There was hope for the New York Rangers coming out of the holiday break, but it was short-lived as they suffered a brutal 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Despite generating a large number of high-quality scoring chances, despite an Artemi Panarin goal, Rangers were still 2–1 down after twenty minutes of play.
It was in the second period that everything went out of hand for the Rangers. Tampa Bay scored three times in less than ten minutes to make the lead 5-1.
After the fifth goal, Igor Shesterkin was pulled in favor of Jonathan Quick after conceding five goals on just thirteen shots.
It was the Rangers’ power play that led to their downfall. They conceded two shorthanded goals as their power play was ultimately more of a weakness.
“It should be a strength of our team,” Chris Kreider said, via Peter Baugh of The Athletic. “Tonight it was a loss.”
The Lightning also scored two power play goals, marking a truly disastrous night for New York’s special teams.
“It is of course difficult when we have the feeling that we are doing a lot of good things and then the score quickly gets a bit out of hand. It’s difficult to judge. …I thought the effort was there. Honestly, it’s just special teams, both ways,” Zibanejad said.
Despite showing some positive flashes throughout the game while maintaining high quality offensive time of possession, the Rangers crumbled as Tampa Bay began to build their lead.
New York’s confidence as a team is so fragile right now that they simply aren’t able to play from the back anymore.
“Just because we lose in a game doesn’t mean we lost the game,” K’Andre Miller said. “I think that’s something that maybe this group has lost a little bit, that pushback.”
The Rangers return to action on Monday evening against the Florida Panthers.
