TORONTO \u2014 Scoring just a single goal through four losses in their first six games of the season, the Rangers are painfully aware of the imbalance in their game.<\/p>\n
The 2-1 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on Thursday night \u2014 after Auston Matthew scored 58 seconds into the extra period \u2014 was just the latest display of the Blueshirts offensive deficiencies undermining their defensive effort.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been three straight games of the same story and three straight defeats.<\/p>\n
For head coach Mike Sullivan and the Rangers, the task now is to maintain the defensive level they\u2019ve reached while breaking through on the offensive side of their game.<\/p>\n
Not allowing their struggles to poison their confidence, however, will be just as crucial as finding the back of the net with some consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the easy thing to do, and if you\u2019re mentally weak, you\u2019re going to go off the rails,\u201d Rangers captain J.T. Miller said after the game. \u201cBecause this isn\u2019t working on paper. To me, it\u2019s about getting the look. It\u2019s not about if it goes in. Over time, you get the looks, they\u2019re going to go in. It\u2019s just easy to go the other way right now and that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to be mentally tough in here and we\u2019re going to keep pounding pucks at the net and outplaying the teams we\u2019re playing against. It\u2019s going to work eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Stolarz of the Toronto Maple Leafs makes a save against Sam Carrick #39 of the New York Rangers. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Mika Zibanejad whiffed on a shot that sent Matthews and William Nylander on a two-on-one rush. Nylander\u00a0dragged the puck around a sliding Fox to set the Maple Leafs captain up for an easy tap-in past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin less than a minute into overtime.<\/p>\n
It was one of the only odd-man rushes the Rangers have been burned on early this season, after the team struggled mightily to limit and contain such chances on a consistent basis last year.<\/p>\n
Braden Schneider of the New York Rangers plays the puck. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true, the Rangers have looked like a different team in the defensive zone compared to last season. Not only have the Rangers remained disciplined in their structure, they have outshot their opponents in their last four straight games.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Offensively, the Rangers have simply not had that finishing touch.<\/p>\n
Call it a snakebitten lineup, or call it a team that hasn\u2019t had puck luck on their side. Either way, the offensive rut has cost the Rangers some crucial points to start the season.<\/p>\n
Maple Leafs\u2019 Auston Matthews (34) battles for the puck with New York Rangers\u2019 Will Borgen (17) . AP<\/p>\n
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers makes a save against Easton Cowan #53 of the Toronto Maple Leafs. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting good looks,\u201d Fox said. \u201cI think everyone could kind of feel that, but we\u2019ve definitely got to finish on those chances, too. It\u2019s not just a game of expected goals. You\u2019ve got to actually finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than five minutes into the third period, the Rangers snapped a 170:39 scoreless streak that dated back to the third period of last Saturday\u2019s game in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
Juuso Parssinen, back in the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch in the previous two games, got a stick on a Braden Schneider shot from the top of the zone to knot the game at 1-1.<\/p>\n
Rangers forward J.T. Miller (8) moves the puck past Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Brandon Carlo. Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Rangers still went scoreless through the first two periods to make it eight straight frames without a goal. Failing to break the seal set in the previous two games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers fell behind in the opening period Thursday.<\/p>\n
After trading off a couple of power plays, the home team capitalized first with the man advantage. Nylander\u2019s shot pinballed through traffic before going in off Matthew Knies for the 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key for me right now is we got to make sure we don\u2019t get discouraged,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIt was a big point for us. It\u2019s an important point for us. We\u2019ve got to make sure that we control our own mindsets here moving forward. I think our intentions are in the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Scoring just a single goal through four losses in their first six games of the season,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[149242,1302,293,62,1304,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-309976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-igor-shesterkin","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115387950054193148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}