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.
Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers, who have lost 11 of 14 and fell to NHL .500 at 15-15-1.
Jonathan Marchessault scored in the first period and defenseman Adam Wilsby scored his first NHL goal in the third. Goaltender Juuse Saros made 25 saves to stymie the Rangers, who will have a couple days to lick their wounds before finishing their road trip in Dallas Friday.
If general manager Chris Drury wants to make changes to the roster, he will need to do so in the next couple days, 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 coach Peter Laviolette, the second-year bench boss who guided the team to the Presidents’ Trophy and an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final last season, but hasn’t had any success in trying to pull the Rangers out of the nosedive they are in. Given that, at the start of play Tuesday, the Rangers were outside of a playoff spot, 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, and there's always, I think those conversations wherever you go, especially if you've been in it for a long time. My real concern, or main concern, is getting a win tonight, getting back on track, getting back into the playoff race. Those are the things that we need to control and stay focused on.’’
Besides putting Kakko back in, Laviolette made one other change, inserting defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to the lineup. Vaakanainen, who was 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 on a goal by Marchessault 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 the play. Marchessault passed across to Filip Forsberg (Vaakanainen got a stick on it, but couldn’t stop it from getting across) and he passed to Steven Stamkos, who passed it across to Marchessault for a backdoor tap-in against a helpless Igor Shesterkin.
Wilsby walked around Reilly Smith just inside the blue line and fired a shot past Shesterkin from the slot with 8:00 left in regulation.
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.
Against St. Louis on Sunday, Laviolette reduced the ice time of center Mika Zibanejad, who started the season as the No. 1 center, but who played on a third line against the Blues and logged a season-low 13 minutes and four seconds.
Zibanejad was a minus-2 on Tuesday. His minus-17 is worst on the team.
“We need to play better,’’ Laviolette said at the morning skate of why he cut Zibanejad’s ice time. “We're not playing well enough. We're not doing the things that we need to do in order to be successful… There's got to be more from our team in general, from the players you mentioned, from myself, from everybody. We're either going to accept where we're at, or we're going to fight like hell, to make a difference and move out of this.’’
Zibanejad got more ice time Tuesday, playing 11:03 through two periods, though much of that was on the power play and penalty kill. He finished with 17:17 of ice time.
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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