recurrent nightmare, the Assdancers are just about back in a playoff spot. Yay.
Good news is that nobody in the league looks unbeatable right now. Bad news is that the Rangers look beatable. Familiarity breeds contempt?
Vaisanen 6’4″ 178 lbs?? He absolutely will be smiling with his ELC he can finally afford a decent meal!
…like Method Man, he can seep beneath closed doors.
Beezle Fantastic job; best recap I’ve seen in a long time. As you said, we should have easily won if anybody showed up to play. The freeken foghorns could be backing into the playoffs. Need to play passionate, serious hockey in our last two games with them. Despise that team.
thanks for your hard work Beezle. If the Rangers worked half as diligently as you did on that game, they would’ve won it easily.
Admiral
🤣
Lone – recap was done by St. Pete, I just posted it and cleaned it up a little. He gets all the props.
if Trouba miller are split it can be in the name of balance rather than demotion
Beezle
By the way thanks for clearing me up. My wife has been trying for years!
U cleaned it up? It was filthy in its original state? Had a feeling.
Kind of funny the shock and horror people have at the thought of splitting Miller/Trouba for even a game. Meanwhile, “split up the huggy twins” or more generally, “move this foward here and that one there” are not met with “omg that’s a demotion!” but statements about why its not better, why it is better, yada yada.
I’m more interested in winning these last few games and getting Trouba back into top form. Keeping Miller with Schneider seems likely to give them a better chance of winning the next few than reverting back to the old pairings. And maybe the minutes can be balanced a little bit better to give Fox and Miller a few less shifts (and the Trouba pair order 15-16m)
Miller not good enough to be a forward, sucks as a Dman. Even sucked at Wisconsin. All his accolades were and are based on improvement which never comes.
Not that Laviolette would listen, but Cuylle Wennberg Kakko is the best option for line 3. My solution to the Mika mystery, hypnosis. Tell him when he hits the ice he’s a human wolverine.
Of course that could end up with Mika skating on all 4’s
Funny, I was listening today to NHL network radio. The guys on there who know more than I do were saying what I’ve been tryin to say on here for a while now. What they were saying is the florida panthers play all season long playoff hockey. What that means is in your face hockey. They didn’t talk about the rangers but I know for sure the rangers don’t play the style of in your face hockey. The rangers are a pond hockey style soft team that works in the regular season but doesn’t work in nthe playoff. The reason they lost to the devils in 7 last year is because the devils played a better pond hockey than the rangers. It’s possible the can win a 1st round depending who they play. If it’s detriot, yes, if it’s Washington yes, if it’s the islanders, I’m not sure since they have players who play playoff hockey all year. Also, reason why the rangers have such a good record is because there division is much weaker than in the past. I’m a realist, it’s nice they have had a good season but for me the real season starts in the playoffs to win nthe cup. I don’t see it happening.
Minx I’d just like to see more of MikaMouse driving to the net and taking shots than setting up at the dot for a one timer. I know he’s never going to be big on the forecheck. He definitely needs less predictability in his game.
It took neil smith to make many trades from 1992 to 1994 to bring in players who play in your face hockey to win the stanely cup and it took that team grueling two game 7 series to do it.
Agree too that Cuylle better on the left side of that line. If they aren’t going to put Rempe in, let Bro dude center the 4th with VC/Goodrow the wings or put him at RW and let VC play on the left (I’m fairly certain he’s played both sides enough not to be a big deal?)
Must be boring watching all that winning during the regular season….
1 Cup in 90 years, suffice to say one doesn’t not have to be Nostradomus to predict NYR won’t win the Cup this time round.
All that disappointment really must weigh down a lot of folks; when it reality, they should be used to it.
Tiz a puzzlement!
Tommy a majority of these guys did make it to the EC finals a few years back, though I think the deadline moves that year were a little more conducive to playoff hockey, but let’s see. I don’t even think playing “soft” is their biggest issue, the group not playing hard a full 60 is the bigger concern. There are no shifts off in the playoffs, if you come out flat you will probably be run over and need to go to the comeback well again.
SN,
We’re basically in an abusive relationship and refuse to leave…. 🤷♂️. They’ll turn it around, you’ll see! (…and they don’t, but we stay loyal).
Beezle
Me too. Thing is he could do it. He has the size and skill. He just lacks that drive to be better.
SN, I am use to it, it’s reality.
Beezle, that’s correct, the three players the rangers traded for a few years ago play playoff hockey. The players drury brought in at this years deadline, not so much.
CraigWeather, right on point, I’m a die hard ranger fan but certain people get annoyed when you tell it like it is.
The thing about Mika is eveytime he seems to try and be aggresive, he gets injured, probaby why he doesn’t do it.
I can only hope and dream that the rangers strart drafting more players with the pedigree of playoff style hockey. Please draft more players from the OHL because it appears to me that’s where you find those type of hockey players. Please no more eruopansy draftees. Cuyle is a good start, same goes for baby trouba.
I wish the coach with 104 points would listen to you guys!
The thing about playing in your face playoff hockey all season is you may have nothing left for the actual playoffs. Panthers made a nice run but were on fumes by the finals
we’ll see what happens once they get past the Islanders in the first round…
The players they traded for 2 years ago also can only play playoff hockey if their team makes it, and it looks like neither Copp or Vatrano’s will. Still need to win in the regular season to get there, and not sure playing a grinding playoff style all year is the way to do it. The Torts teams did that and were some of my favorite, but also got worn down at the end.
It’s ok to coast through a few games and stay healthy when there isn’t a whole lot on the line aside from staying ahead of Carolina. Not necessarily the winning formula.
Who’s getting past the isles in the first round, AA? Florida? Boston? Certainly won’t be the Rangers. The isles are better at “playoff hockey.”
Should people have listened to Bruce Boudreau? Afterall, the 09-10 Crapitals led the league with 121 points! And a first round exit to the 8th seed Canadiens, team of a whopping 88 points.
Torts gave a good media event today. He said a lot of the things I was saying when NYR unexpectedly found themselves in the playoffs and so many of you guys were just happy to have reached the milestone. BTW, it was the Dr. Jekyll Torts today.
Broken clock theory abounds. Hoping for leap year, 30th Anniversary outlier….
tommy
it is well known that we’re not winning the cup. but not for the reasons you keep repeating. we don’t have the superstar drafted 1 or 2 overall that most cup teams have. and we don’t have tax advantage or cheat the cap the way tampa or vegas did. and the 94 team had no cap. no way we’d have that collection of talent and grit if they had the cap back then. that said i expect you to keep repeating yourself.
brooks and vince tweets stating season tix prices staying the same for next year for both rangers and knicks
Rangers are winning the cup I just feel it.
Average NBA salary $10.5 million and rising.
Excellent review, Minx!
Post Sports+ Inside The Rangers
What’s puzzling me about Will Cuylle’s move down the Rangers depth chart
We all have a tendency to fixate on certain matters. Maybe that’s just me, but I don’t think so.
And of late, I have been obsessed with how Will Cuylle has been marginalized over the past six weeks or so.
I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand what happened. I don’t understand why Jonny Brodzinski has been elevated over Cuylle in the lineup to play on his off-wing on the left side of the third line with Alex Wennberg and Kaapo Kakko after it seemed Cuylle and Kakko formed perfect bookends that could dominate with down-low possession.
Peter Laviolette has done a superlative job with his team. I wrote a tribute column about him for Tuesday’s editions of The Post. I know he has won 956 more games than I have from behind an NHL bench (including playoffs), but it is also true that I am undefeated.
Regardless, Laviolette surely is not infallible.
On Monday night, when the Rangers had nothing going, Cuylle delivered a pair of hits on Kris Letang and Richard Rakell in the final minute of the first period. He then got two shifts worth 1:51 in the second period.
When he was restored to regular duty in the third, No. 50 turned the puck over five feet inside the offensive line midway through the period to trigger the Emil Benstrom breakaway that gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead. Cuylle finished with a team-leading four hits and a minus-one in 9:49. Oh, he also served the team’s two minors.
Cuylle was on the unit with Barclay Goodrow in the middle and Jimmy Vesey on the right. Laviolette has used that trio in a matchup role before. But not Monday, when the coach curiously opened with the Vincent Trocheck line going head-to-head with Sidney Crosby, and indeed stayed with that match for a while.
The question hovering over the Rangers is whether this successful regular-season team has the grind and physicality to make it through the playoffs.
That’s it and that’s been it for the last three seasons with this particular incarnation of a core that has been in place since 2020-21.SOMETHING DOESN’T ADD UP
Cuylle is sixth in the NHL in both hits and hits per 60:00, trailing Jeremy Lauzon, Garnet Hathaway, Cal Clutterbuck, Keegan Kolesar and Brady Tkachuk. Of that group, only Tkachuk has produced more goals or points than Cuylle, who has gone 12-8=20 in his rookie season.
The 22-year-old also happens to fifth on the team in goals per 60:00 at five-on-five, behind Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere and Kakko.
But, obviously, there is something that has crept into Cuylle’s game that Laviolette just doesn’t trust. Actually, I shouldn’t put words in the coach’s mouth, but that’s the inference I draw.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’m missing it. Cuylle’s play has been more spotty recently, but I tend to think that’s an effect and not the cause of diminishing ice time. Maybe I’m wrong.
Laviolette was asked about Cuylle following Tuesday’s practice. Honestly, the coach didn’t shed much light on it. I didn’t expect him to. Laviolette is unfailingly cooperative and respectful in dealing with the media, but he does not drill down into his decision-making. There are no real explanations.
“Let me just say that with any player, I think there are always peaks and valleys inside of a season, and I think with a young player there’s no difference,” the coach said. “You know, Will has been a really good player for us and we’re fortunate to have 13 good [forwards] right now.
“They bring something different. It’s hard to compare Will with Bread [Panarin], it’s hard to compare [Matt] Rempe with Kreider. They’re different types of players and so [lineup decisions] depend on what the game might need or what you think it will be.
“We make decisions, play does factor in a little bit but the boxes that you check inside the game factors into it in regard to faceoffs, power play, penalty kill,” Laviolette said. “Whether that line is being put together for some specific reason. And so those decisions factor into what we’re doing, as well.
“We’re happy with Will the way he’s played this year; he’s had a really good year for us. Hope that continues.”DECISION MATRIX
Laviolette did mention that the Brodzinski-Wennberg-Kakko trio has put up good numbers.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the unit has played 48:57 at five-on-five with an attempts share of 58.82 percent, a shot share of 62.50 percent and an expected goal share of 44.27 percent while on for two goals both for and against.
Internal numbers may be different. Laviolette may think Brodzinski’s speed is a critical element. I don’t know.
The Rangers have the best record in the NHL. I don’t want to fixate over the minutes and use of a third-line winger. But I guess I am. I don’t get it.
excellent questions regarding Cuylle.
C3
Thank you, thank you very much.
Word is that the Rempster is back in tonight so Cuylle back to 3rd line and Bro Dude buying da beers.
Ranger coaches, and coaching the Rangers has always been a mystery to me. Result, Minxmares.
Does Bro-Dude make enough to pay the check?
Is it a coincidence that since Lindgren & Trouba are back we started playing poorly, particularly on defense. Would I be wrong if I felt some of our key vets decided to take their foot off the pedal and/or rest up.???
Every now and then brooksie writes something that makes me forgive him for the other dribble he publishes and his mistreatment of my favorite coach
Wild Bill sure does need to quit being so fancy at the blue line