The Rangers fell to the Devils tonight in Newark by the score of 5-4. For a box score, click here.
luckily. it’s preseason.
— Neill Fowler (@NYRblogneill) October 2, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
There’s not going to be a ton to take away from tonight’s game with the Devils essentially dressing their opening night lineup and the Rangers dressing a pair of players on PTO’s along with half of the Wolf Pack.
It wasn’t a good night in particular for Magnus Hellberg, who came into tonight’s game with 9:17 left in the second period and proceeded to allow three Devils goals in the final eight minutes of the period.
Ditto for Girardi who saw plenty of Taylor Hall tonight. AV at some point during the second period flip flopped Skjei and Bodie who was originally with the Ranger vet. Skjei found himself on the ice a lot tonight at 26:35. Again, from my first recap of the preseason, we aren’t going to take away season long conclusions from these first games, but it is becoming very apparent that the Rangers cannot afford to have Girardi go up against top liners anymore, regardless of the picture anyone within the team tries to paint.
Some of the good, John Gilmour continues to impress as a shooter from the point. Zibanejad is making Ranger fans forget about Brassard already and we’re not even 24 hours into October. Skjei’s defensive zone play continues to be stout. Clendening with two more assists continues to cement his case as a depth defenseman who could very well sneak onto the everyday lineup.
Vesey had a second period to forget after a bad defensive zone giveaway that ended up behind Hellberg seconds later, but might have had a more productive night on the scoresheet provided he had better linemates. Lapierre had a couple scoring chances set up to him from Vesey to no avail.
The Rangers continue their preseason on Monday against the Flyers in Philly.
(Photo credit: Al Bello/Getty Images)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
