The Rangers couldn’t be full steam ahead throughout the latter part of the season.
So the determination and resilience they had shown in previous weeks proved too late in a 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, giving the Blueshirts a impressive victory in five games. stop.
It was the Rangers’ fifth loss since early March, when the club went 10-3-1 against some of the NHL’s best teams.
The Penguins, who were ranked 22nd in the league and second-to-last in the Metropolitan Division going into the game, are no longer the team they were just two seasons ago, when they blew a 3-point lead -1 in the series against the Rangers. in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
But Pittsburgh looked like a team that was fighting for its pride, while the Rangers didn’t seem to be fighting for anything at all.
The Rangers chased the puck all evening.
There wasn’t much, if any, emotion in their playing.
This took a toll on their physicality and allowed the Penguins to get by for most of the night.
The Rangers had one of their worst periods in a long time in the first 20 minutes of this game.
Trailing 2-0 thanks to goals from Bryan Rust and Sidney Crosby, the Blueshirts were all out of sorts in the defensive zone and couldn’t generate much in the offensive zone.
They handled the puck poorly, especially goaltender Igor Shesterkin, while the Penguins generated quality opportunities thanks to Rangers errors.
The Rangers even challenged Crosby’s goal for offside, but lost and had to go down by a man.
In their second game as a defensive duo, Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller scored the Penguins’ first two goals.
Trouba’s giveaway in the defensive zone that led to Rust’s 1-0 score was the first of nine turnovers the Rangers were charged with in the first half.
The game could have been different if Mika Zibanejad’s score on a power play early in the second period had counted, but the referees immediately ruled it out for goalie interference.
Chris Kreider’s right skate hampered Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic during the play.
That’s all Rangers came close to producing midway through the third, which saw the home side hold an 11-8 lead in shots on goal.
Kaapo Kakko started the Rangers’ too-little-too-late rally in the third period with a goal at 10:42, when the Finnish winger’s one-timer went straight into Nedeljkovic’s glove behind the goal post.
Upon review, the shot was ruled a goal and was Kakko’s 12th of the season.
The Rangers then managed to make it 3-2 on a goal from Jack Roslovic, but empty-net goals from Rust and Crosby secured the victory for Pittsburgh.
New York Post
