Rangers Drop Two Straight to Penguins with 4-2 Loss

It’s another disappoint night for us Ranger fans. A 4-2 loss in a game that we could have easily won. Typical Rangers, they play well enough to win, but they just can’t score when they need to. The Rangers were outplayed, but there was no reason why they couldn’t win with the opportunities that were created. 35 shots on goal, and only 2 goals on the board. One of our biggest reoccurring issues is not being able to close out periods. Three of Pittsburgh’s four goals came inside 2 minutes. This outcome would have been a lot different if the players were discipline enough to not make stupid mistakes when the period is almost over. Surprisingly, The Rangers started the game off up 1-0 on a Jack Johnson goal. Johnson was brought into the lineup after Libor Hajek was scratched. It was his first goal as a Ranger. After some great play in the first period, the Penguins completely tilted the ice. Jake Guentzel tied the game up at 1 with 1:06 remaining. This gave Pittsburgh complete momentum going into period 2. This momentum shift was killer. With 3rd string goalie Keith Kinkaid in net, the Rangers needed to rely heavily on their top players. Unfortunately, none of them delivered in the 2nd. The penguins outplayed the rangers along with scoring two goals. A short-handed goal from Teddy Blueger and goal from Kasperi Kapanen. The Rangers barely did anything besides skate. They were able to get a few shots on goal but they didn’t have many good chances. Quinn must have gave the best speech of his career because the Rangers rebounded from the 2nd period and completely dominated the 3rd. They outshot Pittsburgh 15-1 and controlled most of the possession. But in typical Rangers fashion, they only scored one goal. Strome scored a power play goal 4 minutes into the period from Buchnevich and Fox to cut the lead to 3-2. Fortunately for Pittsburgh, Penguins goalie Tyson Jarry played a phenomenal game. He stopped 14 shots alone in the 3rd period, along with 33 total saves. With under 5 minutes, he made a few phenomenal saves on shots from Pavel Buchnevich and Kaapo Kakko. The Rangers failed to put in a goal with the net empty which led to a Sydney Crosby empty net goal with under a minute. This was the Penguins first shot of the period. The game ended with a final score of 4-2. An overall dissapointing loss. The rangers need their key players back. Igor Shesterkin was one of the main reasons we were winning games. With him out, the Rangers are forced to rely on their top players who have been underperforming. Besides Chris Kreider and Strome, everyone else on their offense needs to step up if the Rangers want to win games. There is still no timetable for Artemi Panarin’s return. He is still handling his family issues off the ice. He becomes an instant boost to the Rangers offense when he comes back. He has 18 point, 13 assists, 5 goals, in only 14 games played. There is some good news in New York. KHL forward and Rangers prospect Vitali Kravstov is set to make his way to the NHL once the KHL season is over. His team could be eliminated as soon as thursday, which means we will finally see him take the ice in the near future. Questions still remain on who the starting goalie will be Thursday vs the Bruins. I am assuming that if Igor Shesterkin is healthy, he will be the starter with Georgiev backing him up. Time is running out for the Rangers to make a playoff push. There is now the question on if it is time to fire Quinn if this season is another failure. Us ranger fans must wait and see.