Red Wings-Rangers wrap-up: Shesterkin, d-zone draws and special teams struggles add up to a frustrating night in New York

The Detroit Red Wings lost a 4-1 decision to the New York Rangers on Monday night, dropping the first game of a home-and-home series against New York.

The Wings will get almost 3 days to think about their loss as they don’t reprise their roles until Thursday at Little Caesars Arena (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/Hulu), and the Red Wings are going to need to start putting points on the board early here as they stand at 1-and-2 after 3 games.

It’s not going to get any easier playing against Igor Shesterkin (31 saves on Monday) and the Rangers’ tremendous defensive play (and offensively opportunistic cast of superstars), but the Red Wings need to at least give a strong showing on Thursday to steady the ship.

Dylan Larkin’s goal scored with 1.3 seconds remaining in the 1st period was arguably the only highlight of the game for Detroit:

Instead of building upon having evened the score in the final seconds of the 1st period, the Red Wings were unable to break through the Rangers’ goaltender in the 2nd, despite out-shooting the Rangers 14-10–with the fact that the Red Wings blew 2 of their 4 power plays on the night in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd not helping the cause…

And after Chris Kreider gave the Rangers a go-ahead goal with just over 2 minutes remaining in the 2nd period, the Rangers basically rode Shesterkin and some opportunistic offense to their second victory in three tries (2-0-and-1).

Mika Zibanejad told the New York Post’s Mollie Walker that the team is sorting its issues out:

“I think we’re getting there,” Zibanejad said before the win, in which the Rangers’ No. 1 center recorded his first point of the season after posting just one shot on goal and a minus-3 rating through the first two contests. “I’ve mentioned this many times when you guys ask me about different linemates and this and that. So either it clicks right away, and it’s great — everyone wants that. I think we’re right there. I think there’s a lot of good things that we have and we also continue talking.

“The only way we can get better is obviously working at it and then being able to go back to the tape. Going back to the game and saying, ‘What can we do differently? What can we do more of?’ I thought we’ve been creating some chances, so how can we get to that opportunity more often? Just go from there.

“I think this could be something really good, but obviously we just got to keep working at it. Hopefully with time, we build the chemistry and we build that and we have a different conversation in a couple months.”

At the same time, Zibanejad told Northjersey.com’s Vincent C. Mercogliano that the Rangers were relieved to win:

“Confidence-wise, when you get one, you get more energy,” the Rangers’ No. 1 center said following Monday’s 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden. “You feel like you get a little bit of swag back, too. You can skate a little bit more and not be tired, so it’s obviously nice to get the first one out of the way.”

So, is that how he felt after a three-point performance that wiped away the zeros he posted in the first two games of the season?

“I’m just happy we won, honestly,” said Zibanejad, holding back the ever-so-slight hint of a smile.

It’s become a bit of a touchy subject for the 31-year-old, who’s coming off the worst five-on-five scoring season in his eight years with the Rangers and has been trying to block out any negativity associated with it.

A vocal segment of the fan base pounced after a subpar pair of games to start the new season, but Monday served as a reminder that it’s far too early to jump to conclusions.

“This was only the third game of the year,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s not like we’re at game 12. If you go back and you look at the games, I thought in Pittsburgh (for opening night), that line (with Zibanejad, Smith and Chris Kreider) was really good. I thought they played a heck of a game. And, tonight, they were productive.”

The “line of the night” went to the Red Wings’ coach, however, in discussing Igor Shesterkin’s performance:

“He’s special,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde told reporters before delivering the line of the night. “I can see why he turned down the $88 (million dollars). Good agent.”

As The Athletic’s Peter Baugh noted, Shesterkin was by far the game’s best player–for both teams…

Arguably Shesterkin’s best save of the young season came late in the second. A Filip Chytil turnover led to a Red Wings two-on-zero, but Shesterkin robbed J.T. Compher in front of the net when the forward tried to bury a pass from Raymond.

“I just saw him in the front of the net,” Shesterkin said. “I knew he was a righty, and I tried to read the play and play a little bit aggressively.”

He made another net-front save on Compher late in the third while protecting a two-goal lead.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette countered with a few comments of his own, per NHL.com’s Dan Rosen…

“He was really good,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was a really tough game to judge him last game. I’ve said this before, there’s times where I think we just do things that not a lot of goaltenders can do. Not a lot of goaltenders can make the saves that needed to be made last game. He might make one but when you leave four or five of them out there, there’s going to be trouble coming at you. And so I was glad to see that we got better right in front of him, tightened up a little bit in front of him, but there’s still work to do. Goaltenders are there to make big saves and he’s really good at that. I thought he played really well tonight.”

Zibanejad did not have a point in the Rangers’ first two games, including being a minus-4 against Utah.

“He is one of the best players on our team and really important for us to let him get confidence because he’s so important for us,” Shesterkin said.

For the Red Wings, the game yielded a frustrating result…

“There’s more we definitely could have done, but obviously [Shesterkin] was a really, really big difference in it,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “He’s special.”

Dylan Larkin scored, and Patrick Kane had an assist for his first point of the season for the Red Wings (1-2-0), who were 0-for-4 on the power play and fell to 1-for-11 through three games. Alex Lyon made 24 saves in his first start for Detroit.

The Red Wings and Rangers play again at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

“I thought we had enough looks to win this hockey game and it just didn’t go in,” Larkin said. “A little bit of credit to Shesterkin. I don’t think we sifted enough pucks through traffic and made second and third opportunities, but it’s something to learn from and we’ve got these guys again on Thursday. If he’s playing, we’ve got to remember that he struggles with second and third opportunities. Other than that, if you’ve got him one-on-one, he’s a world-class goalie. We’ve got to make it hard on him.”

And coach Lalonde told Rosen that the Wings are not going to be thrilled pre-scouting Thursday’s game, because Monday’s was so frustrating to watch for both fans, players, and coaches alike:

“This is going to be a frustrating game to watch back because we did some pretty good things, underlying numbers are going to be very positive,” Lalonde said. “But you put a pretty good performance like that on the road against a team like this, you’ve got to start looking for ways to get some points.”

Coach Lalonde wasn’t necessarily feeling charitable about Alex Lyon’s overall performance, either, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff noted:

Alex Lyon made 24 saves in becoming the third Red Wings starting goalie in as many games.

“Really good,” was Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s assessment of Lyon’s work to Bally Sports. “Obviously, he looked sharp in there. I want to look some of the goals back. Maybe one or two he might want to replay there, but he gave us a chance. Like always, he battled extremely hard. He just got outdueled by probably the best in the league.”

Then there’s this stat…

Considering that the team saw 75 goals from last season’s roster depart through trades and free agency, putting the puck in the net is going to be a concern. Detroit’s power play is also a dismal 1-for-11 (9.09%).

“We need goals,” Red Wings coach Lalonde said. “That’s clear.”

Coach Lalonde was equally blunt about that 2nd period performance, too, as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

“Shesterkin is special, a very special goalie, and he was the difference,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “The second period, we probably should have found a second goal, but he was the difference.”

Kreider’s goal at 17 minutes, 5 seconds of the second period broke a 1-1 tie. Mika Zibanejad found Kreider alone near the post on the power play, where Kreider thrives, tipping the puck past goaltender Alex Lyon.

“They have five guys (on the power play) who are real dangerous,” Lyon said. “We did a great job on the kill, blocked some shots, and did pretty well, but sometimes you have to tip your hat.”

Somewhat ironically, Justin Holl’s performance was a bright spot for the Wings, as Holl and Simon Edvinsson seem to have developed into a fine second pairing on defense…

Justin Holl, playing in his second game since being recalled from Grand Rapids (having been waived to begin the season), skated down from the point and centered a pass to Larkin in the slot, who snapped his second goal with just two seconds remaining in the period.

“A great play, and Justin produced some offense, he gave us another good game on the back end,” Lalonde said.

But special teams were a bugaboo, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James noted…

The Wings’ first power play latest but 20 seconds, as Seider was called for interference; that was the Wings’ only man advantage in the first period. In the second, they went on one a couple minutes in. As in the previous games, the Wings had a power play where they did everything but score. Point the finger at Shesterkin this time; he was brilliant, including a highlight windmill save on Alex DeBrincat, one of six saves made during that two-minute stretch. It was the Rangers who were able to use take advantage of having an extra skater in the second period, though, with Chris Kreider tipping Mika Zibanejad’s shot at 17:07 to make it 2-1.

“The game winning goal was on the power play,” Lalonde said. “They won the special teams game.”

As MLive’s Ansar Khan noted, the Wings also surrendered multiple goals because they couldn’t win defensive zone faceoffs…

The importance of defensive-zone face-offs was apparent in the New York Rangers’ 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Monday at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers took the lead and added to it by scoring goals following face-off wins.

Chris Kreider snapped a tie in the second period with a power-play goal and Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves.

The Red Wings fell to 1-2-0. These teams meet again Thursday at Little Caesars Arena (7:30 p.m., ESPN-Plus/Hulu).

It was the power play that had Dylan Larkin feeling a bit stung, as DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills noted…

“We just haven’t gotten enough quality looks at the net,” Larkin said. “I think we’ve done a good job setting up possession in the zone and we’ve moved the puck well. I also think that, for whatever reason right now, we do really well on the first power play then we kind of go to sleep for the rest of our opportunities. That can’t happen.”

And, among Mills’ quotes:

Lalonde on how much he can tinker with the Red Wings’ power play “Probably get Gus [Erik Gustafsson] back there. Again, we have a lot of options. It’s just the hands don’t perfectly line up at times, but we just got to play through it. We’ll look at it back. Obviously the power play hasn’t produced, we only have one [power-play goal] on the year, but we’ve been having some looks.”

Lyon on his first start of the season “Felt good, pretty confident. I think it maybe could have been a bit sharper, but I can work with that. Just got to keep grinding and get back to work. It was a good team. I thought we played a tight game. The guys battled hard and played well.”

Lalonde on Lyon’s performance “Good, really good. Second period he was excellent. They had some Grade A’s. I’ll have to look at the first goal against, probably knowing him — how competitive he is and he was working hard tonight — I’m sure he wanted a couple of those back.”

Larkin on Shesterkin “He was good. We got looks. I actually thought we had enough looks to win this hockey game. It just didn’t go in. Little bit of credit to Shesterkin, I don’t think we sifted enough pucks through traffic and made second and third opportunities. Something to learn from, and we got these guys again on Thursday.”

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood put a bow on things with this:

Detroit knew Shesterkin would be a tough nut to crack, but not an impossible one. Just a couple nights ago, Utah scored six goals on him in an overtime win. Maybe that had certain motivating effects on Shesterkin, but it also proved that he is, in fact, human. He is, in fact, fallible. But that didn’t matter because Detroit failed to play well enough to earn a win.

Unforced penalties ruined the Red Wings’ momentum, including a hook by Austin Watson in the first period, a high-sticking call on Justin Holl that led to Chris Kreider’s game-winning power play goal, and especially a delay of game by goaltender Alex Lyon for a net knocked off its moorings (Lyon, in his first start of the season, saved 24 out of 27 shots). As these sorts of errors put the Rangers in the driver’s seat, the Red Wings couldn’t find a groove to try and score again.

It’s these same Rangers that come to Detroit on Thursday, a night the Red Wings will hope goes much better than their trip to New York City. If Shesterkin is in net, it’s safe to say they’ll have another challenge on their hands.

That net-off-the-moorings call was bullshit, by the way…

Anyway, this stat from the Rangers’ website stands alone in terms of its frustration level for someone who views the Rangers as an all-time old-school rival (that would be me):

With the win in the first game of a home-and-home series, the Rangers have earned at least one point in 12 of their last 13 games against Detroit (10-1-2) and 19 of their last 21 games against the Red Wings, dating back to Jan. 22, 2017 (14-2-5 record).

And this one was missed by most, as noted by the Associated Press:

Kane assisted on Larkin’s goal for his 814th career assist to pass Mike Modano for second-most among U.S.-born players.

The Red Wings need more from Kane and everybody else going forward, and they need to be better in front of their own goaltenders. They’re making too many unforced errors, and that’s a problem all over the ice.

Who knows, they get another crack at the Rangers after a day off on Tuesday and a day of practice on Wednesday. Maybe a little rest and then some re-calibrating will do them some good.

Multimedia:

Highlights: NHL.com posted a 9:52 highlight clip: