Rangers blanked by Predators for third straight loss
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette watches his players during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Credit: AP/George Walker IV
NASHVILLE – Kaapo Kakko was back in the lineup for the Rangers on Tuesday against the last-place Nashville Predators, but Artemi Panarin wasn’t.
Panarin missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury, while Kakko was back in after being a surprise healthy scratch in Sunday’s loss to St. Louis.
But nothing makes a difference for the Rangers these days. They were shut out for the first time this season in a 2-0 loss to the Predators for their third straight defeat.
Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers, who have lost 11 of 14.
“You try to find positives,’’ a dejected-looking Ryan Lindgren said. “But losing like this is obviously real tough. And you keep thinking it's gonna change and it just isn't for us right now. And all you can do is to wake up in the morning, get back to work, and just claw your way out of it.’’
“We're in the business of winning, and so when you're not winning, it's frustrating,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said. “Everybody's irritated by the whole thing. We’ve got to find a way out. We’ve got to do it quickly.’’
Jonathan Marchessault scored in the first period and defenseman Adam Wilsby scored his first NHL goal in the third for the Predators, while goaltender Juuse Saros (7-14-5) made 25 saves to earn his third shutout of the season.
The Rangers’ best chance to score came while shorthanded in the second period. Trailing 1-0, Vincent Trocheck skated in on a breakaway but Saros made a glove save.
“We’ve got to find ways to score goals,’’ Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. “They did a good job on the (penalty) kill … they're obviously blocking a lot (29 blocked shots), getting in lanes. But we knew that going in, so there needed to be more bad-angle shots, stuff just thrown into mud and jumping on the loose stuff.’’
The Rangers, who fell to 15-15-1, finish their road trip Friday in Dallas. If general manager Chris Drury wants to make changes to the roster, he will need to do so before the NHL’s Christmas roster freeze goes into effect Friday. If he can’t make a trade by then, he’ll have to wait until Dec. 27.
Of course, Drury could also consider firing Laviolette, the second-year bench boss who guided the team to the Presidents’ Trophy and an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final last season. Laviolette hasn’t had any success in trying to pull the Rangers out of this nosedive. At the morning skate, Laviolette was asked if he had any concerns about his own job security.
“Those are things that I can't control,’’ he said. “I've been in this a long time ... there's always, I think, those conversations wherever you go, especially if you've been in it for a long time.’’
Besides putting Kakko back in, Laviolette made one other change, inserting defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to the lineup. Vaakanainen, the player the Rangers got back from Anaheim in the Dec. 6 Jacob Trouba trade, had been on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He made his Rangers debut, partnered on the third defense pair with Chad Ruhwedel.
That pair was on when Nashville opened the scoring Marchessault’s goal at 13:37. Ruhwedel attempted to keep a puck in the offensive zone and couldn’t do it, sparking a 3-on-1 rush with Vaakanainen back and Ruhwedel chasing Marchessault up the right wing. Marchessault passed across to Filip Forsberg – Vaakanainen got a stick on it, but couldn’t stop it from getting across – and he sent it to Steven Stamkos, who passed it across to Marchessault for a backdoor tap in.
Wilsby, a rookie defenseman playing in his 10th game, walked around Reilly Smith just inside the blue line and fired a shot past a screened Shesterkin from the slot with 8:00 left in regulation.
Notes & quotes: With Vaakanainen entering the lineup, Connor Mackey was returned to AHL Hartford … Jimmy Vesey played in his 600th career game … Jonny Brodzinski and Victor Mancini were the scratches.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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