The Rangers began the sprint of the 2020-21 season Thursday night against the Islanders — and they already appear to have shin splints.
You know, that shooting pain along the shin bone that flairs up when there’s a sudden increase in physical activity and overworking of the muscles. The Rangers must’ve been feeling that sting as they were shut out 4-0 at Madison Square Garden in their first of eight meetings with the Islanders this season.
The Rangers have said they don’t want to be defined by their three abysmal losses in the Toronto bubble last postseason, but they sure looked a lot like the same team that was overpowered, outworked and outmaneuvered more than five months ago.
The Islanders, on the other hand, looked like a team that’s ready to build on its run to the conference finals last season.
“We just weren’t prepared to play the right way right from the get-go,” David Quinn said on a Zoom call after the loss. “I just thought that we went back to doing some of the things we were doing in the bubble, cheating the game. There’s no shortcuts in this game, there’s zero shortcuts in this game. We were just playing hope hockey.”
There may have been just three rookies on the ice for the Rangers, but the rookie mistakes extended throughout the lineup. The Islanders capitalized on a flustered Rangers group that came out flat and took penalties left and right, commanding a 3-0 lead early.
This first game is a small sample size of what’s to come for the Rangers. But if the first period was any indication of how this young squad stacks up against the rest of the East, their sprint just got a whole lot steeper.
“One, they’re very good at what they do,” Quinn said of the Islanders. “They’re very structured, well-coached, they’ve got guys that understand how to win at this level. They don’t beat themselves. Unfortunately for us right now — and it’s one game — we didn’t play fast enough, we didn’t use our speed to our advantage. Every time we got a puck, we stood and looked to see who we could make a pass to on the other side of the ice.
“That approach doesn’t work against anybody, let alone the Islanders.”
Rookie netminder Igor Shesterkin was lit up for four goals on 33 shots, one or two of which he certainly would like back in his first opening night start. Semyon Varlamov notched his third shutout in an Islanders jersey and the 28th of his career, turning aside all 24 shots he faced.
The Rangers were on their heels from puck drop after defenseman Jack Johnson, in his first game in a red and blue sweater, was called for holding to put the Islanders on the man-advantage early.
Brock Nelson made quick work of that opportunity, burying one from the slot at 2:33 for the Islanders’ first goal of the season. Islanders captain Anders Lee converted a two-on-one rush for a 2-0 score just over a minute later.
Mathew Barzal rounded out the Islanders’ first-period scoring after waltzing around Tony DeAngelo to snipe Shesterkin over the glove. A power-play goal from Lee off a slick feed from Jordan Eberle late in the second period capped off the scoring for the night.
The Rangers tilted the ice for most of the second period and had ample time in the offensive zone, but their crowd-the-crease strategy fell short each time.
“I think it was a good lesson for our young group tonight in patient hockey and what it takes to win at this level,” Chris Kreider said. “That’s a very detailed team, they don’t give you a whole lot. Anything you get, you’ve got to earn. We relied a little bit too much on our east-west play, a little too much on our skill. We need to use our legs, use the things we’ve been working on the last week, and drive them deep and force them to skate, hit second layers and get bodies to the net. We didn’t do that.”
