The Rangers made history Tuesday night and not the kind they wanted to. After being shutout 2-0 at Madison Square Garden by the Edmonton Oilers, the Broadway Blueshirts now own the longest streak of being shutout at home to start a season in NHL history at 180 minutes. The previous longest in the modern era was held by the Florida Panthers who were shutout for the first 155 minutes and 17 seconds of the 2001-02 season.
The game was low-scoring but there were lots of grade-A scoring chances. Five minutes into the game, the Rangers got the first one when Sam Carrick received a pass inside the offensive zone, skated in, deked Skinner to his forehand and tried to slide the puck in around Skinner’s pad but was denied. The best save of the period though belonged to Igor Shesterkin. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard received a pass about 10 feet inside the Rangers blue line with just under six minutes left in the period. As Bouchard wound up to take a slap shot, a Ranger dove to block it, but Bouchard dragged the puck around him and took a snap shot that was gloved by Shesterkin.
The Rangers came out of the gates strong in the second period, forechecking hard and generating scoring opportunities. The first great one came at 13:21 left in the period when Carrick laid a pass into the slot for Adam Edstrom. Edstrom received the pass and was a stride or two ahead of any Edmonton player before he took a low wrist shot that was saved. Four minutes later, the Oilers scored the first goal of the game due to an unlucky giveaway by Ranger defenseman Urho Vaakanainen. Vaakanainen tried to dump the puck into the Oilers defensive zone but he hit the linesman at the offensive blue line. The Oilers player then picked up the loose puck and passed it to Trent Frederic who had gotten behind the Rangers defense and Frederic went in on a breakaway. Frederic scored through Shesterkin’s five-hole to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
At 9:27, Edmonton’s Troy Stecher took the first penalty of the game when he held the stick of Noah Laba. The Rangers took numerous shots but were unable to get one past Skinner. Their best opportunity came when Conor Sheary made a backhand pass across the slot to Matt Rempe but Rempe fanned on the shot. Leon Draisaitl then took another penalty at 7:38, but the Rangers could not convert again despite having 12 seconds on a two-man advantage and five shots on goal. At 5:08, Carrick won a race for the puck that took him into the offensive zone. When he got to the face-off dot inside the Oilers zone, he took a snap shot that beat Skinner but hit the cross bar. The Rangers’ scoring woes at home continued despite them outshooting Edmonton 11 to 3 in the second period.
At 11:41 of the third period, the Rangers headed to their third power play of the game when Brett Kulak took a penalty for high sticking Vladislav Gavrikov. Near the end of the power play, Artemi Panarin took a hard wrist shot from the right face-off circle. The rebound was within Mika Zibanejad’s reach but he could not get to it before it was swept away. At 3:35, Connor McDavid came in on a 2-on-1. A Ranger defenseman took away the pass, forcing the Oilers captain to take a low wrist shot that was saved by Shesterkin.
With two minutes remaining, New York pulled its goalie, giving them a 6-on-5 advantage. The Rangers generated two good scoring chances; the first came off the stick of Zibanejad in the slot and was deflected wide of the net by Mattias Ekholm; then Alexis Lafreniere took a one-time slap shot that was again deflected by the stick of Mattias Ekholm away from Skinner. Not long after that, Edmonton’s Adam Henrique tacked on an empty net goal and the Oilers skated to a 2-0 victory.
After the game, Rangers players spoke to the media, including captain J.T. Miller who said: “It’s on us to make sure that the mindset stays the same in here and we don’t go off the grid to find something. We need to stay the course. Over time, the results will come.”
Bottom six forward Sam Carrick who had three shots on goal in 14:40 of ice time, chimed in with his own positive thoughts: “Obviously, that’s a really good hockey team over there. That’s been to the Finals two years in a row. Highly offensive team that we, I would say outplayed them, you know out chanced them and very easily could’ve won that game.”
The Rangers will look to snap a two-game losing streak when they head to Toronto, Ontario to face the Maple Leafs on Thursday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Scotiabank Arena.
