The Rangers’ power play appeared to be the most competitive part of their attack on Tuesday night.
But when they got two chances to take the lead late in the third period of a one-goal game, the Rangers couldn’t take advantage. As a result, they lost the first of eight games this season against the Devils 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.
“We got looks, we spent a lot of time in their zone,” Chris Kreider said of the power plays in the third period of the Rangers. “I thought we did a pretty good job doing what we wanted to do, we just didn’t get the bounces. We kept hopping on loose pucks and boxing them in. What was the final number of strokes? 50 shots? We didn’t just work on the outline of the power play, we pulled the rubber to the net.
“[Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood] is a big boy, probably seen a few too many pucks. I need to do the screening better. But at the same time there was a lot of traffic, a lot of movement. At the end of the day you have to tilt your cap towards him a bit, he made some big saves. I think if we continue with that approach, there was a rhythm in it. Pass, pass, shot, pass, pass, shot. Recover, pass, pass, shoot. That’s how you break the murder. If we continue with that approach, everything will be fine. “
Two of the three goals of the Rangers came on the man advantage in the second period. Their first goal of equal strength didn’t come until Filip Chytil rebounded for seven minutes in the third period to bring the Rangers to one.
The Devils were called up for too many men on the ice in just over four minutes in the final period and the Rangers played two penalties later in the third. Nonetheless, the Blueshirts couldn’t get one more to take power, as Blackwood stood upright to end the night with 47 saves on 50 shots.
“We had a great look, listen, their goalkeeper played well,” said Rangers head coach David Quinn of the Rangers’ 2-for-6 power play.
Alexandar Georgiev turned 16 of the 20 shots aside before Quinn chose to put Igor Shesterkin in the net to start the third. Shesterkin ended with eight saves.
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff, who left his assistant coaching job with the Rangers in July after three seasons, took the win in his first match coaching against his former team.
Travis Zajac opened the scoring for the Devils 32 seconds after the puck fell. The Rangers were left with just one shot on target for the first 11 minutes of the game, while the Devils clogged every lane and pushed the center for Blackwood.
After a scrum broke out in front of the Devils’ net early in the second period, Michael McLeod was penalized for moving forward when he headlocked Jacob Trouba. With the man advantage, Kreider wanted to hit the puck back to Mika Zibanejad, but it bounced off Devils defender Ryan Murray’s skate and past Blackwood to level the game 1-1 at 2:50 of the second.
Less than two minutes later, Georgiev got a shot from Ty Smith, but lost sight of the puck behind him and Jack Hughes dived in to make it a two-goal match. Hughes also started the next move with a jump, blocking a shot from Trouba and taking it all alone for a 3-1 lead at 8:38 from the second.
The Rangers narrowed their deficit to one on their third power play of the evening, when Adam Fox sent a no-look pass to Zibanejad for a quick one-timer. But Trouba took a high penalty at 3:38 pm from the second and Hughes set up Miles Wood to make it a 4-2 game with four minutes to go in the second.
A shot by PK Subban on the point later in the center frame almost made it 5-2, but Quinn challenged offside and the goal was cleared.
“We will continue to learn and grow and I am sure there will be moments of adversity,” said Kreider. “But we have to find a way to get points, especially in a game like that.”