New York Rangers
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Rangers can’t stop Jack Hughes again, fall 6-3 to Devils: Takeaways
Source: https://www.foreverblueshirts.com/n...stop-jack-hughes-fall-6-4-to-devils-takeaways
The New York Rangers were outplayed, outscored and out-Hughesed by their cross-river rivals, the New Jersey Devils, in a 6-3 loss at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.
It was their second straight loss after a four-game winning streak – and their second loss to New Jersey in as many games this month.
The Rangers “limited” Devils center Jack Hughes to a goal and two assists after the Team USA Olympic hero had a hat trick and an assist in New Jersey’s 6-3 win at Prudential Center 11 days ago. But the goal was a backbreaker – the Rangers had closed 4-3 midway through the third period and were dominating play for one of the few times during the game, only to see Hughes beat Jonathan Quick with a rocket from the left circle at 13:06 to put New Jersey back up by two.
Jesper Bratt’s goal at 16:22 rubbed the Rangers’ noses in their inability to stop the Devils’ high-powered attack.
“We weren’t good enough,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I don’t think we were good enough all night long. We pushed in the third, but it’s hard to win games when you only play a period.”
Quick was one of the few Rangers who showed up. He was deluged with scoring chances (35 for the game, including 14 high-danger opportunities for New Jersey, according to Natural Stat Trick) all night but kept his team in the game until Hughes’ goal.
“The only reason we were close is because of Quickie,” center Mika Zibanejad said.
The Rangers got goals from Vladislav Gavrikov, Zibanejad and Conor Sheary. But they were outshot 39-18 and out-attempted 65-44 as New Jersey overcame a shaky effort by Jacob Markstrom to win their third straight game. In addition to losing on the scoreboard, the Blueshirts also lost center Noah Laba (lower body) and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen (upper body) with injuries.
New York fell to 6-3-2 since the Olympic break. The Rangers will hop a plane and prepare for the second half of a back-to-back against the red-hot Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday.
It was obvious early on that one team was on top of its game – and that team wasn’t the Rangers.
New York Rangers had the game’s first shot on goal, a long wrister by Alexis Lafreniere that Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom handled easily. The Blueshirts then stood around for the next 15 minutes or so and watched New Jersey skate rings around them. The only Ranger who appeared interested was Quick, who faced a pair of 2-on-1s – he denied Hughes on one of them — a 3-on-2 and several other excellent chances.
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Amazingly, it was the Rangers who got on the board first. Alexis Lafreniere controlled the puck along the right wall and found Gavrikov alone in the high slot. The defenseman’s shot went through a trio of Devils and past Markstrom, who also had Will Cuylle screening him, at 15:20. It was Gavrikov’s 14th goal, continuing his career offensive season.
The lead lasted less than a minute. Gabe Perreault took a holding penalty at 15:55 and Nico Hischier swatted the airborne carom of Connor Brown’s shot off the post and past a beleaguered Quick at 16:14.
It looked like the Rangers might get out of the period even, but Argeny Gritsyuk picked off a pass in his own zone, raced down left wing and zipped a shot past Quick at 19:16 for a 2-1 lead. Considering they were outshot 17-2 and that the Devils had all five high-danger chances in the period, according to Natural Stat Trick, it could have been a lot worse.
Perreault made up for his penalty by hounding Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton into a turnover that led to the tying goal 19 seconds into the middle period. The rookie forward kept after Hamilton, whose errant pass came right to Zibanejad. The Rangers’ leading scorer raced into the slot and took a high shot that hit Markstrom’s glove and slid into the net. Amazingly, the Rangers found themselves even at 2-2 despite being outshot 17-3 at that point.
The Devils gradually began to dominate play again and went ahead at 11:36 with their second power-play goal in three tries, capitalizing on Lafreniere’s needless hooking penalty at 11:09. Hughes was alone in the right circle and sent a seeing-eye pass to Brown in the slot, where he found an opening between two Rangers. Brown snapped it past 11:36 for a 3-2 lead.
Hughes nearly expanded the lead to two goals when he came in on a breakaway with 4:35 remaining, but Quick stopped his quick wrist shot from close in. The Devils ended the period up a goal and leading 30-11 in shots.
But just after the Rangers killed off a penalty to Zibanejad early in the third period, the Devils took a 4-2 lead at 6:29. Gavrikov fumbled away the puck in his own zone, and Paul Cotter went in alone for a shot that Quick stopped. But Timo Meier got the rebound and slid a backhander into the wide-open net.
That quieted the crowd for a few minutes until Conor Sheary banged the rebound of Matthew Robertson’s shot past Markstrom at 9:41. However, Hughes’ goal quieted the crowd – and Bratt’s goal began the parade to the exits.
Key takeaways after Rangers lose 6-3 to Jack Hughes and Devils
Too much Hughes — again
The Devils come back to the Garden on March 31 — and if the Rangers have any hope of avoiding swept in the season series, they’d better find a way to shut down Hughes.
The first player taken in the 2019 NHL Draft (the Rangers took since-traded forward Kaapo Kakko with the second pick) continues to toy with the Rangers. He has 20 goals and 35 points in 25 games against his team’s biggest rival – including seven points (four goals and three assists) in two games this season and 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in six games since the start of last season.
“I’ve had a lot of respect for him as a player; he’s obviously an elite talent in the league,” said Rangers captain and Team USA teammate J.T. Miller. “But I think I respect him more as a person, to be honest with you.”
That’s a 66-goal, 115-point pace over a full season. The Islanders (11 goals) and Pittsburgh Penguins (10) are the only other teams Hughes has reached double figures against; his next-highest point total is 22 against the Pens.
The Rangers face the Devils just three times this season, as opposed to the four games they play against most of the rest of the Metropolitan Division. Good thing.
PK is not OK
The Rangers likely would have more success against the Devils if they improved their penalty-killing. New Jersey went 2-for-4 on Wednesday after a 3-for-3 showing in Newark on March 7.
The post-Olympic improvement has come despite problems killing penalties. Opponents have 11 power-play goals on 32 opportunities in 11 games since the break.
“It hasn’t been very good for a while now,” Sullivan said. “A lot of it boils down to details — knowing your job and doing your job”
The Rangers are down to 25th in the NHL on the PK at 77.6 percent. A team like the Rangers that doesn’t score much (215 goals; 24thc in the League) has to be able to kill penalties.
Metropolitan-area miseries
The Devils’ visit to the Garden on March 31 marks the Rangers’ final game against their two Metropolitan-area rivals. They’ll be trying to avoid the embarrassment of being swept by both the Islanders and Devils.
The Rangers are now 0-6-0 against their two local rivals while being outscored 26-9. The Islanders swept the four-game season series, outscoring the Blueshirts 14-3 and shutting them out twice – getting some revenge after the Rangers swept four games last season.
New Jersey is 2-0-0 with a 12-6 goal margin. The Devils are 5-0-1 in their past six games against the Blueshirts.
Right back at it
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Back-to-back games can have their benefits. In the case of the Rangers, they had little time to ponder the stinker against New Jersey because they had to get on a plane for their game in Columbus on Thursday.
The Rangers may be playing for pride (and jobs next season), but the red-hot Blue Jackets are desperate for every point as they battle to make the postseason since the bubble playoffs in 2020. Columbus is 16-2-4 since Rick Bowness took over for Dean Evason behind the bench – including a 5-4 overtime win at the Garden on March 2.
That game saw the Jackets regroup after blowing a four-goal lead in the third period and win the game on Kirill Marchenko’s OT goal.
“I love that we have a game tomorrow — short memory,” Miller said. “Learn from the mistakes, but we’ve got to be ready to go tomorrow.”
Source: https://www.foreverblueshirts.com/n...stop-jack-hughes-fall-6-4-to-devils-takeaways