Rangers haunted by their lack of attack in flat, ugly loss to Oilers

You might have thought that Connor McDavid’s lone appearance of the year playing Broadway would energize the Rangers in a marquee matchup with the greatest player in the world.

You would have been mistaken.

It’s not just that the Rangers came up short by 4-3 in Friday’s Garden matchup with Edmonton, it’s that they never made life too difficult for the Oilers and they never made life too difficult for the always-suspect netminder, Stuart Skinner, who entered the game with the fourth-worst Goals Saved Above Expected per 60:00 at -.580 among 59 goaltenders with at least 10 games played.

The final score was just about as misleading as it gets, with the Blueshirts scoring twice with the extra attacker over the final 4:18 that included Will Cuylle’s goal just a tick before the final buzzer. The final score, in fact, was almost as misleading as the 1-0 lead the Rangers held entering the third period.

“I thought throughout the whole game it wasn’t a great game by us by any means,” Mika Zibanejad said. “In the second period, I thought we had a few power plays and five-on-five shifts on which I don’t think anything happened either way.

“I didn’t think we got up to our level.”

The Rangers had been a little footloose and fancy-free through the second period but still were attentive enough to maintain the 1-0 lead they earned off Blake Wheeler’s slam-dunk from in front off a delicious deflection-centering feed from Zibanejad at 11:03 of the first period.

With head coach Peter Laviolette matching the Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Tyler Pitlick checking unit and the K’Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba pair against McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman, the Rangers limited the Oilers’ scoring chances. Laviolette switched off at times to match with Zibanejad, Wheeler and Chris Kreider, but essentially always with the Miller-Trouba tandem.

And despite a lack of crispness or energy, the Rangers had a 64.05 percent xGF for the first period, a 64.9 percent xGF for the second period, per Natural Stat Trick. Unfortunately, then came the third period in which the Oilers tied it at 3:07 with Hyman beating Jonathan Quick alone in front off a couple of passes on a rush led by McDavid.

Seventy seconds later, Edmonton had a 2-1 lead on Evander Kane’s drive from the slot following an offensive zone faceoff win. The Rangers were quite suddenly in disarray. Laviolette called timeout. It didn’t reverse momentum, with Edmonton scoring two more goals by the midway point of the period.

The Rangers’ xGF for the third period was 16.25 percent. That pretty much coincides with the eye test.

As composed as the Blueshirts have been for the most part, they have been stung by quick goals too often for reasonable explanation. This marked the ninth time the Blueshirts had surrendered two goals within a span of 1:18. Six times it has happened against Quick, who in fact had heard chants of “Quickie! Quickie!” late in the second period after several circus saves on an Edmonton power play. Again, the Rangers hadn’t been at their best, but there was nothing to suggest an imminent collapse.

There was nothing to suggest that the club would not be able to muster an attack against a vulnerable defense and goaltender. But that’s why the games are played on ice and not by spreadsheets.

“I thought we were living on the edge most of the night,” Kreider said. “We weren’t super crisp. We didn’t bear down on pucks as much as we should have.

“I definitely think we could have taken it to another level in the third instead of kind of taking a step back.”

The Rangers spoke about a lack of patience that caused east-west turnovers. They did not play a straight line game. They rarely forced Skinner to make a second save. They rarely forced the netminder to go side-to-side. The Blueshirts had little on the forecheck or on the rush game.

It’s been a while since the Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere unit has scored at five-on-five. It’s been eight games, in fact, dating to the Dec. 5 match in Ottawa.

Over those eight games, Wheeler has scored three goals at five-on-five, Vesey and Cuylle, two, with Zibanejad, Kreider, Adam Edstrom, Braden Schneider and K’Andre Miller one apiece.

Things are cyclical. Right now the Trocheck line is not tramping. The Rangers need the line to reignite.

There is one more game before the Christmas break, Saturday at the Garden against Buffalo. You would think the Rangers would put their best feet forward in this one. At 22-8-1, they have earned some benefit of the doubt.

Some.