Written by Justin Tasch at New York Daily News
This had the makings of a classic trap game, and it played out that way for the Rangers.
Their five-game winning streak was snapped with a 5-3 home loss Tuesday night to Vancouver, which entered the game on a nine-game losing streak and was playing the second game of a back-to-back. The Rangers’ poor effort ticked off their coach.
“Our execution was non-existent,” Alain Vigneault said. “Couldn’t make a 10-foot pass. When you execute like that and you can’t pass and can’t put your speed on display, we didn’t deserve to win tonight. It’s that simple.”
After five straight games of scoring at least five goals, the Rangers allowed five themselves on the same day they traded defenseman Dylan McIlrath to the Florida Panthers.
The Rangers (10-4) were devoid of intensity playing their third game in four nights, and it led to Chris Kreider and Jimmy Vesey seeing less ice time in the third period for the second time in four games. Vesey played just 1:49 on two shifts over the final 20 minutes.
“Nobody even had a C-game tonight,” Vigneault said.
Matters were complicated in the third period when Antti Raanta had to leave the game at 8:27 after a league spotter ordered the goaltender to go through concussion protocol.
Exactly four minutes earlier, Raanta landed hard on the ice, hitting his head after he was barreled into by Markus Granlund.
“Last year when I had the concussion I had way different symptoms, so I knew that it’s going to be fine, and I just tried to do it as quickly as possible and come back to the game,” Raanta said.
After going 0-for-4 on the power play earlier in the night, the Rangers cashed in with Rick Nash’s 400th career goal to tie the game at 5:27.
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