Greetings and salutations everyone and welcome to another blog here on BlueCollarBlueShirts.com. What a disgrace. What an absolute blown opportunity.
As I’ll fully explain below, then heading into Saturday night in THE OHIO STATE and the Blue Jackets were reeling.
Heck, they were nearly scraping rock-bottom.
Similar to how the new head coach in town, Rick Bowness, ended last season, when he verbally berated his team’s lack of effort, hustle and overall performance – and the Blue Jackets’ bench boss was screaming this same, and perhaps now tired, tune all of last week.
Just as he threatened in April of this year, then come six months later, now in October – and Bowness was once again basically belting out, “SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT!”
The Blue Jackets, who had three days off following being embarrassed by the Florida Panthers last Tuesday (7-3 – Brady Tkachuk’s first natural hat trick of the season), kind of reminded me of David Quinn’s 2022-23 Sharks.
If you can recall back to four-years ago, then at the time, the Sharks were 0-5.
Their sixth opponent of the season?
The New York Rangers.
Going into this game then all Quinn could say about his team was that they were “fragile.”
The final decision between SJS & NYR?
A 3-2 overtime San Jose win on Garden ice – and where ironically enough, it was the latest Ranger signing, James Reimer (on a PTO deal in Hartford), who picked up the win on this ugly October 20th, 2022 night.
Nearly four-years removed from that loss – and it was SAME OLD RANGERS again, this time in Columbus – as the Blueshirts fell 1-0 to another fragile team that they should’ve destroyed.
Rather than the Rangers creating more problems for a free-falling foe; and instead, everyone is now questioning them.
And please, I beg of you – don’t buy any of the bullshit that was being sold during the post-game interviews either – that is – unless you like being lied to – and straight to your face to boot!
The big mouthed captain, J.T. Miller, who throughout his tenure as team leader has more often talked the talk rather than walk the walk, said after the 1-0 overtime loss where his goalie just absolutely carried him, “we had a good response [after the 7-1 ass-kicking put on them by the Devils]” and how any overtime game is a “toss-up.”
Someone should inform the captain that you can’t win any game in the league if you can’t score goals – and how playing “toss-up” games isn’t exactly a winning strategy either – and even more so in the playoffs!
Head coach Mike Sullivan echoed the same bullshit that his captain spewed, as he also said that the team had a “good response.”
Not any one of the members that compromise the Birdbrain Blueshirts’ Beat dared to ask any one of these pertinent post-game questions:
— “How is it a good response when you haven’t scored an even-strength goal in your last two games played?”
— “How is it a good response when you can’t score a goal against one of the worst teams in the league?”
— “How is it a good response when you once again go another 0-fer on the power-play, this time 0/3?”
— “How is it a good response when one of your cheapest-and-youngest players, Gabe Perreault (6 SOG), has more SOG than all of your Big Buck Blueshirts combined? (Lafreniere, 0, Mika, 1, Miller 1, Dorofeyev 2).”
— “How is it a good response when during the past two games, you can’t score goals against goalies that respectively entered the game with GAA’s of 4.58 (Nico Daws) and 3.80 (Jet Greaves)?”
— “How is it a good response that it’s only your third-string goalie that showed up and executed following your worst loss of the season?”
— “How is it a good response when you constantly need to fiddle with your line-up and where such changes aren’t working for your highest-paid forward?” (Pavel Dorofeyev, $11M, 1 A-Rod goal this season).
— “How is it a good response when you’re on your first multi-game losing streak of the season?”
— “How is it a good response when you allow one of the worst teams in the league, one constantly being berated by their head coach on the regular, to shut you out?”
And finally…
— “How is it a good response when you haven’t scored one even-strength goal in five road games played this season? Are even-strength goals a “toss-up” too?”
Dylan Garand deserved much better from his skaters in this game.
For over sixty-minutes, both he and Columbus goalie, Jet Greaves, went save for save.
Both men finished with 29 denials each – but Garand also faced one more shot – the thirtieth and last CBJ shot of the game – a Kent Johnson overtime walk-off winner.
While this isn’t meant to take anything away from Greaves; but it was most obvious to even the most ardent Blue Jackets’ supporter that it was the Ranger goalie, Garand, that had the more difficult workload to endure.
You know that I don’t do the ANALytic junk on this site, but if I was to reckon to guess, then I’d imagine that at least fifteen of Garand’s saves, especially late in the match, were of the lovely “HIGH DANGER” variety.
Garand was simply making ten-bell save after ten-bell save.
While Greaves made a few robberies himself (but where none of his robberies matched the contract that Dorofeyev possesses), but it was Garand that had the more difficult test in net.
Garand, like everyone else after the loss, preached the same message and said, “we had a great response.”
He should’ve replaced the word “we” with “I” – but Garand is too smart, humble and aware to say such a thing.
Outside of Garand’s bounce-back performance in-between the pipes, then just like the game prior, the 7-1 road loss in New Jersey, and the best thing about the Blueshirts on this night was their once again flawless penalty kill – and one that finished as 3/3 – including killing off 90-seconds of a 4 x 3 power-play at the start of the overtime period.
Conversely, and the Rangers’ power-play, one that had three tries in the third period alone, could never muster up a goal – much less a quality shot either.
In fact, during two of these three man-up tries – and it was actually Garand that faced more threats than his counterpart.
Not good.
When CZAR IGOR went down, then the majority worried about the Rangers’ future in net.
While I said that I was fine with Garand, but obviously – then he wasn’t/isn’t CZAR IGOR – nor need he be.
He just needed to keep on doing what he was doing – and how he has done thus far.
The Blueshirts, for six games there, looked like a well-oiled and coached machine.
However, while it’s the third-string goalie that’s been stepping up – then conversely – it’s the FAT CATS that have been regressing.
Rather than the highest-paid forwards stepping up and taking charge, such as Dorofeyev ($11M), Zibanejad ($8.5M) and Miller ($8M), and instead, it’s guys like Tye Kartye, Will Cuylle, Eeli Tolvanen, Sean Durzi, Marcus Pettersson, and even the streaky Alexis Lafreniere from time-to-time, that’s doing most of the heavy lifting.
Simply stated – and your superstars aren’t scoring.
Of course, it’s easy to gloss over that fact when the team is winning – but when the team is losing – and losing to bad teams in bad state of minds at that, and as was the case tonight – then you need to call out these players.
Playoff teams, good teams, beat the teams that they are supposed to.
Perhaps that six-game early-of-the-season stretch for the Rangers was a flash-in-the-pan fluke – and perhaps the best hockey that they’ll play this season too.
For the Rangers to truly reach and make noise in the playoffs, then it’s what I said when CZAR IGOR first went down:
THEY NEED A SCORER.
Whether it’s Dylan Larkin in Detroit, a player from another bottom-feeding team or someone else; but with all of this LTIR salary cap money – and Drury needs to bring in someone who can put the puck into the back of the net.
I just don’t think that you can keep on waiting for Dorofeyev to prove that he’s not a Mitch Marner/Jack Eichel/Vegas power-play merchant anymore – and as noted last blog – the “it takes time to get acclimated” excuse no longer applies – and especially not when the other new Rangers are exceeding above their expected roles.
(As noted all season – then the new second-pair, Durzi and Pettersson, have been most impressive in my eyes.)
You know my feelings on Mika, so I won’t rehash them all again here.
That said, and outside of really last year, then he’s always been a notoriously slow starter.
And for a true playoff team (think Florida, Colorado, Vegas, Edmonton, Tampa, etc) – and he’s probably a third-line center at best.
Miller, who has been playing well, but a captain who can’t score goals either, has a reputation of playing well when the team is playing well, but for also playing bad when things are going down the shitter too.
In other words, then he’s not going to put a team on his back ala a Connor McDavid or Nate MacKinnon.
Furthermore, then I’m not so sure that Adam Fox should even be quarterbacking this power-play anymore either.
Instead, and I think that Durzi should get a crack at it – and just like how I’d give Gabe Perreault a full-time twirl on the first unit (in this scenario, Dorofeyev would be moved to PP2).
Granted, there was a lot to like from Saturday, as the defense, the willingness to block shots, the penalty kill, the hustle, the energy and of course, the goalie too, were all there and excellent.
But you just can’t go impotent on offense every night either – as there is no goal scoring “Blue Chew” for the Blueshirts.
Without question, and the Blueshirts blew it.
They should’ve scored first against this bad team, one again, in a rattled state of mind – and then scored again and again and again.
They couldn’t even score one goal in 63:27 of playing time – so one last time – please tell me how this was a “good response?”
Heck, at least they scored one goal in their 7-1 drubbing of a loss to the Devils.
It’s been ten games, and where after them, the Blueshirts are now 6-3-1 on the season.
That’s good for second-place in the division, although the Rangers have played more than 2-4 games when compared to the other teams in the Metro. (For example, this was only Columbus’ sixth game of the season.)
And I here I am now, giving you my first “Rangers’ Rip Job” (patent pending) of the season – and where furthermore – in a game that they gained a point in the standings afterwards.
But as we’ve seen time-and-time again – you just can’t give up points to teams that you should beat – and especially not to bad teams in your own division.
And far too often during these past three-years – and we’ve seen the FAT CAT failures lead to a team-wide demise as the season progresses.
While I didn’t expect anything out of the Rangers this season; but truth be told – and they have shown us flashes of “Blueshirts’ Brilliance.”
It’s time to get back to that.
And it’s time for the FAT CATS to wake up too – and hopefully soon enough – for GM Chris Drury to add a new FAT CAT scorer to the mix as well.
It’s funny, going into Saturday, then it was my plan to have my first-ever colonoscopy, followed by a night of drinking when watching both the Rangers and Notre Dame games – and where I was also expecting winning results for both teams too.
Ha!
As I said last time in this space, then I only (and finally) booked a colonoscopy after hearing about what Ron Duguay is going through and because I have a family history in this area too.
After having a few polyps removed on Saturday morning, then I’m now happy to announce that I’ll be here for a while – and that may be good news for you and bad news to others!
(Better than that? Then after recently telling you that I had high blood pressure, and despite my Ranger fandom, then my new medication is working, as I now have a healthy number.)
I gotta say, the colonoscopy was easy as 1-2-3 – but there was one major drawback – I was told that it was life-threatening if I participated in boozing in the immediate hours afterwards (due to mixing alcohol with the anesthesia that I received – as you don’t want to go through this raw ass procedure while wide-awake).
(In other words, then since I was banned from popping-and-belting, then I was able to write this lengthy GAME REVIEW blog tonight. What a pleasure!)
Despite pleading to the doctor that I was a Ranger fan, thus alcohol is required as part of the package, then I was told to abstain or risk my own life.
To be serious for a minute, then after a day of shitting my brains out during the prep stage, which really wasn’t that bad, as I caught up on the books that I have assigned as “toilet reading”; then come the procedure – and I was there for an hour tops.
Once arriving to the doctor’s office, I checked in, showed my ass to everyone there in a backless robe, got the best sleep ever after being knocked out, and once through having my cavity violated for only twenty-minutes – I woke up as fresh as a daisy – and colon-healthy too!
I don’t mean to hammer you with a PSA here, but for readers out there like me, who never wanted to go through this – then I’m glad that I did.
(I’m also told that it’s only gay if you wake up smiling – and where I didn’t wake up with a grin ear-to-ear either! Yes, this is a (bad) joke – and if you’re offended by it – then get a life!)
It was effortless, easy and now I don’t have to worry about this again for another five-years – which is when I’ll be approaching 50-years-old. (PERISH THE THOUGHT – I got old fast – BOOMER!)
Sadly?
Then not only was I prevented from going to the bar on Saturday night, but due to the results of the Ranger and Notre Dame games – and my colonoscopy was the best and most successful thing about my Saturday.
Ugh!
Before getting into the news, GAME REVIEW and everything else, then in case you missed it, then here’s where I last left off – the Rangers’ worst loss of the season:
NYR/NJD 10/15 Review: BURN THE TAPE! Devils Absolutely Embarrass Rangers – But Why You Should Give The Blueshirts The Benefit of the Doubt Anyway (And Give Captain Miller a Break Too); “Doubting Dorofeyev” – The “Acclimation” Excuse Holds No Water, Drury Finds His Goalie Band-Aid – And Why James Reimer Could Be Promoted Soon Enough, Early Season Grades, Some Redeeming Qualities From a Crap Night – But Plenty of Room For Improvement, Columbus & Colonoscopies, M$GN & More
The Rangers, following their embarrassing result on Thursday night in Newark, flew to Columbus, Ohio on Friday.
The team didn’t practice in THE OHIO STATE on Friday, but just as was the case on their last off day, when they demoted Cole Beaudoin and promoted Justin Dowling – and they made another roster transaction – and one for the same reasons as the Beaudoin/Dowling swap:
Taylor Raddysh has been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack. Jaroslav Chmelar has been assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack.
— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) October 16, 2026
While some people took this latest roster move, the promotion of Raddysh/demotion of Chmelar, as pinning blame on the young kid for the loss to the Devils; then in my eyes, and it was the same line of thinking when making the Beaudoin/Dowling transaction.
Chmelar, 23-years-old, is playing minimal minutes on the Rangers’ fourth line. At his age and level of experience, then if he can’t contribute while playing important minutes for the Blueshirts, then he is better off in Hartford for the time being.
Obviously, while Raddysh isn’t going to light anyone’s world on fire; but for the 27-year-old NHL veteran, then it makes perfect sense for the organization to have him in a limited role on the team’s fourth-line as Chmelar develops in the minors.
And while the same might not apply for Beaudoin, but I do think that we’ll eventually see Chmelar back sooner than later.
Come Saturday morning, GAME DAY, and the Rangers held an A.M. skate.
The biggest line-up change of note, but not the only one, was that the recalled Raddysh was skating on the fourth line – while Matt Rempe remains as a healthy scratch following his fight from Tuesday night (vs. Tampa’s Jeff Viel).
After the brief practice, Sullivan said the following about the veteran:
“Obviously we’re trying to find a more effective fourth line. Raddy brings speed. He plays hard. He plays the game the right way. He can help us on the penalty kill if we need him there.”
While I’m not moaning about Chmelar being sent down, but the Rangers, at 92.9%, have the third-best penalty kill in the league (Toronto, 96.2%, Carolina, 93.3%).
In other words, then saying that needing Raddysh for penalty killing really doesn’t hold much water.
Whether or not Rempe needs more time off after his fight is presently unknown; but it’s not like Chmelar has been dead-weight either.
And as I’ve been saying for decades – then when you’re looking to shake up your fourth line for help – then you’re grasping at straws.
After all, how’s the new $11M man in town, the Russian import from Vegas, Pavel Dorofeyev, doing these days?
In fact, when speaking of Dorofeyev, and Sullivan, at Saturday’s practice, flip-flopped his top-six once more, reverting to his opening night line-up that featured the red-hot Alexis Lafreniere on the first line and Dorofeyev on the second line.
But Dorofeyev, unlike others on this roster, doesn’t have to worry about his spot in the line-up – or with the varsity club for that matter either.
Here was Sullivan’s line-up for the tenth game of this 2026-27 campaign:
FIRST LINE: Perreault/Mika/Lafreniere
SECOND LINE: Kartye/Miller/Dorofeyev
THIRD LINE: Cuylle/Laba/Tolvanen
FOURTH LINE: Bjorkstrand/Dowling/Raddysh
FIRST PAIR: Gavrikov/Fox
SECOND PAIR: Pettersson/Durzi
THIRD PAIR: Smits/Schneider
STARTER: Garand
BACK-UP: Martin
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: Morrow and Rempe
LTIR: Korpisalo and Veleno
SEASON ENDING LTIR: CZAR IGOR
BOX SCORE time.
The following graphics and information come from ESPN.com:
SCORING:
PENALTIES:
TEAM STATS:
GOALIES:
|
NYR
|
|
Dylan Garand#33
|
|---|
|
SA
|
GA
|
SV
|
SV%
|
ESSV
|
PPSV
|
SHSV
|
SOSA
|
SOS
|
TOI
|
PIM
|
| 30 | 1 | 29 | .967 | 23 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 63:27 | 0 |
|
CBJ
|
|
Jet Greaves#73
|
|---|
|
SA
|
GA
|
SV
|
SV%
|
ESSV
|
PPSV
|
SHSV
|
SOSA
|
SOS
|
TOI
|
PIM
|
| 29 | 0 | 29 | 1.000 | 25 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 62:44 | 0 |
It was great to see Brian Boyle back on the M$GN broadcast on Saturday night – and even better when it was revealed that Sieve Vagistat wasn’t there.
For thirty-minutes you ask?
Then not one plug for some made-up and crappy ANALytical company!
Boyle, like many of us, assessed the loss to the Devils with just two words – “FLUSH IT!”
After talking about the lack of production from Dorofeyev (the words “streaky scorers” were brought up a lot), then Boyle praised his former teammate, the captain of today, J.T. Miller, for owning the loss to the Devils.
Up next were the most recent comments out of the mouth of the fiery and pissed-off Columbus head coach, Rick Bowness:
“You gotta believe that performance will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they’re not embarrassed by that, we don’t want them on the team. Simple as that,” said Bowess after CBJ got embarrassed in their last game on Tuesday night (7-3 loss to Florida).
“You look at our team, we’re 30th in the league in goals against. Thirtieth! I’ve never coached a team that was 30th. Right now, we should all be very angry where we’re at.”
In other words, then Columbus was heading into this game angry – and it was up to the Rangers, embarrassed themselves in their last game played, to not only match, but exceed the Blue Jackets’ state of ire.
Ha!
Once Boyle and John Giannone talked about real stats, stats of the special team variety, then the always knowledgeable Dave Starman joined the broadcast.
Starman spent his time talking about Will Cuylle and faceoffs, where the Long Island coach brought up the importance of having the veteran on Noah Laba’s line.
To close the pregame show, then Boyle stressed the importance of scoring first against a rattled team.
Ha!
But he was 100% spot-on with this line of thinking.
Come 7PM and Alex Faust & Dave Maloney entered our homes, as the former was pinch-hitting for Kenny Albert, in some NFL town on Saturday night for his weekly Sunday commitment.
Both men, and in a concise fashion (you’ll never find such a style on this site), pretty much reiterated what Boyle had said.
And with that all said, finally, GAME REVIEW time!
FIRST PERIOD
As Jet Greaves and Dylan Garand settled into their nets, then Adam Fantilli beat Mika at the dot to win the first faceoff of the match.
It was also noticeable early that there were a lot of empty seats in Columbus – gee, I wonder why!
(I was later told that there was some huge teeny bopper concert at “The Shoe” – which is where Ohio State, on the road Saturday, plays football.)
Schneider recorded the first Rangers’ SOG at the 1:17 mark – which also marked Greaves’ first save of the game too.
Come the 2:17 mark, Bjorkstrand found Gavrikov for a nice shot from 6′ feet away, but the Columbus goalie did his job.
At the 3:30 mark, Fantilli, all alone in the low slot, was robbed by Garand. This was the first of about fifteen different robberies.
Some two-minutes later and Garand made his second save of the game, on a decent looking Ryan Lomberg shot from close distance.
Greaves then made his second save on Gavrikov, after a Rangers’ o-zone faceoff win, at the 5:54 mark – and where the Blueshirts got more than they paid for with #44 – as he was never brought here for his offensive wizardry.
At the 6:33 mark, Garand recorded his third save after denying Zach Werenski – and where all three of his saves at this time were from shots from 6′ or less away.
Following some back-and-forth, with no SOG to speak of either, then Lafreniere made a big block on Damon Severson at the 8:40 mark.
About a minute later and Greaves stopped a weak, but hard-working, tap-shot from Dorofeyev (#16 was about four-feet out and just trying to put a puck on net).
At the ten-minute mark, and with a 5-2 SOG disparity favoring the Rangers, and I thought that the Blueshirts needed to pop in one or two goals – and then the floodgates would open – and only because of the weak-and-fragile state that Columbus was in when entering this game.
Ha once more!
A minute later and Danton Heinen just missed a tap-in try from a foot out – another crisis averted.
After this, and the MASON DIXON LINE, along with the third-pair, had a hell of a shift that featured about five different shot attempts.
No goals came out of this – but this shift was encouraging.
Down to 6:13 remaining and the Rangers’ PK was tasked to work, as Gavrikov, after being elbowed by Charlie Coyle, was boxed for holding the Blue Jacket.
Gavrikov had to go to the tunnel at this point for repairs – so not only did the Rangers lose one of their best penalty killers – but the refs missed a call too.
Talk about some piss-poor officiating here.
With 38-seconds remaining on the Blueshirts’ PK and Garand made a great glove save on Denton Mateychuk. It was also at this time when Gavrikov returned to the bench after getting fixed up.
The end result?
Another flawless Rangers’ PK.
Under 3:00 remaining and Fantilli forced a turnover in the Rangers’ end but Garand and Co. were able to survive.
Come 1:49 left in the period and Garand made a pair of saves, #5 and #6, while continuing his stellar play.
Under a minute left and Mika broke up a Columbus 3 x 2 odd-man rush.
Thirty-seconds later and Garand made a mask save on a dangerous Mateychuk wrist shot.
And that did it for this first frame.
Nil-nil after one period of play.
Here’s what I said at the time:
SECOND PERIOD
After Dave Maloney hilariously missed on tonight’s #NYR #CadillacTrivia question (Who were the four Ranger Norris Trophy winners? Adam Fox, Brian Leetch, Harry Howell and Doug Harvey – and where I had the answer on social media first – I got an “atta boy” for that), then Mika beat Fantilli at the dot to open the second stanza.
At around the 90-second mark, Perreault almost had a chance in front of Greaves, but was stopped by the blocker of the young Columbus goalie.
The Rangers’ first line had a strong shift here (although a lot of shot attempts went ever-so-wide), and one that kept the Blue Jacket’s top pair of defense out there for over two-minutes too – but again – no goal.
After a solid defensive play in his own end, Kartye, now with the puck, set up Dorofeyev at the 4:00 mark, but again – you know the deal – no goal – not even a puck on net.
At the 5:00 mark, the Rangers got a break when Kent Johnson couldn’t handle a puck all alone and with Garand in his cross-hairs.
Talk about a harbinger of what was to come.
Come the 6:03 mark, Cuylle drove to the net and once there – got pushed into the post by Werenski. Thankfully, there was no injury here.
After this, and now in the other end, and Garand, when playing the puck behind his own net, almost turned it over to Conor Garland – which made me think at the time that Sam Rosen would’ve had a field day with Garand and Garland on the ice.
At the 7:37 mark, Garand, while facing a 6 x 5 attack, made a hell of save against Fantilli. Once stopping the puck, Durzi then went to the sin bin for holding Coyle.
The Rangers, now back on the penalty kill for the second time, and where immediately, Garand came up with another jaw-dropping denial, this time on Cole Sillinger.
Come the end of the PK and the Rangers were now 2/2.
At the 9:57 mark, Garand made another mask save, this time on Erik Gudbranson. At the time, this shot/save also gave Columbus the lead in the SOG department for the first time in the game (13-12).
Down to 7:10 remaining and Kartye took a shot to the mouth from Olivier. It looked like the Ranger was looking for a penalty call – but no dice.
As we got under 5:30 left to play in the period and Greaves denied Schneider from scoring the game’s first goal.
That save was followed by a Garand stop on the ultra-aggressive Fantilli.
This also led to a scary CBJ shift against the MASON DIXON line, but Garand wasn’t having any of it, as the Ranger netminder made his 15th save of the game here.
Come 3:13 remaining – and Greaves made a bevy of saves, three in total, on Perreault. Once again, and while not scoring – and #94 was noticeable out there.
With 1:51 left on the clock and Bjorkstrand almost got the first goal – but his mini one-on-one change against Greaves went wide – so wide that the former Jacket was throwing a fit about it on the Rangers’ bench afterwards.
Under 15-seconds to go and Fox was blocked, and that was it for the period too.
Scoreless after two periods of play.
Here’s what I said at the time:
Still nil-nil after 40 minutes of play. #NYR 2P Thoughts:
— They can outscore Tampa 9-2, but can’t score against a fragile Columbus team. Ugh.
— Once again, and the Rangers’ PK (2/2) and goaltender are the biggest stars.
— In the battle of the highest-paid forwards – and Fantill is destroying Dorofeyev. Fantilli has five SOG, Dorofeyev has that weak tap-in try.
— Who wants to be a hero – and prevent the first two-game losing streak of the season too?
THIRD PERIOD
Mika lost the first draw of this frame to Fantilli. However, and just 18-seconds in and Fantilli held Gavrikov, thus putting the Rangers on the power-play for the first time in the game.
The Blueshirts did nothing on this power-play, and where afterwards, Garand had to make a huge save on Matthew Knies.
Ugh.
However, come the 4:17 mark and the Rangers got a chance to redeem themselves as Jake Christiansen was boxed for tripping Fox.
The Blueshirts, now on the power-play for the second time in four-minutes, saw Greaves easily deny Dorofeyev – and as the goalie did just 12-seconds into the Sully’s Squad man-advantage.
After the first quintet did nothing, then Garand was forced to stop Werenski on a short-handed breakaway try. After that, and Greaves shut down Bjorkstrand.
For the rotten cherry on top, then Mika had to break-up a Columbus 2 x 1 to end the now 0-2 Rangers’ power-play.
Once returned to full-strength and Greaves stopped a Pettersson-to-Raddysh hook-up, and as he did with 12:54 remaining.
As both goalies exchanged saves, and with both of their shutouts in-tact too (Greaves, 26) and Garand made save #21 on a Denton Mateychuk slapper with 11:07 remaining.
Down to 10:11 remaining and Durzi was viciously hooked into the boards by Sillinger. As usual this season – and every Ranger – the fourth line and Pettersson in this instance, was there when defending their d-man.
This also gave the Rangers their third power-play of the period/game too.
Miller and Mika went wide to start this man-advantage. Thirty-seconds later and Greaves denied Mika – and once again – and that was it for PP1.
And come the end of the power-play – and the PP2 was also 0/3 too.
And yep – third time wasn’t a charm for the man-up teams either.
Now back at even-strength and Greaves stopped Schneider on two occasions. In the other end and Garand stopped Fantilli again, and as he did with 6:56 remaining.
Thirty-seconds later and GARAND THEFT AUTO claimed another victim, as he poked a puck away from Sillinger just as the CBJ was looking for twine.
With 4:38 remaining, again Garand, as this time he flashed the cow against Johnson.
Down to 3:50 to go – and Pettersson broke up a Columbus 3 x 1 – and this was one hell of a play.
Come the two-minute warning and Garand again, as he denied Werenski from point-blank range.
Down to 95-seconds and Dorofeyev shot the puck right into a Blue Jacket.
With 1:13 to go, Pettersson got banged up when Johnson hit him into the boards. This started another scrum – and where again – every Ranger was involved.
For whatever reason, and despite this play looking reminiscent of the one that earned Durzi a penalty call – and nada. With no penalty called and this is when Bowness used his timeout.
Eight-seconds later and Garand made his 26th save, this particular one on Olivier.
With 32.3-seconds remaining in regulation – and this is when Columbus received their third power-play of the game – an interference call against Cuylle on Knies.
Garand stopped Werenski with just ten-seconds left in regulation – and where there were many deep breaths in Rangerstown, USA after the save.
After sixty-minutes, this sent the Rangers to overtime for the first time this season – or should I say Garand got them a point in the standings.
Here’s what I said at the time:
Scoreless after three periods. #NYR Thoughts:
— Garand did everything he could for these guys.
— CBJ has a 1:28 PP to start the OT.
— FAT CATS can’t score.
— Can’t go 0/3 on the power-play.
— Two straight games without a 5 x 5 goal. Only one goal scored in the past 120 minutes too.
— Not looking good – as Greaves is matching Garand save for save – and the 4 x 3 PP is usually a killer.
OVERTIME
The Blue Jackets, still on the power-play, immediately took possession of the puck as Mika lost another draw.
With 56-seconds remaining on the kill and Garand fought off Johnson again.
After that and Miller and Pettersson displayed some excellent man-down skills – but with one-second remaining – and it was Garand who was the star – as he absolutely robbed Sean Monahan from a foot away.
With 3:27 remaining in the bonus time – and we were now at 4 x 4 – and where we would never get to 3 x 3 either.
And with 1:33 left on the clock/prior to a potential shootout – and Smits on the ice too (this tells us that Sully trusted his rookie) – Kent Johnson called game:
KENT JOHNSON WITH THE ONE-TIME BLAST TO WIN IT IN OVERTIME FOR COLUMBUS 🚀🚨 https://t.co/TA9lDIsltS
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 18, 2026
1-0, bad guys.
1-0, in overtime, bad guys, your final.
A disgusting and disgraceful showing from the Rangers’ offense.
Two teams that I adore lost on Saturday night – and where I wasn’t able to drink prior, during or afterwards!
Hello NFL Sunday!
Up Next For Me: Should I not require my stomach to be pumped after refraining from the bottle for the past 72-hours, then I’ll see ya Monday night, following Rangers v. Ducks at M$G.
There is a slight chance that I may attend this game, so if I do go, then that GAME REVIEW will be delayed until Tuesday morning.
If not, then the usual 1AM-3AM posting time!
As far as anything else?
Let’s Go New York Football Giants – at least one of my teams has to win this weekend, right?
Ugh!
And oh yeah, this too:
PLUGS TIME! (Buy a book and support my Rangers’ induced therapy bills. After all, I don’t run ads on this site!)
My fourth title and tenth book is now available!
“The Top 100 Villains of New York Rangers History,” is now available for sale!
For complete information, please visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/rangerkillers/
My second plug of tonight’s blog – the mandatory plug for my book, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden.”
As mentioned previously, the book is now available in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle formats. To purchase a copy of the book, visit this link:
https://www.amazon.com/Rangers-Rafters-Madison-Square-Garden-ebook/dp/B09CM5N2WD
For those still looking for signed paperback versions of the book, I have re-ordered more copies. I now have a few signed copies for sale at $25 a pop (includes shipping price) through me directly. Here is all the information on that:
Order “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden” Book Today
My four-volume set of books, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is a game-by-game recount of the Rangers 2021-22 campaign.
My second title as an author, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is now available in eBook, paperback and hardcover formats.
To obtain signed copies, visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/onegamebook/
To purchase all four volumes on Amazon, visit: Amazon.com – “One Game at a Time.”
The greatest volume-set of books on Rangers’ history today!
“Tricks of the Trade – A Century-Long Journey Through Every Trade Made In New York Rangers’ History,” a four-volume set of books that meticulously covers every trade made in franchise history, is now on sale.
All four volumes of the title can be purchased on Amazon.com and are presented in three different formats – eBook, paperback and hardcover.
To purchase Volume I: Conn Smythe (1926) – Craig Patrick (1986), visit Amazon.com
To purchase Volume II: Phil Esposito (1986) – Neil Smith (2000), visit Amazon.com
To purchase Volume III: Glen Sather (2000-2015), visit Amazon.com
To purchase Volume IV: Jeff Gorton (2015) – Chris Drury (2022), visit Amazon.com
To purchase signed copies of all four volumes, visit https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/
If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog for the next update:
Don’t forget to order my four-volume set of books, “Tricks of the Trade!”
If you don’t order through me, all four volumes are now available on Amazon.com
For more details, check out: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/
Thanks for reading.
LET’S GO RANGERS!
Sean McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com
