The New York Rangers came as an opening Stanley Cup title in the 2022–23 season. There is not even a full month into the season and New York has learned that another playoff run will not be awarded.
The Rangers got their best play as a team member from Jaroslav Halak, but even he could not make up for significant mental mistakes in New York’s 3–2 overtime loss to Detroit.
“We fell flat in second and the old problem is leaving the weird guy crowd and that’s what bit us tonight.” Gerard Gallant said.
It didn’t start out as a depressing night for New York. Kapo Kako opened the scoring for the Blueshirts early with his third goal of the season, and was the third time the former overall pick recorded a point in five games. Kako received a friendly bounce and overtook Nedeljkovic for an early 1–0 lead in Rangers’ first period.
“If you’re going to score, you have to shoot the puck like I did today. I got a few chances… I think we played better in the first game but I don’t know what happened after that. Kako told reporters after the game.
New York however will not be in the initial period. After Ben Chiarot was called for an interference penalty, Rangers’ 14th-best powerplay unit would score when Artemi Panarin found Mika Zibnejad for his popular one-timer and took a 2–0 lead to end the period. achieved. New York’s offense dominated the first period five-for-five, but gave the upstart Red Wings ample chances on the offensive end when they were called for penalties. Detroit was 0-2 in the first period on the powerplay but had excellent chances during each run.
Jaroslav Halak did more than enough to keep the Red Wings off the board early enough to maintain Rangers’ early momentum. Halak made 15 saves for the first time and robbed Detroit of several great opportunities.
The Red Wings, however, did not go far in the second period and put Rangers on their heels. First, Matt Luff scored his first goal of the season from a deflection on Halak. Then, Pius Sutter made the most of a sloppy Rangers line change to bury the tying goal.
“We don’t manage that puck very well. It’s the odd chance that we gamble too much in the offensive zone.” Gallant said. “For me to flip the puck and there’s not a lot of people coming back and Play like this.”
The third period saw different line combinations for Gallant and Rangers than when they started the game. Chris Kreider moved to the fourth line, Panarin went on to work with Mika, and Vincent Trochek worked most of the time with Jimmy Vesey and Sammy Blass.
A clear message was sent to Gallant and the coaching staff.
“We tried to shake things up and see if we could wake up some people,” Gallant said. In response to a fourth-in-line fall from Creder, Gallant said, “He deserved to be where he was.”
The message Gallant sent did not come as a shock to the Rangers’ locker room.
“Yeah the second period was not a good period. I don’t know if it sent some messages or what it does but we have to go out and play better. Jacob Troba told reporters.
The line change won’t make a big difference to the scoresheet, however with the final period of action showing no goals on either side.
Although it was Detroit who had the night. Dylan Larkin would make the most of a K’Andre Miller overtime penalty to give Detroit the win, sending New York into their second straight loss.
“I thought it was a bad call.” Gallant later called on the Miller penalty.
With the defeat, the Rangers fall 6-4-3 on the season. Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden is his second meeting with the New York Islanders.
game notes
- Filip Chittil returned to the ice after a six-game absence with an upper body injury. While Chittil made his return, defender Ryan Lindgren did not play in Sunday’s competition with an upper body injury. Gerard Gallant said that Lindgren is still “day-to-day”.
- Chris Creder’s assist was the 200th of his Rangers career. he became 24th Ranger To make 200 assists in his first career with the team and to record the 34th skater to make 200 assists in Rangers uniform. Creder is the 16th player from the 2009 NHL Entry Draft to make 200 career assists.
- The last period saw more than just a forward-line change. Zac Jones didn’t see much snow time in the final period. Jones misplayed the second goal of the game and was not seen until later. Gallant didn’t know whether Jones was hurt.
