The Rangers unwound, the game unraveled, and now it is reasonable to question whether this season will unravel for a squad that has struggled to find traction through the first seven weeks.
“I don’t know if it’s hubris or what, but we continually refuse to execute the things we know we need to do to win games,” Chris Kreider told The Post after the Rangers squandered a 3-0 third-period lead and fell 4-3 to the Oilers on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. “We speak about it, and we know what we need to do to win games, but we don’t actually execute it.
“I have no idea why. However, it is losing us games. Every loss has the same narrative.”
On November 6, a 2-0 second-period advantage against Detroit at Madison Square Garden turned into a 3-2 overtime setback. A 3-1 third-period lead against the Islanders at the Garden two nights later became a 4-3 setback. Now then, this.
Now this one caused a postgame meeting when head coach Gerard Gallant expressed his anger before addressing the media.
Gallant told the reporters, “Today we were abysmal.” It was humiliating and intolerable.
Probably the same message was conveyed to the club, which is floundering below the playoff threshold. Three of the four 2021 semifinalists did not qualify for the 2022 playoffs.
Chris Kreider displays a sad face as the Oilers celebrate scoring the game-winning goal in their 4-3 victory against the Rangers.
Jason Szenes
“Guys are aware of the standings,” stated Kreider. “We are mindful.”
We might have been duped.
The opening period went off without a hitch, with the Rangers taking a 3-0 lead on three goals scored at five-on-five while denying even a sniff to Edmonton’s powerful Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl first-line combo. The Oilers, who had lost to the Devils and Islanders earlier in the week, had been held scoreless for five consecutive periods.
Two points were available, but the Rangers squandered them. They had dropped two in a row in regulation, the first on Wednesday at Anaheim against a dreadful Ducks club that had won every game this season in 60 minutes. This is how a season is wasted.
Alexis Lafreniere’s penalty below the Edmonton goal line gave the Oilers a power play, during which Draisaitl scored the game-winning goal at 17:58 by beating Kreider through the back door.
Kreider stated, “I should have slashed and broken his stick.” “That’s on me.”
However, the unraveling began far earlier. The Blueshirts became minimalistic. They turned into paid spectators. They did not insert the puck deeply. They ceased their pressure on the Oilers. They gave up possession of the puck in the neutral zone. They opened the door.
“When we got the puck behind them, we got three [goals],” said Kreider, who earned the 2-0 goal at 15:54 of the second by banking one in off goaltender Jack Campbell from below the goal line. “After we ceased doing it, they obtained three. It is quite straightforward.
“We must learn from this experience.”
The Oilers did not pass up a golden opportunity. Edmonton scored three times on four shots inside 5:41, beginning with Evan Bouchard’s goal at 4:40, one second after K’Andre Miller was freed from the penalty box for an infraction as unnecessary as Lafreniere’s.
The first two goals, scored by Pierre-Luc Bouchard, and the third, scored by Dylan Holloway from the left side, were all scored on first shots from considerable distance. Igor Shesterkin is allowing goals that he did not allow previous season. This explains why the Rangers are unable to overcome lapses as effectively as they did last season.
The Rangers used a four-line rotation for the majority of the game and appeared to be in control, with the Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Artemi Panarin forward unit and the Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox duo largely lined up against McDavid and Draisaitl.
Lindgren’s permanent exit from the game at 6:56 of the third inning after bearing the brunt of a collision with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did not help, but the unraveling had already begun.
“It’s late in the second period,” Kreider stated. “And we discussed it.”
Even though it is not even December, the Rangers are already in dire straits. They’ve won 10 of 22 contests (10-8-4). They have won four of 11 (4-4-3) in the Garden. Perhaps Gallant is running out of time.
Because games such as these — note the plural — can have consequences.
»Why this Rangers defeat is even more devastating than others«