The Rangers went into Tuesday night looking to contain Edmonton’s star, Connor McDavid.
On that note, mission accomplished, as McDavid was held scoreless at Madison Square Garden.
Unfortunately, so were the Rangers — again — in a 2-0 loss.
In what’s become an alarming trend, the Rangers have not scored a goal in three home games this season, becoming the only team still active to open a season with that much futility on their home ice.
The Blueshirts are the first team to open the season with three consecutive shutout losses at home in NHL history.
Tuesday night featured several chances for the Rangers to snap that streak, but they were all either squandered, hit the post or stopped by Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner.
Trent Frederic finally broke the goalless tie at 10:22 in the second period, as he beat Igor Shesterkin on a breakaway.
Prior to the game, J.T. Miller and new head coach Mike Sullivan talked about the importance of limiting McDavid, who didn’t have a goal in his first two games of the season after signing an extension to remain in Edmonton rather than hitting free agency at the end of this season.
Miller said it was important the Rangers succeed at “impeding [McDavid’s] progress. If he doesn’t have to stop, you’re going to pay for it every time. Not once in a while. Every single time.”
“If it’s easy on guys like him, he’s going to have his way with us,’’ Miller said.
But on this night, that wasn’t the issue, as the Rangers continued to play solid defense under Sullivan.
They have allowed just seven goals in five games, with three empty-netters, but have lost three.
Shesterkin did his job again Tuesday, but the Rangers, who’d been outscored 4-0 in their first two games at home — while outscoring opponents 10-1 in a pair of road games — came up empty on offense.
Shesterkin wasn’t tested much in the first, but he was up to the task when Evan Bouchard fired one toward the corner of the net at 14:03.
The goalie, who entered with a 0.67 goals against average, snared it to keep the game scoreless.
The Rangers nearly took the lead early in the second period, but Braden Schneider’s shot hit the post at 2:00.
And after Frederic put the Oilers up, the Rangers were unable to take advantage of a pair of Edmonton penalties later in the period.
Another near-miss came not long after the penalties were killed, as Sam Carrick hit the post, as well, keeping the Rangers down by a goal.
It stayed that way through two periods, with the Rangers outshooting the Oilers 17-11.
The Rangers had more action in front of Skinner to open the third, but nothing went through.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
