The Rangers did just enough offensively and rode brilliant netminding from Igor Shesterkin to a 2-1 win over the Senators. One other aspect keyed the win; special teams. The Rangers killed five-for-five over 8:56 against the Senators, who had entered the match with a 42.9 percent power-play proficiency, while going 1-for-2 with the man advantage. New York-New York is the matchup Sunday at MSG.

Game recap:






Lines:
Kreider - Zib - Smith
Panarin - Trocheck - Laf
Cuylle - Chytil - Kakko
Edström - Carrick - Brodzinski

Miller - Fox
Lindgren - Trouba
Schneider - Mancini

Igor
Quick

Rempe, Jones the healthy scratches, Jimmy Vesey still on LTIR (last game in that status)

A few thoughts:
1) Good first period followed by two poor ones. New York helped control play in the initial 20 minutes. After that, all Ottawa. The numbers below evidence that, some of which are very, very ugly, and it's three of the last four contests where the team was outplayed.

The scoring chances at five-on-five through the final 40 minutes at the Garden were 19 for the Senators and four for the Rangers after a saw-off for the first 20. Overall for the final two periods, it was 31-7 for Ottawa, per NaturalStatTrick. The total shots were 41-18, against.

Attention to detail collapsed over the final 40 minutes, through which they took too many penalties, gave the puck away far too often and were guilty of numerous lapses in the neutral zone and in defensive zone coverage.

Mentioned this in last night's story (which you can read here: https://t.co/ck0XtuaspH), but this was the second straight game in which the #NYR top 6 got caved in.

Kreider-Zib-Smith: 4-12 attempts, 3-5 SOG, 36.06% xGF

Panarin-Trocheck-Laf: 7-21 attempts, 3-9 SOG, 30.63% xGF

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 2, 2024

Similar story for the D pairs, with Miller-Fox the lone bright spot...

Miller-Fox: 12-8 attempts, 7-2 SOG, 79.12% xGF

Lindgren-Trouba: 4-25 attempts, 2-12 SOG, 13.65% xGF

Schneider-Mancini: 5-23 attempts, 3-15 SOG, 13.59% xGF

All stats via @NatStatTrick #NYR

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 2, 2024

The penalty kill and play of Igor between the pipes were the two main positives, as noted above, plus the two points in the standings. If you want to add in the PPG and assist by Alexis Lafreniere, that's fine. But the Rangers were unable to match the speed and intensity of Ottawa most of the contest.

Another huge stop by Igor Shesterkin, this time on Giroux#NYR pic.twitter.com/6W8wmWX2ZZ

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 2, 2024

Based on how they performed on the ice, we all had a feeling a change was and needed to occur, The lines today in practice reflect that change. Maybe it's a one-game move, maybe they click and stick together. But right now, despite the 7-2-1 record, not all was well with the team and

Changes in practice today and possible lines versus the Islanders:
Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kreider-Chytil-Kakko
Cuylle-Trocheck-Smith
Edström-Carrick-Vesey

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Jones-Schneider

Shesterkin
Quick

Mancini, Brodzinski look like they will be healthy scratches.

Coach Peter Laviolette maintained some duos, but he is searching for answers. Laf and Artemi Panarin skate with Mika Zibanejad in an attempt to get him going. Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko have shown chemistry together, so they maintain that pairing while adding Chris Kreider. The third line is a complete mash up, as none of the three have played together this season. Vesey returns from injury and slides onto his usual fourth line spot with Adam Edstrom and Sam Carrick.

What's old is new on the blueline, Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox are back together. Same with K'Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba, Zac Jones and Braden Schneider have played as a unit previously as well. Lavy is trying to find units that can slow down the opponent, maintain possession and remediate the issues recently. These pairing had their good and bad moments last season, let's see where these land and how long they remain combined.

With Vesey back, Matt Rempe was sent down to the AHL. Rempe needs to play and not sit, He should get that chance in Hartford. As seen by the tweet, the cap implications now, and especially for the future, with taking Vesey off LTIR and sending Rempe down are fairly significant. Barring injury or collapse, look for the current 22 man roster to remain as is for a while.

With Rempe being sent down and Vesey expected to be activated from LTIR tomorrow, the #NYR will be left with about $1.35 million in available cap space. That puts them on pace to accrue around $5.5M by the March 7 trade deadline.

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 2, 2024

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