The New York Rangers have both positives and negatives to take away from their 6-3 record against the league-leading Winnipeg Jets.
Over the past few games, the Rangers have had some defensive issues, and those struggles continued Tuesday night.
Mark Scheifele scored less than a minute into the game to give the Jets an early 1-0 lead. Rapid opposition starts have been a common theme recently for Rangers, costing them dearly.
However, the Rangers didn’t let that derail them and throughout the night New York faced the red-hot Jets.
Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko found the back of the net, as the Rangers managed to generate several high-quality scoring chances and outshot Winnipeg 36-33.
It was Rangers’ defensive play that ultimately led to their downfall.
Virtually all of Winnipeg’s goals came from defensive mishaps and sloppy turnovers. It was almost like the Rangers were shooting themselves in the foot.
“It seems like we made some mistakes in the game that cost us dearly and the situation quickly turned around,” said Peter Laviolette. “There have been a lot of isolated incidents where they are the best team in the league and they make you pay and they did that to us.”
Mika Zibanejad is a player who committed some costly giveaways that led to goals. Watching the match, it was clear that Zibanejad didn’t have his best game, but Laviolette refused to place the blame squarely on the veteran striker’s shoulders.
“I can’t speak for Mika and where he is,” Laviolette said. “I know we are counting on Mika and he is a player who has an impact for us. Sometimes when you push offensively to make things happen, it goes the other way.
Rangers had some positives in their performance that they can certainly be happy with.
These are just small details that this team needs to focus on and should happen over time.
The Rangers next play Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks.
