NYR/VAN 11/2 Review: Trouba, Miller and a Failed Two-Man Advantage Sink Rangers; NYR Waste Another CZAR IGOR Masterpiece, Special Teams Swing Games, M$G Network Issues, Panarin & Mika Show Up; Lafreniere & Kakko Go “Where’s Waldo”, Fox, Tinordi & More

Greetings and salutations everyone and welcome to another blog here on BlueCollarBlueShirts.com. I stayed up late for this?

As someone who has a “glass half-full” mentality, I could start tonight’s manifesto by saying at least the Rangers got one point in the standings on Tuesday night, following their 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. If you didn’t sacrifice sleep and just checked the final score on Wednesday morning, maybe that’s what you’re thinking right now. However, that wouldn’t be the case, as the Rangers had every chance in the world to win this game in regulation, but in the end – failed to do so.

The Rangers, who started off this game with another one of their “deja vu” first periods, revved up in the second period, where they jumped out to a 2-0 lead. By the time the first two frames were over, the Rangers special teams were a combined 7-8, where they went 2-3 on the power-play and an impressive 5-5 on the penalty kill. Then the third period happened, and that washed away all of the good feelings.

In perhaps the worst Rangers period of the season (especially when you consider the competition), the Blueshirts completely unraveled in the third period, where the Canucks just absolutely took over the remainder of the contest, including during the three vs three overtime.

While I’ll get into this in-depth during the game review segment; Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller, once again, were two major factors in denying CZAR IGOR of a shut-out – a common occurrence this season. However, to fully blame this bumbling pair wouldn’t be accurate – even if they do deserve a lion’s share of the “blame game”.

Despite Trouba and Miller still paying tribute to Halloween, and inciting horror in all; with the game tied at 2-2 late into the third period, the Rangers had over ninety seconds worth of a two-man advantage. And you know what they say about 5 x 3 power-plays – “if you can’t score on them, you deserve to lose.” That’s what eventually happened.

Sure, Trouba and Miller may have some personal vendetta against their goaltender (how else can you explain their piss-poor play?); but with the game on the line, the Rangers power-play, who picked up two PPG’s earlier in the game, could not score during this major opportunity.

And it wasn’t for lack of chances either, as Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko made a bevy of saves, including one from his belly, where he extended his right foot to deny the third Rangers goal, a potential game winning goal, of the game. At the same time, Demko’s net was vacated during this frantic and crucial Rangers power-play and none of the Rangers could finish – and that is what ultimately doomed them – despite whatever Trouba and Miller were doing.

Deep-down, I know this is only one game. It’s not the end of the world or anything like that. However, at the current moment, this loss stings like salt dripping in your eyes on a hot summer day, as this should’ve been an easy two points in the standings. Instead, the Rangers take the loser’s point, where you wouldn’t have minded had the Rangers come back to do so, as the Canucks did here.

I’ll get more into Steve Valiquette and jinxes in a bit; but perhaps the team was hexed once Vally went on-and-on during the second intermission about how the Rangers are dominant when it comes out to closing out games this season. The second the puck was dropped in the third period, the Rangers were torn apart, just like one of Vally’s cheap suits. It was truly amazing to see the ice tilt so fast.

And oh yeah, as a “glass half-full” person – I guess I’m lucky I didn’t go to this game as originally planned. (Canada’s COVID-19 laws/mandates prevented that, as explained previously on this site.) Rather than taking a five hour flight home while pissed off; I can now share my thoughts with you here, and then curse my way to sleep in my own bed!

To stick with the “glass half-full” theme before getting into our usual segments here, it was nice to see both Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad pick up goals tonight, with both of these goals being power-play goals.

And isn’t it amazing Suzyn, that the Rangers heralded 1-2 punch, who are both sitting on only two goals each this season, have scored all of their goals in the same game? (Prior to tonight, Mika and Panarin scored in the win over Toronto.)

As we all know, Mika and Panarin have to get going for this team to make a run, so hopefully this is the start of something. It will also be nice if these two can score more frequently.

Of course, while it would be great if both could score in every game; but when one of them are cold, the other one must pick his teammates up. What I’m trying to say here is that you’d like to see both of these players get hot, and not just exclusively in the same game.

And prior to the Rangers collapse in this third period tonight, this was another game where the team continued to defy all of the foo-foo and meaningless analytics – a win for the “EYE TEST” fans like yours truly.

Even with the loss (remember, the Rangers got a point here), the team is racking up points, despite all analytics suggesting otherwise. Of course, CZAR IGOR is a major factor here, as with a lesser goaltender, the Rangers wouldn’t be 6-2-2 right now – good for second place in the Metropolitan division.

At this time, let’s get the PLUGS segment out of the way and then fully dissect this sloppy affair.

(And of note, thanks for all of the feedback to the Seattle road-trip blog. Additionally, I also received a lot of feedback from Kraken fans, where I’d say 75% of the response was positive. Of course, when you take a meaty dump on one’s city and franchise, not all of the feedback will be a thunderous applause!)

The first plug of tonight’s blog – the mandatory plug for my new book, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden”. And let me say this – thank you to everyone who has bought one, as my Amazon sales have exceeded all expectations, where for a limited time (that damn Mark Messier who just released a book!), my book was number one on the Amazon hockey book sales charts.

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 8 copies left for sale for $25 (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

Here are my last few blogs in case you missed them:

The Seattle Road-Trip Experience: “The Unkrakable” CZAR IGOR Dominates; Americans Not Shabby Either, Reviewing Seattle as an NHL City (The Worst) & Why To Stay Away, Adam Fox Re-Signs; Drury Continues To Excel, Kreider Bailing Out Fat Cats, Kravtsov Loan & More

NYR vs Seattle Kraken 10/31 Photo Gallery: Inside Look at the Climate Pledge Arena, The Rangers, Good Eats & More

Seattle Photo Gallery Part One: “The Angry Beaver”, Space Needle, Museum of Pop Culture, Seafood, Steakhouses & More

Going into this game with the Mother Canuckers, head coach Gerard Gallant went with the same line-up from Sunday against Seattle, skating the following:

FIRST LINE: Kreider/Zibanejad/Goodrow

SECOND LINE: Panarin/Strome/Kakko

THIRD LINE: Lafreniere/Chytil/Blais

FOURTH LINE: Rooney/McKegg/Hunt

FIRST PAIR: Lindgren/Fox

SECOND PAIR: Miller/Trouba

THIRD PAIR: Tinordi/Nemeth

GOALTENDER: CZAR IGOR

I know I’ve said this before, but one more time here on this site:

I just don’t get all of the belly-aching from some fans, in regards to Tinordi playing over Lundkvist. It’s not like Lundkvist is lighting the league on fire right now. And as talked about at the top of this season – I thought he should’ve been sent to Hartford anyway, in order to get acclimated to the North American game. After all, if CZAR IGOR had to waste time in Hartford, why not Lundkvist too – who prior to this season, has never skated in North America before?

We all know that Patrik Nemeth was signed here with the idea of the native Swede taking on Lundkvist as his protege. Perhaps too much stock was put into that theory, because as an American, it’s not like I get along with every American in the world either. (I’m sure you may also feel the same!)

In a different generation of the NHL, sure, pairing up fellow countrymen usually produced successful results. And when it comes to former Ranger Swedes, look no further to Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg. However, what does a near 30 year-old man have in common with someone who just turned the legal drinking age, outside of being fans of “Swedish Fish”?

Sure, I understand the “mentorship” line of thinking here, but it’s not like these two had some sort of previous relationship prior to joining the club. And for Nemeth, who just signed a decent sized contract with a new team, his number one priority is to be successful himself, with his worrying about Lundkvist’s game on his back-burner.

As Gallant told the pesky media on Tuesday prior to the game – Tinordi is an NHL defenseman – despite what some fans may think.

And if you think blaming Tinordi (or whoever the Rangers 12th forward is for any given game) after every loss is the answer, then I think you have your head in the sand – especially in regards to this game. After all, Tinordi received the second-least amount of minutes tonight, with 10:28 in all. (Fourth line forward Dryden Hunt played 9:02).

Conversely, Trouba (23:10) and Miller (16:10), the regular second-pair defensemen of the club, were on the ice for both regulation goals allowed. In addition, Miller’s turnover/inability to shoot a puck led to his namesake, ex-Ranger JT Miller, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.

And yes, that’s how it always works – ex-Rangers always come back to bite the Blueshirts in the butt. It’s a tale as old as time.

BOX SCORE time.

The following information and graphics come from the new world-wide leader in NHL coverage, ESPN.com:

SCORING:

PENALTIES:

TEAM STATS:

GOALIES:

Steve Valiquette, who I previously have nicknamed “Vagistat”, for all of his never-ending analytical nonsense (stuff that rarely has anything to do with whatever game you’re watching), had his best broadcast in some time on Tuesday night.

Of course, maybe I feel this way because Valiquette pretty much regurgitated everything I’ve been saying on this site during the past two weeks. However, nevertheless, if I’m going to slam the guy when I don’t agree with him, I have to praise him when I do agree! After all, like Suzanne Somers and her “ab-master” – I’m firm, but fair!

After raving about Adam Fox’s contract (where I don’t think you’ll find a soul in Rangerstown, USA upset with his new deal), Vally also added that Fox doesn’t have to do anything more during these next seven plus years – all Fox has to do is keep on doing what he’s doing. Even better, Vally didn’t need any of his charts, heat-maps or hieroglyphics when making this point – a win for “Eye-Test Nation”!

Right after this, M$G Networks showed a stat of all of the recent high-priced contracts NHL teams have given to defensemen. Right as I was typing out on social media, “the only players that compare to Fox are Cale Makar (COL) and Charlie McAvoy (BOS)” – Vally said the same exact thing on the air. Bizarro world?

Even crazier, Vally then started talking about Tony DeAngelo and how his exile helped Fox’s progression. Where have you read that before? Oh yeah, this site for the last year, where I just made this point again last night!

Of course, before having a complete perfect game on the broadcast, with seconds remaining, Vally plugged his fake news stat company, where he had the audacity to exclaim, “what this graphic tells me…”, as if he didn’t make the graphic with his stats himself!

All in all, I thought Vally did a good job tonight, even if he did get creepy when talking about Thatcher Demko during the intermission segments.

After raving about the ‘Nucks goalie endlessly, I don’t think Vally could’ve got up out of his seat without embarrassing himself and/or poking out the eye of his partner John Giannone.

And oh, while you can’t blame Vally here (unless you’re looking for a reason and/or believe in jinxes & bad “ju-ju”), the former back-up goaltender of a handful of games went overboard with all of his definitive opinions and statements. During all of this, you just cringed (especially if you bet on this game, like I unfortunately did), as everything Vally said felt like it would blow-up in his face and curse the Rangers.

To be clear, what Vally was saying wasn’t wrong here, but it all did feel like bad voodoo – especially with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight!

In a first period that was as exciting as a rectal exam, and played in front of a COVID restricted limited-capacity crowd; Thatcher Demko denied Filip Chytil, one-on-one, as #72 of the Rangers got behind the Canucks defense, just 90 seconds after puck drop.

Igor Shestyorkin, who surprisingly wasn’t tested very often early, aka “the usual” (that would come later), denied the Canucks on their first shot of the game, which took place minutes into the period, rather than facing a barrage of shots from the opposing team within the first five minutes.

5:30 into the period, Filip Chytil tried to set-up Alexis Lafreniere for a back-handed attempt, but the pass was broken up in the gridlock traffic that was taking place in front of Demko’s blue paint.

Of course, and as is customary, Sam Rosen reminded us that JT Miller was once on the Rangers. Unfortunately, we didn’t get his other customary line of, “JT Miller and K’Andre Miller…..not related”, as Rosen has previously done with K’Andre and Colin Miller.

And also while on Rosen and the broadcast, once again, this feed was plagued with issues – a common occurrence this season and for whatever reason. Between the sound being seconds ahead of the video and no connection with Adam Fox during a first intermission interview segment; once again, the M$G Networks had another technically produced flawed broadcast.

In a game where the referees thought that they were the stars; we had our first of eleven penalties called in this game, 8:31 into the period, when JT Miller tripped Panarin. The Rangers power-play didn’t do anything here, where the biggest highlight was CZAR IGOR making a home-run header pass to Ryan Strome in the Canucks defensive zone.

With under seven minutes to go, and with the Rangers sitting on only four shots on goal, Igor stopped Myers after some hairiness out of these mother Canuckers.

As Rosen and Micheletti raved about Adam Fox (a theme throughout the broadcast, where we get it, Fox deserved his money), these two also campaigned for Fox to become the next Rangers captain. Of note, this is the eighth Ranger these two have said should be captain this season, as these two pivot from their opinions faster than a Kenyan in a foot-race.

With 4:15 remaining in the first period, “Trouba the Terrible” took the first of six different Ranger penalties in this game, a bad penalty (as opposed to the others), after interfering with Alex Chiasson by the wall near the Rangers blue line.

I guess I should say this now and get it out of the way – the Rangers penalty kill, tops in all of the NHL since the third week in October, went 6-6 tonight, keeping the Canucks off of the board during their twelve minutes (20% of the game) of a man-advantage.

While this is great for the Rangers penalty kill, you can’t take six penalties a night and expect to go flawless. Perhaps the Rangers wanted to create a highlight reel tape for CZAR IGOR, as #31 finished this game with 13 short-handed saves – more than half of Demko’s 23 overall saves in this match.

Conor Garland, who must have some grievance with the Rangers, played like a man possessed in this game, where late into the period, he hit iron on one shot and then narrowly missed a goal on another shot, where he hit the right side of Igor’s net.

With 37 ticks left in the stanza, Lafreniere was boxed for slashing. And as you know, the Rangers would kill the first half of this penalty at the end of the first period, and the second half of the penalty at the start of the second period.

After twenty minutes, we remained scoreless, where this period was reminiscent of most Ranger periods from this season.

In a second period that averaged a penalty call every fourth minute, the Rangers killed Lafreniere’s penalty. Once out of the box, Lafreniere drew a penalty himself. On the Rangers power-play, and just 2:33 into the period, Mika picked up his second goal of the season:

Breadman with the butter pass pic.twitter.com/ar4oDM0i68

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) November 3, 2021

1-0, GOOD GUYS! You couldn’t have drawn this up any better, as Adam Fox dished the puck to Panarin and “The Breadman” found Mika near Demko, with #93 scoring the PPG after a redirection/one-timerish shot.

In a sign of what was to come, right after Mika’s goal, Trouba and Miller had an iffy shift, with Igor stomping the scare out.

The Rangers would then kill their third penalty of the game, after Hunt was sent to the box. Trouba would get a “GRADE A” chance to score during this, as he was left alone right in front of Demko. Of course he didn’t. DeAngelo would’ve!

With Fox now in the box, giving the Canucks their fourth power-play of the game; CZAR IGOR, the Rangers best penalty killer, denied Dickinson of going five-hole, as Igor closed his legs at the last possible second, keeping the puck from crossing the line with the back of his skates.

After Igor made a no-look save, with 8:53 to go, it was Lindgren’s turn to enter the penalty box, where you have to assume the Rangers thought free hand-jobs were being given out there. That said, the referees called a very tight game, where a silent-but-deadly fart would’ve earned you two minutes in the box. A wet fart (a shart), would’ve given you a five minute major.

During this Canucks power-play, JT Miller fired off a vicious shot, a shot that Igor saved, where the shot was so hard that Igor’s stick was sent flying towards the side boards in the process. However, the puck went into the netting, so the Rangers got a fortunate whistle.

Now 5-5 on the penalty kill, the Rangers, often the victim of the “too many men on the ice” penalty, were on the right end of one themselves, as with 6:51 to go in the period, the Canucks were nabbed for one themselves.

Just seconds into the Rangers power-play, Ryan Strome won the offensive zone face-off, where Fox took the puck and sent it to Panarin, where this happened:

he wasn’t ready 😢 pic.twitter.com/ebjrjoce1g

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) November 3, 2021

2-0, GOOD GUYS, as Panarin fired a rocket from the blue line for the Rangers second goal, and their second PPG, of the game. Everything was coming up Rangers here.

And oh yeah, the newly minted Adam Fox now had assists on both Ranger goals. It was also at this time where Panarin showed off his confidence, as rather than sticking with his pass-first mentality, Panarin started to shoot any puck that came his way – including during the final stages of the third period.

After forty minutes, we remained 2-0 Rangers, despite the Canucks out-shooting the Rangers by a tally of 22-14. It was during this intermission where Vally went on-and-on about the Rangers strong ability to close out teams, where he pretty much said everything but to bank on the Rangers to win this.

The best way to describe the third period would be “shit-show”.

As everyone was waving their pom-poms and talking about how the Rangers were about to go on a three-game win streak (sadly, yours truly included); JT Miller scored 1:29 into the period, while Trouba was doing his terrible act where he doesn’t pay attention to the puck and where Miller was just flat-out beat. 2-1 good guys.

No joke, these two have probably cost Igor about 3-4 shut-outs this season, as it feels like they’ve been on the ice for nearly 90% of all goals scored against the Rangers this season. I will have to look this up tomorrow, as I’m 100% sure they’ve been on the ice for more than half of these goals allowed.

With the Canucks finding life, and with their limited-capacity crowd waking up too, the Canucks kept it coming, where CZAR IGOR saw as many shots as a night out in the streets of Chicago.

5:19 into the period, less than four minutes after Miller’s goal, Vasily Podkolzin tied the game, as he fired a shot after a bad Trouba pinch. 2-2.

Can someone, I mean anyone, tell me what Trouba does well besides eating ice time?

I know I’ve said this 67867896768796 times before, but the overpaid defenseman only plays well when he is pissed off or when someone pops him one. No one made him mad tonight, except for maybe himself and both Millers. $8.5M and five plus more seasons with this guy. You know it’s bad when your clamoring for the days of Neal Pionk.

As the Canucks continued to dominate the period, Fox was boxed again, this time for a holding a stick penalty and with under ten minutes to go. On this particular ‘Nucks power-play, CZAR IGOR made five saves. Also during this, Igor bailed out Trouba and Miller for a potential Vancouver third goal.

And it’s easy to kill Miller and Trouba here, but even so, the other Ranger skaters weren’t doing much of anything either.

The biggest play of the game took place with just 3:40 remaining in the period, where the Rangers had 96 seconds of a 5 x 3 power-play. The Rangers got an abundance of chances here, but between missing vacated nets and Demko channeling his inner Patrick Roy – the Rangers left this fortuitous opportunity without a goal.

Once again, yes, Trouba and Miller were horrendous, but the Rangers could’ve put this game away here. They didn’t and that was that.

With Igor preserving the point, where he made a big save with 20 seconds remaining in regulation, we remained tied at 2-2 after 60 minutes.

In the overtime (where I was dreading seeing another Panarin turnover, followed by Trouba’s lazy matador defense), the Fox/Kreider/Mika trio started off the extra period. Mika won the face-off and the Rangers had control of the puck for nearly 90 seconds, but refused to shoot the puck. Instead, they turned over the puck, forcing Igor to make a save on JT Miller. However, the former Ranger would soon have the last laugh.

2:22 into the overtime, after K’Andre Miller had another brain-fart where he turned over the puck; the other Miller went on a breakaway. Igor stopped this initial try, but he couldn’t stop the rebound, as the former #10 of the Rangers outplayed the new #10 in this game, and picked up the game winning goal.

3-2, bad guys, your final. A point thrown away.

Watching all of this just gave you the dry heaves, but if you’re an optimist, the Rangers have been on the right end of these crappy games more times than not. That is why this is the worst loss of the season, because they’ve been winning the bulk of these “playing with fire” type of affairs.

And to wrap up on this game – you have to score on a 5 x 3 power-play.

Yeah, this is only one game of eighty two, but for right now, it does feel sickening, as despite winning the majority of their games, the team has only one complete 60 minute game under their belt. (The win over Columbus.)

As I have done, I’m sure everybody else is slamming Miller and Trouba after this game, but one more time (I swear) – the team couldn’t score on a 5 x 3 power-play. Score on that, and it’s another “whew, and get out of town” victory.

The Rangers return on Friday night, their first of a back-to-back set with the two Alberta teams, where they take on the red-hot Oilers first, and then the Flames 24 hours later in Calgary.

Goaltending wise, I’d expect Igor to go on Friday, followed by Georgiev on Saturday.

As mentioned previously on this site, the NHL schedule makers did the Rangers no favors this season, as the team, after a six or so hour flight out of Calgary on Saturday night, will be right back at M$G on Monday night and against one of the newest powerhouses of the league – the Joel Quenneville-less Florida Panthers.

Would anyone be surprised if the Rangers lose on Monday night, as they did to the Flames eight nights ago, after returning from their first four-game road-trip of the season – another four-game road-trip that the Rangers are currently on?

I just don’t get all of these back-to-back games and three games in four nights, only for the team to then have 3-5 days off in-between. So much for player safety.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog for the next update:

Up next: the Mark Messier book review and perhaps something on the ex-Rangers in the league.

Stay FABULOUS my friends, or should I say “try to stay fabulous”, after this poor-taste-in-your-mouth game.

As always here, thanks for reading and…

LET’S GO RANGERS!

Sean McCaffrey

BULLSMC@aol.com

@NYCTHEMIC on Tweeter