In New York, the Rangers played a decent 10 minutes of hockey on Monday, and for some reason it just weren’t enough in a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
“It feels good, but we’re not where we want to be yet,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “We’ve still got tons of hockey left. We’re really happy with our start, but we’re not even halfway through. You can’t buy anything with that, so we’ve just got to keep improving, keep getting better. That’s our goal.”
For the three minutes of the game belonged to the Rangers who took the dreaded 2-0 lead on goals from Artemi Panarin, who had not scored since forever, and a goal from Mika Zibanejad.
From there it was all New Jersey he scored twice in the first period to tie the game, and a double in the middle frame to take the Rangers out of the game with a 4-2 lead.
“The team is a problem, the whole group of us, coaches, the whole group,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We’ve got to turn it around.”
Vitek Vanecek made 35 saves. for the win.
New Jersey improved to 19-4-0.
Tomas Tatar and Yegor Sharangovich scored in the first period to tie the game, 2-2.
In the middle frame, it was all New Jersey with jack Hughes and Michael McLeod giving New Jersey a 4-2 lead.
New York dropped to 10-9-4.
“I thought we played real well, then let down a little bit and they came at us,” Gallant said. “That’s the way they play. They put lots of offense at you and they play fast. They showed their game tonight.”
The losses are piling for the Rangers while the rest of the conference puts up points to overtake them in the standings. At some point it will be too late to make a charge, and it will be either wait till next year or have a fire sale of the next group of unsuccessful roster moves to be moved on.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that there’s some frustration,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “That’s normal where we’re at. We talk about it, stay together as a group. That’s what we discussed, things aren’t easy right now and we’re going to keep fighting and battling until this thing turns for us. There’s definitely a sense of urgency.”
Vincent Trocheck scored a power play goal in the third period to get the Rangers close at 4-3.
“Not a great start, but we knew there was lots of hockey left and right back in the first period two huge goals,” Hischier said. “We just kept playing our game.”
Sharangovich scored his second of the game into an empty net for the 5-3 final.
Igor Shesterkin made 33 saves in the Rangers loss.
“Goalie played [expletive] game again,” Shesterkin said. “I feel so bad and play so bad. I’m ashamed.
“Every goal is easy play for me. I have to stop those. If our team wants to win the game, I have to play better.”
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