So let me say this without anyone suggesting that I call Alexis Lafreniere a bust or a disappointment, or somehow an example of how the Rangers don’t know how to care for teenagers.
But for the third game in a row, in which the open ice was a first and the match was played in tight spaces, David Quinn gave up the first selection of the general draft in rotation in the second half of the third period.
The first overall draft of the draft in 2020 got two 1:24 exchanges compared to the last 11:56 of the Islanders’ 2-0 garden defeat on Monday, in which the visitors hit twice in 2:05 after a first score 51:15.
This after the number 13 received two exchanges worth 57 seconds compared to the last 10:40 of Thursday’s 4-2 victory over the capitals, which was a game after receiving two exchanges worth 1:29 in the last 11:13 of the 1 1 victory over the Penguins on February 1.
It’s funny. People have assumed – and you, me and Felix Unger all know what happens when you do this – that Lafreniere will naturally pick up his game after scoring his first NHL goal with the winner of the overtime game at Buffalo on January 28th. reason, however, the 19-year-old’s game stalled.
He’s not so much on the puck. Instead, he was stuck in traffic, unable to get out on the ice. Of course, there were two consecutive games on the third line with Brett Howden, who has many admirable qualities, but who serves the offensive of his wings is not at the top of this list.
Lafreniere played a sum of 14:02, including 2:00 on the second unit of the power game that achieved little in this deal that for 40 minutes could have had a Jacques Lemaire around 1995 in behind both benches. The Islanders had a more effective advance check than the Rangers, who generally introduced the puck into line changes and therefore had little chance of creating puck support. Lafreniere was credited with five shots, but did not record a shooting attempt.
Moreover, he was part of the group on the ice for the mass confusion that hit the 2-0 goal in his last change, although perhaps the least guilty. This marked Lafreniere’s last night change, with Kaapo Kakko gaining time with the additional striker who had earlier reached the 13th place.
Casey Cizikas hit that from around 35 yards out and Libor Hajek and couldn’t do anything about, dipping and swerving, it did him all ends up. Now the islanders were breaking out in opposition, as they were allowed to spend much of the night. Mathew Barzal almost put the reducer away having drawn the entire left side defense away, but the shot went straight into the arms of the goalkeeper.
Somehow Matt Martin had sneaked to the left, unexpectedly. The Rangers seemed frozen in time, while Clutterbuck passed a pass that Martin put home from the left door at 13:20. Howden and Anthony Bitetto, both on stage, were outstretched. Their requests were unanswered.
“It was one in four and I just didn’t play it well,” said Quinn, whose team played the block quite well, but at the same time blocked its own offensive game. “Clutterbuck is in the corner, we release the middle, and our verifier stops the verification.
“I had four to two and I think everyone assumes that someone else will do something. It was a poor read. It was just confusion in general because I thought we had too many guys who had a chance to do something and no one did anything. ”
The Rangers were minimalist in the offensive zone. Semyon Varlamov, who passed 120:00 without giving up a goal in the garden this season, with him after the closing of the first night, made some ingenious stops on Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, but the blouses could not even create traffic in front of the goalkeeper and does not even generate a second chance. Kind of ready.
Zibanejad, blocked on one goal and two assists in 11 games and with one point (one assist) in his last eight games, was more of a factor in the offensive zone. But Chris Kreider did not have much impact and did not do so on the school line of Pavel Buchnevich. However, that unit was more efficient than the Panarin-Ryan Strome-Kakko triumvirate, which gave much more than it created.
Outside the puck and in the defensive zone, there was a lot to enjoy. The Rangers delivered just 30 hits, just a few ticks above the 27.7 average they brought in the game that is good for the 10th best in the NHL. Last year, the Blueshirts surrendered to second place in the league with 34 hits against per. Two years ago, they were the third worst, with 33.8 against per. This is real progress.
The Rangers will have no break in the program, and the Bruins are following for a pair on Broadway. They are not known because they allow a lot of open ice. We’ll see how much is given to Lafreniere late if the game is on the line.