The New York Rangers will play their second game of a three-game road trip against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. They likely did not travel in the best mood after a difficult stretch before the Christmas break.
Last season’s Eastern Conference runners-up were doing well after a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 19, bringing their record to 12-4-1. Since then, the Rangers have gone into a 4-13-0 slump, with poor performances and an offense that has struggled, dropping them out of playoff contention.
In the past 17 games, all ending in regulation, the Rangers have been outscored 61-35 by their opponents.
In their last game before the break, the Rangers were shut out 5-0 by the Devils in the Hudson River Rivalry. During the game, the Devils showed footage of Rangers fans booing New Jersey’s selection of Jack Hughes in the 2019 draft, which allowed New York to take Kaapo Kakko with the next pick.
Kakko was traded to the Seattle Kraken last week, and the camera showed a smiling Hughes on the Devils’ bench.
Rangers general manager Chris Drury said after trading captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 7, “I’m not opposed to making more changes…But big picture, the team has been through a lot the last couple of weeks. We’d like to let the dust settle a little bit.”
The Rangers have a tough stretch ahead, with eight of their next nine games against teams currently in playoff spots.
Artemi Panarin leads New York with 15 goals and 37 points, but other key players have struggled. Chris Kreider, with 11 goals and just one assist, was scratched against New Jersey, sparking trade rumors. Mika Zibanejad has only six goals and practiced with the top power-play unit on Friday.
In contrast, the Lightning ended their break on a high note, bouncing back from a 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers with a 4-0 shutout win on the road, with backup goaltender Jonas Johansson making 36 saves.
Tampa Bay had suffered a tough loss on Sunday, with Florida scoring a power-play goal and two short-handed goals during the same penalty kill. But Johansson’s strong performance helped them recover, stopping nine power-play shots for his fourth career shutout.
Coach Jon Cooper praised Johansson’s play, saying, “He has a unique gift of being able to hang in there and not play seven or 10 games and give you a good one. Those guys are hard to find.” Johansson is 4-1-1 this season with a .902 save percentage in seven appearances. Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Lightning’s starting goaltender, is expected to start against New York.
Nikita Kucherov reached a team-high 50 points with a goal on Monday, continuing his hot streak with 21 points in his last 10 of 11 games.
