Rangers look for answers after ‘unacceptable’ effort in loss to Blackhawks
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The New York Rangers roster shakeup has not paid the immediate dividends they were hoping for.
The Rangers have lost two of three games and two-in-a-row since trading captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, including a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the last-place Chicago Blackhawks at home on Monday night. The Blackhawks snapped a five-game losing streak with the win. New York now sits at 14-12-1 in a tie for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.
Following the loss, head coach Peter Laviolette said the team’s effort and execution was unacceptable.
“I believe the second and third period, the effort dipped from where it was in the first period and the execution was worse,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “The execution was off all night. Could be fatigue, could be mental, could be anything, regardless, it’s unacceptable. We have to be better than that, but we are not going to win hockey games if we can’t execute.”
The Rangers fired 30 shots on Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom but could only muster one goal. Forward Artemi Panarin was at a loss for words after the game.
“I don’t know what to say anymore,” Panarin said. “But we had tons of chances again, we should score, but we don’t. Chances don’t win the games, we know that. We have to score, hopefully again. I feel like I say that 100 times already, hopefully next game.”
Forward Will Cuylle scored the Rangers only goal in the second period, a short-handed goal that tied the game at 1-1.
“Every game is frustrating, especially right now,” Cuylle said. “We need to win games and we’re not doing that. It’s frustrating today, it will be frustrating when we wake up tomorrow. Our execution and speed wasn’t really there, we needed to keep it simple at times and we are trying to do too much.”
New York traded Trouba to the Ducks on Friday in exchange for defenceman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
The Rangers will try to snap their two-game ;losing streak on Wednesday when they visit the Sabres in Buffalo