Rangers frustrated after loss to Ducks to end road trip
Barclay Goodrow skates past the Ducks celebration in the Rangers' loss on Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif. Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong
So what to make of the Rangers’ West Coast trip?
They did win two of the four games and salvaged an overtime point in another, but they needed a win in Wednesday night’s finale in Anaheim for it to be a really good trip.
Try as they may, though, they couldn’t solve Ducks goaltender John Gibson when they needed to most. The goalposts and crossbar worked against them, too. It all made for a maddening 3-2 loss and a frustrating end to a 2-1-1 trip that could have been much better.
Vincent Trocheck, who couldn’t get his stick on a rebound with Gibson out of position during a frantic moment late in the third period, was terse after the loss. Asked to explain how the Rangers didn’t win despite outshooting Anaheim 43-22 — and having a 10-2 advantage in scoring chances and 6-1 advantage in high-danger chances (according to Natural Stat Trick) — Trocheck said, “I don’t know.’’
Asked if he was frustrated, he said, “Yeah.’’
Mika Zibanejad couldn’t explain it either.
“It’s frustrating,’’ he said. “We don’t play our best game, but we create enough chances, we do enough, but the puck didn’t want to go in, at least tonight. And Gibson came up with some really big saves for them. Yeah, it’s frustrating.’’
The Rangers traveled home on Thanksgiving morning with a 10-7-4 record and 24 points, which had them in the first wild-card playoff spot. But Pittsburgh’s 23 points in 20 games equates to a points percentage of .575 while the Rangers are at .571. That is significant because in the salary cap era (since 2005), roughly 77% of teams in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving according to points percentage have made the postseason.
The Rangers have generated scoring chances but haven’t finished enough of them. There have been a number of games this season in which they felt as though they played well enough to win but were stymied by an outstanding goaltending performance or plain old bad luck.
“That’s part of the game,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said. “We’ve done that plenty of times, too, with our team with our goaltending. So it’s the way it is. [Gibson] played good. We’ve just got to bury a few of those chances.’’
One player who is getting a lot of chances lately but has had trouble burying them is Kaapo Kakko, who scored in Tuesday’s 5-3 win over the Kings but probably should have had one or two more.
Kakko had four shots on goal against Anaheim and a team-high four scoring chances, including three high-danger chances. But he failed to score on a second-period breakaway and his deflection late in the third period hit the post. That was the one that produced the rebound Trocheck couldn’t get his stick on.
Backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who started Wednesday in the second game of a back-to-back, allowed goals on the first two shots he saw in the second period. The first of those, by Dmitry Kulikov, was a weak effort from the side boards that Halak (0-5-1) should have saved.
Gallant was supportive of Halak, who hasn’t had much support since becoming a Ranger (the Blueshirts have scored seven goals in his six starts).
“I’m sure that second goal he’s not happy about, obviously, but you stay with it,’’ Gallant said. “He’s a veteran guy who’s won a lot of hockey games in his career and we’ll get some wins for him.’’
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.
