LOS ANGELES — The Rangers have lamented their penchant for passing up shots, and this time it came back to bite them — and squash the momentum they had to start this road trip.
The Rangers suffered a 3-1 defeat to the Kings on Tuesday night, a listless game in a quiet building as the Blueshirts attempted to score only highlight-reel goals. There was no offensive traction, no real bite despite two fights and a rather inauspicious effort to follow up their heartening 5-0 win in Las Vegas on Sunday that opened this four-game western swing.
“We didn’t shoot enough,” Chris Kreider said after his team generated 30 shots on Jonathan Quick, but had the opportunity for at least 10 more. “I feel like every time I talk to the media, it’s the same thing — we didn’t shoot enough. We didn’t give up a whole lot, and they capitalized on their chances. When they did, they stayed in the structure and played a good defensive, heavy game. That’s the way they play.
“You can’t break a team down going east-west when they’re playing like that. We needed to have a little more snarl, get to the net, get pucks to the net. And we weren’t able to do that.”
The Rangers (15-12-3) are not a team with a lot of snarl, and the scraps that Brady Skjei and Brendan Smith got into were hardly heavyweight bouts. Instead, the Kings (12-18-2) just clogged the middle of the ice and were aided by officials Tim Peel and Kendrick Nicholson allowing the game to be played with little regard to the rule book.
“It’s a tough matchup. They’re big and strong, and if you look at our roster, we’re not a very heavy team,” coach David Quinn said. “It does make it difficult for us. They play with an edge, too, and they’re very well-coached and structured. When they get up 1-0, they do a very good job managing the game.”
That would be the goal that Dustin Brown scored with 10.1 seconds left in the first period, one of those deflating goals that can be mentally difficult to put in the past. To their credit, the Rangers came out in the second with the same type of effort as in the first, but it felt like banging their heads against the wall with the way the Kings were sucking the life out of the game.
There wasn’t a lot of space to be had anywhere, and despite the Rangers having the puck a lot, the chances they got on Quick weren’t overly dangerous. Kaapo Kakko, whose game seems to be picking back up, did have a good look from in front early in the second period, but his backhand was denied by the outstretched leg of Quick to maintain the one-goal edge.
Henrik Lundqvist played his first game in eight days after dealing with a minor back issue and his understudy Alexandar Georgiev playing great, but Lundqvist wasn’t able to catch a Matt Roy shot late in the second, the puck rolling down his back before it was batted over the goal line by Tyler Toffoli with 13:22 for a 2-0 lead.
“The way they play when they get the lead, they’re tight and don’t give up many scoring chances,” said Lundqvist, who finished with 23 saves. “We had a few good looks, and it’s a different game if we get a goal in the first or second period.”
The Rangers finally did get a goal when Peel made a terrible call on Brown for tripping with just over two minutes left in regulation, and Lundqvist was on the bench to make it a six-on-four man-advantage. Just sending a puck toward the net created a rebound that Artemi Panarin whacked in for his 15th of the season, making it 2-1 with 29.7 seconds remaining.
But it was too little, too late, as Adrian Kempe finished it moments later with an empty-netter.
“Right now it’s just frustration because we thought this was an opportunity to build on what we did the other day,” Quinn said. “This wasn’t a stinker, this wasn’t what we’ve seen before. But not good enough.”
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