NEW YORK (NY) – The Rangers came into Thursday night with clear intentions of beginning a rebuilding process. Upper management announced it to the fans in February and was reiterated with the trading of captain Ryan McDonagh and forwards Rick Nash and J.T Miller. On opening night though, against the defending Presidents Trophy winners Nashville Predators, New York nearly stole a game.
Both teams started off a bit rusty, with scoring chances coming few and far between, but the initial buzzer sounded with a scoreless first.
Nashville played a smarter game to start and struck first in the second period off a deadly wrist shot on an odd man rush. Filip Forsberg snapped a wrist shot that beat Henrik Lundqvist blocker side and went bar in. The initial lead didn’t last long though as Rangers responded three minutes later with the teams first goal of the season off the stick of Jesper Fast. The tying tally came from some nifty pass from 2017 first round pick Filip Chytil.
The second period overall showed more back-and-forth action as each team recorded a combined 32 shots on net. Only two total goals were scored, but that was in part to the brilliance of Pekka Renne and Lundqvist.
P.K Subban broke the tie in the third with just under four minutes to go off a rocket from the point. Nashville won the face-off, threw the puck over to Subban who rifled a shot over a screened Lundqvist.
Rangers nearly had a 6-on-4 when they pulled their goalie with under two minutes to play, but was negated but a mental lapse. With an empty net and six players on the ice, Rangers forward Jesper Fast was taken down in front of the net by Subban, drawing an interference penalty. Not realizing the net was already empty, forward Mats Zuccarello jumped on the ice as play continued, unaware he was the seventh player on the ice. The too-many men call evened out the penalties and play carried on 4-on-4.
Mere seconds after pulling the goalie again, Predators center Colton Sissons finished the game with an empty net goal with just 1:24 left.
Rangers did score again off a deflection from Pavel Buchnevich, but at :36 seconds left they weren’t able to re-tie the game, as Nashville skated away to a 3-2 victory.
The Predators defense played absolutely relentless. They stepped up at the blue line, cut down all angles, used their sticks to take away any and all lanes and broke up plays below the goal line. Nashville showed why they have arguably the best defensive core in the NHL and will continue to be a power-house.
The Rangers should walk away from this game with their head held high. They went toe-to-toe with a top team in the league and nearly came out with two points. As a rebuilding squad with 10 starting players under 26-years of age, head coach David Quinn has a lot of positives to draw from opening night.
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