New York Rangers 'embarrassed' in Boston, leaving no doubt: It's time to sell, sell, sell
"That’s as bad as it gets," captain J.T. Miller said after New York's 10-2 loss to the Bruins. "This should make you want to puke."
BOSTON — Anyone who watched the New York Rangers play on Saturday could reach only one conclusion in regard to the internal roster decisions being weighed.
It’s time to sell, sell, sell.
Whatever happens in the 11 remaining games before the Olympic break is largely irrelevant. Allowing such a small sample to cloud team president Chris Drury’s judgment would be shortsighted and irresponsible. We’ve seen enough evidence in the last year and a half to know that the team he’s assembled doesn’t have it.
Kiefer Sherwood is a nice complementary piece on a contending team, but these Rangers are far from that.
They were embarrassed by the Boston Bruins, dropping a 10-2 stinker in front of a nationally-televised audience. It was the most goals they’ve allowed since Feb. 6, 2009, with the TD Garden mocking their Original Six rival with chants of “We want 10!” after the Bruins got it to nine.
They asked, and they received.
Pavel Zacha only needed a little more than half the game to earn his first career hat trick, for goodness sake. Marat Khusnutdinov completed his own early in the third period, marking the first time the Rangers have allowed two players to notch hat tricks in the same contest since Mario Lemieux and Joe Mullen did it for the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 9, 1993.
New York won the Stanley Cup the next season, but this version of bumbling Blueshirts feels a long way from that lofty perch.
“That’s as bad as it gets,” captain J.T. Miller said. “I don’t know, man. The only thing that really matters now is this should sting — like, this should suck. This should make you want to puke, and then respond tomorrow and the next day. The only thing that matters is a response.”
The Rangers (20-20-6) have now lost three in a row and seven of their last nine. We can go back even further and point out that they have just two regulation wins in their last 17 games. They’ve been one of the NHL’s lowest-scoring teams all season, and lately their defense is crumbling, with those problems exacerbated since star goalie Igor Shesterkin and No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox both were announced to be out with lower-body injuries earlier this week.
Back in October and early November, the Rangers could point to solid underlying numbers as evidence that they might turn things around. But after registering a 57.05 percent expected goals-for rate through their first 16 games, they plummeted to 46.34 percent in their next 29, according to Evolving Hockey. That will surely sink even lower once Saturday’s thrashing is factored in.
Coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged the slippage postgame, and when pressed on what’s gone wrong, he pointed to “details.”