Rangers coach Peter Laviolette has seen his team steal wins and points with inferior performances at times, but he was blunt when he said New York was outworked in a one-goal loss to the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.
New York is coming off one of its worst efforts this season as it ends a four-game Western trip by facing the Edmonton Oilers, who are coming off a similar showing.
The Rangers are 2-1-0 on the trip, which started with a 2-0 win at Seattle on Sunday and then included a 4-3 victory at Vancouver on Tuesday. New York allowed only 24 shots on goal against the Canucks, but things were vastly different in Calgary.
New York took a 3-2 loss that could have been more lopsided since it conceded a season-worst 49 shots on goal, surpassing the 46 it allowed in a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Oct. 29.
The Rangers surrendered at least 40 shots on goal for the third time, something they did eight times en route to claiming the Presidents’ Trophy last season.
New York also allowed at least 35 shots for the sixth time but fell to 4-2-0 in those instances.
The Rangers gave up a goal in the opening period when they were outshot 20-5 and yielded the second tally before Alexis Lafreniere and Will Cuylle scored 16 seconds apart late in the second period. The tying goal occurred after Laviolette moved Kaapo Kakko to center on a line with Cuylle and Jimmy Vesey in the latter portion of the second.
“They came out hard,” Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren said. “They were all over us. They were forechecking us hard. We didn’t do a good job of getting the puck out, and when we did get it out, we weren’t getting it in. We were turning it over and they were coming right back at us. It’s definitely not the way we want to start the game. It’s tough to come back like that.”
The underwhelming effort continued New York’s inconsistencies after it scored 31 goals in its 5-0-1 start. The Rangers are 7-5-0 since and have been held to two or fewer goals six times in that span.
Edmonton is 10-6-2 since dropping its opening three games and is 4-2-1 over its past seven.
The Oilers fell to 4-6-1 on home ice with a 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
Leon Draisaitl scored 27 seconds into the contest, but Edmonton gave up two straight goals for a 2-1 deficit early in the second period. After Edmonton’s Corey Perry netted the tying goal, the Wild scored twice more in the second period.
“I don’t think we’ve played close to our potential many nights,” Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “We know we played a lot better hockey (at our peak) last year, but in order to get there, it starts with the work. It starts with the defensive side of the game.”
The defending Western Conference champions continued to experience defensive struggles as they allowed at least four goals for the eighth time. The Oilers are 0-7-1 in those games because of an offense that has scored three or fewer 13 times.
“We have to find ways to score goals,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “You need skill to do that, but you also need some grit, simplifying your game and going hard to the net.”
The Oilers are 7-2-1 in their past 10 meetings with the Rangers.
–Field Level Media