Rangers, Igor Shesterkin demolished by Sabres in rare drubbing
It hasn’t happened often in recent years.
A loss of this magnitude had only befallen the Rangers once in the last 175 regular-season games.
That was until the Blueshirts’ complete and utter collapse Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, where the home team was made to look small and out of sorts in a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the young Sabres.
“There’s no excuse for what happened today,” Mika Zibanejad said. “Just got to understand that level isn’t good enough.”
This was the kind of defeat that not even an 8-3-1 record could mitigate.
The defensive dysfunction, disconnect on offense and overall lack of urgency should ring like three separate alarm bells inside the Rangers locker room.
It is too early in the season for the Rangers to be in cruise control. There are still 70 games left.
But that was the energy the Rangers gave off in front of their home crowd, which headed for the exits early since it certainly was not the kind of game worth sticking around for on a school night.
The Rangers are still missing that “pop,” as head coach Peter Laviolette has described it.
Their breakdowns in the defensive zone are ending up in the back of the net more often than not.
Worse, the Sabres repeatedly punched the Rangers in the mouth on the scoreboard, and there was little to no answer — not even a single swing of significant momentum in their favor.
Will Cuylle’s fourth goal of the season to cut the Sabres lead 5-1 less than five minutes into the third period hardly resonated.
“Once it got to three, we caved a little bit at that point for the rest of the second period,” Laviolette said. “I don’t like the fact that we weren’t on the attack more. I don’t think we were in an onslaught, and that’s why it was 3-0.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t generate more, we didn’t go after them, we didn’t attack them more. That’s what I’m going to look back at.”
Igor Shesterkin has been a Band-Aid for this Rangers team lately, but the goalie was not able to cover up his teammates’ mistakes this time around.
After letting in a rare soft goal 26 seconds into the game, Shesterkin was ultimately pulled in favor of Jonathan Quick after giving up five goals on 12 shots.
This was a glimpse of what the Rangers can look like when their star goalie’s brilliance fades.
By the way, the word on Shesterkin, who has otherwise been outstanding recently, is that there is nothing new to report regarding his contract negotiations.
The Sabres broke the game open in the second period, scoring four goals from four different players before finishing with 15 men on the scoresheet by the end of the night.
It was the type of thrashing the Rangers have given several teams this season.
It was a stark change of pace that perhaps needed to happen.
This kind of game might not happen often for the Rangers, but it just did at a pivotal time.
The magnitude of the loss won’t be remembered. How the Rangers proceed will.
“I don’t think anything went right,” Ryan Lindgren said. “We were soft on pucks, giving them way too many easy chances, leaving the goalies out to dry. From top to bottom, it was not good enough.”
