What is there left to say about the Rangers’ inability to score?
They were shut out for the eighth time in 40 games and the second time by the Islanders on Saturday night at UBS Arena in the first game after the Christmas break. The 2-0 loss was too similar to the start of the season, when the Rangers were shut out on opening night by Pittsburgh, 3-0.
They are halfway to tying the modern record for most times being shut out in a season, which is 16, an ignominious mark held by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2006-07.
At this pace, the Rangers would tie the record, so in their centennial season, the potential exists for them to do something historic.
Technically, the NHL record is held by Chicago (1928-29), which was shut out 20 times in 44 games. But the game was very different then, with teams not allowed to make forward passes out of or into the zone.
Despite playing the most games of any Eastern Conference team, the Rangers have the fewest goals in the conference (104).
How this is happening to the Rangers (19-17-4) is absolutely mind-boggling. They simply cannot score. They’ve generated plenty of chances but can’t finish enough of them.
“When we go on the ice, we’re not thinking, like, ‘Oh, we have eight games already without goals,’ ’’ a bewildered-looking Artemi Panarin said. “But it’s frustrating. We’re doing that over and over this year. We’ve got to fix everything.’’
Coach Mike Sullivan has been unable to explain why the team doesn’t score more. They generate plenty of chances, he has said all season.
Against the Islanders (who beat them, 5-0, at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 8), they managed 26 scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick (the Islanders had 31), but they had more high-danger chances (14-11) than the Isles.
They had a breakaway by Panarin in the second period and what appeared to be a power-play goal by Will Cuylle that was overturned on review when the video showed the puck hit the crossbar and bounced out.
They even had a penalty shot, which fell to light-scoring defenseman Carson Soucy with 10:42 left in the third period after his stick was slashed from behind by Isles rookie Cal Ritchie.
Sullivan was asked if he was OK with how many chances his team generated.
“I’ve got to look at it again. I know we had a fair amount,’’ he said. “We had a couple two-on-ones, a breakaway [by Panarin]. There were some plays in the offensive zone where I thought we had two [players] on the inside. We delivered some pucks from the blue line.
“So, you know, is there ever enough offense? Probably not. We always wish and want for more. But we didn’t finish on the ones, obviously, that we had tonight.’’
The Rangers simply don’t have enough goal-scorers. The lineup was missing two in J.T. Miller (upper-body injury), who is on injured reserve, and defenseman Adam Fox, also out with an upper-body injury.
Fox is eligible to come off long-term injured reserve and has been practicing with the team. He could be activated any day, and the power play, which went 0-for-3 Saturday, could sorely use him.
Sullivan wouldn’t say when he expects to have Fox back. All he said is that he will practice with the team Sunday and “we’ll go from there.’’
Down 1-0 on Anders Lee’s goal 58 seconds into the game, the Rangers had two power plays late in the game, with 5:19 left in regulation and then with 3:01 left. That became a six-on-four with Igor Shesterkin pulled for an extra skater.
“We’ve got to score,’’ Panarin said. “One, at least.’’
But they didn’t.
“I would have liked to have seen us have more quality execution,’’ Sullivan said. “I think when you get those types of opportunities late in the game, that’s a real opportunity to be a difference-maker in the game.’’
Getting Fox back, and Miller when he returns, won’t be enough. To find their way into the playoffs, the Rangers are going to need someone to score. And that someone most likely isn’t on the roster yet.
The NHL trade deadline is March 6.
Morrow remains in lineup
The audition continues for rookie defenseman Scott Morrow. The 23-year-old from Darien, Connecticut, played his sixth consecutive game and his 11th in the last 13 since Fox went down in a Nov. 29 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But Fox is coming back soon. Perhaps on Monday against the Hurricanes. If that’s the case, someone is going to have to come out of the lineup, and that could be Morrow. He tries not to think about it.
“I just take it day-to-day,’’ he said before Saturday’s game. “I don’t try and focus on anything long term. If it’s a practice day, try and get the most out of every practice. Any time you’re in the lineup in a game, you’ve got to try and make the most of it . . . You’ve got to kind of treat it like a Game 7, because your job is always on the line. So I’m just trying to bring what I bring, not focus too much on the big picture and bring a lot of energy and live every day like it could be my last.’’
Morrow, a 6-2, 210-pound, right-shooting defenseman, was acquired by the Rangers from Carolina in the K’Andre Miller trade over the summer. He had a solid training camp and preseason, but, with Fox, Will Borgen and Braden Schneider ahead of him on the right side of the Rangers’ defense, he started the season in AHL Hartford. He has been called up a couple of times after injuries to Borgen and Fox and has no goals and three assists in 15 games.
“I think he’s come a long way,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think the game is slowing down in his mind. And I think that’s a big part of it as a young player. This league is fast, not only physically fast, but how quickly players think the game. So windows of opportunity open and close a lot quicker in this league than they do in any other league, and that’s always an adjustment for young players. And I think he’s doing a better job at recognizing those on both sides of the puck.’’
Morrow, who played 16 games for the Hurricanes last season in his first year of pro hockey, said he does feel more comfortable at the NHL level now than he did last season.
“I’m definitely willing to hold on to pucks a little bit more here, skate with it a little bit more and try to look for a better plays,’’ he said. “Whereas last year I never quite felt as comfortable as I do now.’’
Sullivan said one of the things he finds impressive about Morrow is that he is able to put mistakes behind him and move forward.
“It’s a game of mistakes, and as young players, they make a fair amount of them,’’ Sullivan said. “He has a resilience to him that is admirable, that he has the ability to move by a mistake when it — even if it ends up in a goal against — it doesn’t seem to affect his performance moving forward, which is a very important quality of having success in this league.’’
Blue notes
Shesterkin took a shot off the mask in the morning skate but started in goal and made 23 saves for the Rangers. It was his 300th NHL start . . . Assistant coach David Quinn was back behind the bench after missing Tuesday’s game in Washington . . . The lineup was the same as Tuesday, with Brett Berard, Conor Sheary and D Urho Vaakanainen the scratches.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.