The New York Rangers had no answer for Connor McDavid on Sunday night, and the Edmonton Oilers made sure the game was effectively over before the crowd could settle in. McDavid scored 50 seconds into the contest, and the Rangers were staring at an immediate hole on the way to a 4-1 loss.
New York is now 7-7-1 for 15 points through 15 games, and the four-game losing streak is starting to sting. The Blueshirts are still in the mix in the Metropolitan Division, but this stretch is doing damage.
The lone bright spot was Pavel Dorofeyev. His finish has been trending up for a while now, and the version of him that produced 37 goals last season with Vegas is starting to show again. He scored the Rangers’ only goal, while the rest of the offense generated chances but kept running into Matt Tomkins, who turned aside 27 shots.
Dorofeyev has to keep producing, but he can’t do it alone. He now has three goals and three assists in New York’s seven losses this season.
The bigger issue was what happened in front of rookie goalie Dylan Garand. It’s too easy to pin this one on him and miss the real story from the opening minutes.
Garand is 24 years old, has only 14 career appearances, and was asked to slow down the highest-scoring offense in hockey. That’s a brutal assignment for anyone, even Igor Shesterkin.
But the Rangers’ defense left him hanging right away. McDavid got a breakaway chance inside the first minute, then New York lost coverage in the slot less than three minutes later, and the Oilers were suddenly up 2-0. Garand gave the Rangers a chance to hang around, but the skaters in front of him never gave him early support in transition or enough finish at the other end.
Alexis Lafrenière also lands in the losing column, even if that’s a rare spot for him. He came in on a four-game point streak and has been excellent all season, but this was the kind of night where the Rangers needed him to take over. Instead, the streak ended, and he didn’t deliver the lift New York needed against the league’s best.
McDavid, meanwhile, kept adding to a night that already belonged to him. With two primary assists, he became the fastest player in NHL history to reach 30 assists in a season, doing it in just 15 games. That broke Wayne Gretzky’s 42-year-old record of 16 games set in 1984-85.
For the Rangers, it was another night spent chasing a player operating at a different speed entirely.
In Other News...
Rangers Just Made A Tough Bottom Six Bet On Youth
The Rangers kept tinkering with their bottom six at practice, and the latest adjustment put Will Cuylle in the middle of the third line. To create room, the club sent veteran winger Taylor Raddysh back to the Hartford Wolf Pack and brought up Jaroslav Chmela, a move that signals the staff is still searching for the right mix of size, speed and reliability deeper in the lineup.
Chmelas path back has been a little uneven, with a slow start to the season giving way to better play in the AHL before this recall. For the Rangers, the bet is clear enough: if the third line is going to settle in, it may have to do so with youth taking on a bigger role, even as the team keeps sorting through who belongs where on the wings. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Shake Up Their Lineup Again Searching For A Spark
The Rangers kept tinkering with their lineup on the eve of their game against the St. Louis Blues, recalling Jaroslav Chmelar from Hartford and sending Taylor Raddysh back to the AHL. It was the latest roster adjustment in a stretch of changes that has included several line combinations in practice as the club looks for a better rhythm after recent losses and injuries.
One of the more interesting looks came on the fourth line, where Noah Laba appeared to be in line for center duties with Chmelar and Matt Rempe on the wings. For a team still searching for a spark, the bottom six has become a moving target, and the Rangers now have another chance to see whether a different mix can bring a little more energy and stability. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Season Already Hinges On A Problem This Roster Must Solve
The Rangers were already trying to steady themselves after a rocky start, and the loss of Igor Shesterkin only made the challenge more urgent. With the club dealing with defensive issues and uneven play in front of him, the goaltending picture shifted quickly, forcing the rest of the roster to adjust on the fly as the losses piled up and the playoff outlook grew less certain.
Dylan Garand has been handed the crease in the meantime, giving the Rangers a new variable to manage while they search for answers elsewhere in the lineup. His first start offered a needed lift, but the larger question remains whether New York can tighten up enough defensively to keep this stretch from turning into something much harder to recover from. [Read more 🡒]