The New York Rangers deserved to win last night in Edmonton. They truly did. They played extraordinarily well, and if not for a Dylan Garand gaffe in handling the puck and an anemic powerplay, they could have come away with at least a point. But instead, they simply could not solve Devon Levi as their three game win streak was snapped with a 3-1 loss. Perhaps this is a moral victory, as the Rangers adjusted from their loss to the Oilers at MSG last week and really put on quite a performance in pressuring the Oilers in their defensive zone. It sets the tone for the rest of the season, that the Rangers can skate with some better teams, but it’s clear the powerplay is no longer a strength and could start costing them games.
There were a lot of positives last night. Jaro Chmelar, after a slow start and a demotion, has become quite a hockey player over the past year. Playing in more regular depth minutes since his recall, his offense is not always going to end up on the scoresheet, but when he does score they absolute beauties. Chmelar scored the first shorthanded goal of his young career off a brilliant feed from Mika Zibanejad to get the Rangers within 2-1.
Chmelar is one of the more intriguing New York Rangers prospects. His skill set could easily transition to the middle six and still be effective. His foot speed is very impressive and he has an incredibly underrated shot that seems to deceive goalies. The Rangers are very lucky to have a pretty solid bottom six with a good game plan and the personnel to execute said plan. They can cycle, they can forecheck, they can muck it up when they have to, and they have semblance of offense as well.
Dylan Garand, despite his gaffe early, had a solid night, exceeding expectations on an incredibly tough task. His gaffe happened, and it’s not worth losing sleep over. Mistakes like this happen. To a Rangers fan of a certain age, it was akin to what Dan Girardi did in 2016, passing the puck directly to Alex Ovechkin who also scored one of the easiest goals of his career off of a similar sort of play.
This is part of the learning curve with Garand and a human goaltender. You can sort of pinpoint a situation in every game where Garand’s inexperience comes back to bite the Rangers. It’s frustrating, but he’s not Igor Shesterkin. He’s not Henrik Lundqvist, though his puck handling certainly reminds us of Hank. As Joonas Korpisalo gets more game rhythm going, expect Garand to get more much needed rest, which should help with some of the mental errors.
It feels like a broken record, stating Braden Schneider had a simply disastrous game, but he did. Schneider is just not built to play in a Mike Sullivan system where you have to make split second decisions with and without the puck. The right system could help Schneider, but he’s been very much like Girardi (and Marc Staal) with the glass-and-out clears (read: turnovers). One wound up over the glass and the Rangers had to kill the penalty. Even without the penalty, this is a turnover 100% of the time. Beating a dead horse, but at some point he needs to be moved.
Losses happen, and it’s not worth getting frustrated beyond the game itself. The Rangers are what we expected them to be, a team that is mediocre and still trying to find its next gear. Perhaps life without Shesterkin will be good in the long run, as the skaters have to be far more diligent with positioning and systems play. Or maybe that’s just rose colored glasses.
The Blueshirts have two winnable games remaining on this trip against the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. Four points was the goal. Six is ideal.