Rangers fall 6-3 to Blue Jackets for third straight loss: Takeaways
Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images The New York Rangers’ four-game winning streak last week is now a distant memory. It’s been replaced by a three-game losing streak that continued Thursday night when they lost 6-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. The Blueshirts weren’t overwhelmed the way they were in their 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
But good teams take advantage of bad teams’ mistakes, and the Rangers made too many against a Blue Jackets team that improved to 17-2-4 since Rick Bowness replaced Dean Evason behind the bench in mid-January and has points in 11 straight games (7-0-4). The win moved the Jackets past the New York Islanders into third place in the Metropolitan Division; each has 83 points but Columbus has a game in hand. Alexis Lafreniere scored his 20th goal of the season and added an assist for the Rangers.
Mika Zibanejad also had a goal and an assist, Vincent Trocheck also scored and Igor Shesterkin played better than his final stats (31 saves on 36 shots) would indicate. The Blueshirts managed just 25 shots against Jet Greaves. It’s their ninth losing streak of at least three games this season.
Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images The Rangers fell to 28-33-6, a distant last in the Eastern Conference and 29th in the overall standings. As was the case 24 hours earlier, the only Ranger who was ready to play from the drop of the puck was the goaltender. Vladislav Gavrikov took a hooking penalty 45 seconds into the game and the Blue Jackets spent the next two minutes firing away, forcing Shesterkin to make eight saves in two minutes.
Tye Kartye gave Columbus a second power play when he took a careless high-sticking penalty at 4:53. This time, however, the Rangers not only killed the man-advantage, they took the lead on Vincent Trocheck’s shorthanded goal at 5:41. Trocheck picked the pocket of fellow Team USA member Brad Werenski at the left point, raced in alone and snapped a quick shot past James Reimer.
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