CHICAGO — To say the Rangers played down to their opponent insinuates they were superior in the first place.
Not even that was a sure thing against the ever-rebuilding Blackhawks Wednesday night, when the Blueshirts couldn’t execute, well, anything in a 3-0 loss that counted as their third in a row.
It marked their sixth shutout loss of the season, as well as their first time getting blanked on the road.
When the Rangers offense has gone cold this season, it’s become almost completely stagnant.
It doesn’t just falter, it all but disappears. They struggle to connect on passes. Time in the offensive zone not only dwindles as the game goes on, but the quality plummets.
Watching Chicago’s first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard, dazzle in a two-point performance only pours salt in an open wound.
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ top pick in 2020, Alexis Lafrenière, has posted three goals (one empty-netter) in the last 14 games amongst several no-show performances.
It was a night when the Rangers marquee skaters could not get on the scoresheet, which more often than not means the team as a whole will have a hard time doing so.
If Artemi Panarin, J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad aren’t going, the Rangers lose so much of their offensive game.
This appeared to be one of the better games of the season for a Blackhawks team that had lost their last two in a row, as well as eight of their last 10.
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin had to be particularly sharp to start this one.
Stopping 10 shots through the first period on the way to 22 saves on the night, the star Russian netminder robbed the Blackhawks of at least two goals through the opening 20 minutes.
A long rebound set up Andre Burakovsky for a wide-open shot on goal, but Shesterkin got over in time to knock the puck away with his blocker.
Shortly after, Shesterkin slid over in time to deny Bedard off the rush with his left pad.
Despite outshooting the home team in the second period, the Rangers were on their heels.
The five-forward power-play unit, which was formed when Adam Fox went down for the foreseeable future with a shoulder injury, continued to struggle.
On their first rep of the night, the group could not gain control before Louis Crevier scored shorthanded for the 1-0 Chicago lead.
Head coach Mike Sullivan eventually opted to put Scott Morrow on the top of the first power play, but it did not change the result.
In the last five games, the Blueshirts power play has gone 0-for-11, including their 0-for-3 showing Wednesday night.
Around five minutes later, Ryan Donato crashed the net and whacked in a feed from Ilya Mikheyev, but the Rangers successfully challenged.
It was determined that Colton Dach had committed a hand pass prior to the goal.
All the Blackhawks had to do was continue at the rate they were going at before they finally struck again.
Bedard one-timed a feed from Burakovsky right over Shesterkin’s glove into the top corner of the net for the 2-0 lead.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
