The kids may be all right, but the Rangers need their veterans to win.
Coming off a game in which their young core carried the team to at least one point in a shootout loss to the Penguins, the Rangers finally saw some life from their veteran group, but not nearly enough as they fell 3-2 to the same team Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
“Our veterans know they’ve got to be better, there’s just no doubt about it,” head coach David Quinn said after the loss, which dropped the Rangers to 1-3-1. “We’ve talked to them privately, they’ve admitted it, they know that. The good news is these are guys that are established players in this league and are good players. The good news is our young players continue to develop and they’re playing good hockey against real good players.”
But the Rangers lost one of their most crucial youngsters just over halfway through the second period when 21-year-old Filip Chytil collided with Evan Rodrigues. He hit the ice hard and was slow to get up before heading to the locker room with what the team said was an upper-body injury. Quinn didn’t have an update on Chytil after the game.
The Penguins, once again, came from behind as they erased a 2-1 deficit to start the third period with goals from Jared McCann and Jake Guentzel. Despite a power-play opportunity with the game tied 2-2 in the final frame, the Rangers couldn’t capitalize and ultimately gave up Guentzel’s game-winner with roughly 1:30 left on the clock.
“We can sit here and talk about some of the good things we did and the chances we had in the third period,” Quinn said. “But you got to win hockey games, you’ve got to find a way to win. A guy can’t get a shot from that area with a minute and 30 to go. You have to have an urgency, you have to know who’s dangerous and just really disappointing.
“To come in here and play some good hockey and come away with one point is really disappointing.”
For the second-straight game, the 20-year-olds were the only players keeping the Rangers competitive. Rookie defenseman K’Andre Miller broke up plays, set up his teammates on the rush and bodied Penguins star Sidney Crosby in the corners to keep the Rangers in the game.
Second-year defenseman Adam Fox extended his point streak to four games when his shot from the top of the zone was redirected in at 16:36 of the first period by fellow Harvard alum Colin Blackwell, who was promoted from the taxi squad earlier in the day to make his Rangers debut.
The new-look fourth line of Blackwell, Brett Howden and Kevin Rooney generated some of the Rangers’ most dangerous opportunities.
Even though Ryan Strome registered his first point of the season when he flipped a bouncing puck in the crease over Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry to break a 1-1 tie at 17:17 of the second period, the Rangers simply needed more from their top six to pull out a win.
“We know our roles, we know our responsibilities, just haven’t been able to get there” said Mika Zibanejad, who had two shots on goal. “Can’t just lie down and feel sorry for yourself, you just have to work through it and get going.”
The only Rangers youngster who wasn’t at the top of his game was rookie goalie Igor Shesterkin, who turned aside 16 of the 19 shots he faced in his first back-to-back start of the season.
However, the Rangers had one of their better first periods of the season, taking a 1-0 lead on Blackwell’s tally at 16:36. But Bryan Rust managed to tie it up on a breakaway more than halfway through the second period with his second goal in as many games against the Rangers.
“Obviously you get up one-nothing, you feel good about that but I just thought we were really sloppy for about 12 minutes in that second period,” Quinn said. “You could just sense it, I knew they were going to get one.”