The New York Rangers Look to Halt Calgary's Nine-Game Point

Rangers	NHL Rankings	Flames
6-2-3	Record	6-1-3
5^th	NHL Standing Rank	6^th
22^nd	GF/PG	7^th
6^th	GA/PG	3^rd
17^th	PP%	8^th
16^th	PK%	12^th

Previous Game

The Blueshirts were defeated in an eleven-goal thriller in overtime. The more concerning part about this is that the Rangers were up 4-1 at one point in the second period and had a two-goal lead in the third. Like the previous game, the two-goal third-period lead was gone within a few minutes of play. The Rangers responded and halted Edmonton’s momentum on a counterattack from Mika Zibanejad as he netted his second of the game.

With things looking in the right direction as the game was winding down, the best player on the planet Connor McDavid took the game into his own hands and went one-on-four to score the goal of the year to this point. You can be mad at the defending all you want but that is just simply a goal you have to applaud the 24-year-old. The game went to overtime where the Rangers had a defensive lapse and left arguably the second-best player on the planet wide open in front and Leon Draisaitl made no mistakes ending the game.

“We played a great 35 minutes and then we sort of started watching them a bit,” said head coach Gerard Gallant. “We played too much in our defensive zone the last 25-minutes of the game and it caught up to us.”

The Good

Rangers scored a season high five goals and four of them were at even strength
The top line of the Rangers was fantastic along with getting two goals from the depth
Nils Lundkvist recorded points in back-to-back games
It was an entertaining game that showed how dominant the Rangers can be
The Rangers now have road points in seven of eight games this season
Filip Chytil was my player of the game for the Rangers as he got the scoring started and continue to be a problem for the Oilers all night long.

The Bad

Back-to-back games blowing two goal leads in the third period
This was a game goaltender Alex Georgiev needs to forget about
McDavid made defender Patrik Nemeth look like he was playing peewee hockey
Alexis Lafreniere played nine minutes

Connor McDavid (@cmcdavid97) broke the internet last night.

Here's how he did it. pic.twitter.com/faoBtd5XVt
— NHL (@NHL) November 6, 2021

Defensive Trust

Just briefly want to question is there a lack of trust in the defense from the coaching staff? With the Rangers trying to close out the game, the Blueshirts had an interesting defensive rotation. Shifts were rotating between Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren followed by Jacob Trouba and Nemeth. It seemed that K’Andre Miller and Lundkvist were only being used sparingly. And in overtime, Fox was given the first shift which was followed by Trouba. After Trouba came off, Fox was back on the ice for the third and final shift. In overtime, one can look at this as trying to keep your best players on the ice as long as possible. But could it have been because of a lack of trust in Miller? Miller was given the third shift of overtime in Vancouver and ultimately the Canucks won the game on his shift. It is just something to keep in mind as the season progresses.

Rangers

This was never going to be an easy road trip nor is the current stretch of three games in four nights against three of the NHL’s best. And it is important to look at the bigger picture. The Rangers currently are 1-0-2 on the road trip and have recorded points in each game. That is equivalent to a record of 2-1-0. No matter what happens in Calgary, the worst-case scenario is the Rangers conclude the road trip with an “average” finish of four points out of a possible eight. If the Rangers fly out of Calgary with two points that will put the seal on a successful road trip. And if not for Thatcher Demko’s scorpion save or McDavid’s magic, the Rangers would be on pace for a perfect road trip. It’s important for fans not to get too mad and overreact to everything. This is how sports work and it just so happened that in back-to-back games, the opposing team’s best players made two unbelievable plays.

“They have those two world-class players and they were pressing us and forechecking us hard and unfortunately for us, McDavid makes a spectacular play on the tying goal,” Gallant said.

Igor Shesterkin will get the start in the net as he looks to help the Blueshirts get revenge on Calgary. The Flames went into Madison Square Garden and came out with a rather easy win by the score of 5-1. Now Shesterkin and the Rangers will look to return the favor and beat them in their own building.

Ryan Reaves was a game-time decision against the Oilers and he likely will remain a game-time decision once again.

Flames

Calgary will look to continue their success against the Blueshirts. The Flames have defeated the Rangers in every game since 2018. After an opening night defeat to the Oilers, Calgary has been on a nine-game point streak with a record of 6-0-3. Like the Rangers, the Flames have also lost their previous two games in overtime.

Once again, the Rangers should expect to see Jacob Markstrom manning the crease for the Flames. Markstrom is 4-1-3 with a 1.85 goals against average and a .936 save percentage.

Elias Lindholm is the danger man for the Flames as he has a point in all but one game to start the season. Oliver Kylington has quietly had a fantastic start to the season for the Flames. Kylington has six points on the season and has been a terrific shutdown defenseman. What makes this interesting is that he was left exposed in the expansion draft and Seattle opted to select their captain, Mark Giordano. Kylington is just 24-years-old and will likely remain a major player for the Flames in the future.

What to watch

My thing to pay attention to is can Chytil string together two excellent games? Chytil was fantastic in Edmonton and the Rangers will hope he can bring his A-game once again. Chytil has shown flashes of brilliance in his young career and now it’s about finding consistency. The Rangers are going to need the 22-year-old on the backend of a back-to-back.