NEW YORK _ Rangers coach David Quinn said on Monday that he still didn't have enough information, after just six games, to make real judgments about his team. However, the coach promised, by the end of this current five-game homestand, he should have a better idea of how good his team really is.
Two games into the homestand, the Rangers find themselves on what is now a five-game losing streak, though they got a point Tuesday night when they lost in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden. Christian Dvorak beat Alexandar Georgiev with a wicked shot under the crossbar 1:04 into the three-on-three overtime to drop the Rangers to 2-4-1 on the season, while the Coyotes improved to 5-2-1. They return to action Thursday against Buffalo in the third game of the homestand.
The game was tied at 2 after two periods and there no one scored in the third. Tony DeAngelo, who a couple of games ago was in Quinn's doghouse for shoddy defensive play, benched for the third period and all but two shifts of the second in Friday's loss to Washington, scored both Rangers goals, both on plays near the goalmouth in the second period. Both goals tied the score at the time.
After they were dominated by Vancouver in the first period of Sunday's 3-2 loss, Garden fans might have expected the Rangers to get off to a better start against the Coyotes. Instead, the visitors spent most of the first 20 minutes in the Rangers' end, and outshot their hosts, 21-3. However, only one shot managed to get by Georgiev, and so the Rangers entered the second down by just 1-0.
They tied it when DeAngelo joined the rush on a two-on-one break on which saw Pavel Buchnevich center the puck to Brendan Lemieux, whose shot was saved by Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper. But DeAngelo was right there to pop in the rebound for his second goal of the season, at 5:04.
The Coyotes took the lead on a power-play goal by Alex Goligoskli, at 13:46, with Buchnevich sitting out a tripping penalty, but DeAngelo's second of the game, on a power play at 18:00, tied the score again, at 2-2. Arizona's Christian Fischer was sitting out a penalty for delay of game after shooting the puck over the glass, when the Coyotes were called for having too many men on the ice, giving the Rangers a five-on-three advantage for 1:09.
They weren't able to take advantage on the two-man advantage, but after the first penalty expired, the Rangers' second power-play unit got them back level on the scoreboard. Kaapo Kakko, who had told a Finnish reporter of his frustrations with his lack of production this season, passed the puck to Ryan Strome, down by the left goal post and Strome relayed it across the crease just as DeAngelo drove the net to tap it in.
Meanwhile, Quinn continued to tinker with his forward lines, trying to find the right mix. After defensive-minded forward Jesper Fast had a goal and an assist in Sunday's game, Quinn moved the 27-year-old Swede to the right wing of the top line, with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. In his pregame media briefing, the coach said he hoped Fast would "give those two guys a little bit of stability." By midway through the second period, Quinn apparently had changed his mind, and moved Chris Kreider onto the first line, in Fast's place. Kreider had played with Panarin and Zibanejad in each of the two previous games. Early in the third period, though, Quinn put Fast back on the top line.
