Rangers have 'to clean up' things at both ends of the ice before Thursday's home opener
Rangers' Pavel Dorofeyev skates against the Bruins during the first period at TD Garden on Tuesday in Boston. Credit: Getty Images/Maddie Meyer
GREENBURGH – In the locker room after their season-opening 3-0 loss to the Bruins in Boston Tuesday, the Rangers, to a man, bemoaned the fact that they gave up way too many odd-man rushes, and needed goaltender Igor Shesterkin to bail them out far too many times.
But they didn’t score a goal, either. So, which end of the ice should be more of a concern when they play their home opener Thursday at Madison Square Garden against the Tampa Bay Lightning?
“Both things you want to be able to clean up,’’ defenseman Adam Fox said Wednesday, after the team’s 17-minute, stretch-their-legs practice. “I think the two-on-ones (against) sometimes is simply a communication thing, where we've talked about ‘D’ being aggressive and keeping plays alive (in the offensive zone). That means a forward has to come replace (the defenseman). But at the same time, you know as a defenseman, you got to be aware sometimes if the forward's not there.”
“We gave up too many two-on-ones (Tuesday) night,’’ forward Pavel Dorofeyev said. “Igor gave us a great chance to win the game, but… we didn't score in that game. So we're just looking to put more pucks on net, and put bodies there, and sometimes probably just simplify the game a little bit and go from there.’’
Dorofeyev, the biggest acquisition of the summer after coming over in a draft day trade from Vegas, had a team-high five shots on goal Tuesday, and his linemate Oliver Bjorkstrand had four. As a team, the Rangers registered 24 shots against Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman.
Coach Mike Sullivan didn’t want to talk about the Rangers’ struggles to score last season, which saw them get shut out in their first three home games, and in five of their first seven. He preferred to credit Swayman, who played for him on the U.S. Olympic team in February.
“Both goaltenders were, I thought really good,’’ Sullivan said. “They had a few really good looks; we had a few really good looks (but) we didn't score. I believe we will.”
Sullivan was reminded that he and the Rangers had said similar things after so many early season games last year, when they thought they generated enough quality chances, but somehow couldn’t score.
“Right, that's hockey,’’ he said.
“What you can control is the process; your ability to generate quality opportunities,’’ he continued. “You can't always control whether it goes in, or it doesn't. So we're trying to build that process where we're trying to give our guys an opportunity to generate quality opportunities. We're trying to get two (players) on the inside. We're trying to get someone in front of the goaltender to make his sightlines difficult.’’
Dorofeyev, who scored 37 goals last season for Vegas, and another 12 in the playoffs, didn’t go through the agonizing scoring struggles with the Rangers last season. So he doesn’t have that baggage his new teammates do with regard to trying to reconcile why the puck isn’t going in the net.
“We're always trying to get the ‘Grade A’ looks, you know, and I think we had a couple ‘Grade As’ last game," Dorofeyev said. "Unfortunately, we didn't score on this one, but it'll come for sure in the next game.”
Sounds reasonable enough. But then again, that’s what they all said last year.
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.
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