Preseason review: The Rangers roll through Boston with a 5-2 loss

Remember, it's just preseason.

1st period

Things didn't start ideally; The B's were beaten with two penalties in quick succession, and well… that was evident when Adam Fox scored the opening goal when he hammered home a very juicy rebound to give New York the lead 1:0.

You could drive a reasonably large SUV through this gap in the cover.

But! Things improved when Brett Harrison was the lucky recipient of a pass from Morgan Geekie midway through the period and he hurried to take Jonathan Quick off his line and slide him through his five-hole Draw for 1!

Morgan Geekie's pass was incredible, but let's give Harrison a little credit for pulling it all off while a Ranger tries to basically cling to him like a salamander.

Unfortunately, the good times couldn't last; Late in the period, the Rangers got a shot from Jacob Trouba to Brandon Bussi and Chris Kreider put the ball in the goal put the Rangers ahead by one goal again. 2-1 NYR.

I don't even have anything for that. That was just a really nice goal.

And then shortly before the deadline the buyer had a few concerns!

What the hell was that, Nikita?

Be that as it may, the period ended with the score 3-1 NYR.

2nd period

Johnny Brodzinski started the period with a goal after New York regained possession in both the defensive and offensive zones, sent the ball up the middle, the ball bounced off the goal post, and then Brodzinski struck. 4:1 NYR.

Things did but improve! Towards the end of the quarter, Drew Bavaro threw a shot from the point that Mark Kastelic was able to intercept with the tip The Rangers are unprepared and score. 4-2 NYR.

Nothing more and we come to the final section.

3rd period

I'll give this to the Bruins; After two phases of weak offense, they tried to calm the game down and put more shots on net than before. Unfortunately they failed to clear Jonathan Quick a third time, they tried to draw Kissi and were rewarded with an empty goal.

With it, The game ended with the Bruins losing 5-2 to the Rangers in that preseason contest.

Game notes

• Their TOI leader for this preseason competition was Charlie McAvoy, who logged a total of 23:56.
• This was a…difficult game for the Bruins system, both young and old. If there was a single word I could apply to the team's performance, it would be “struggle.” They struggled to make most of the (late) power play opportunities that came their way, struggled to hold onto the puck for any reasonable amount of time, and were mostly subbed out at even strength. Whatever; It's preseason and that's completely fine. Still, there were some real headaches. Adam Fox's goal was a comedy of errors, Brodzinski's goal was the direct result of two overtaking maneuvers, Othmann's goal was the direct result of Zadorov's bad pass on a pass to the point… it was tough and the result accurately reflects the performance on display.
• Brandon Bussi finished his night with an SV% of .875. I think it can reflect both his playing; which wasn't exactly great. He struggled BADLY with rebounds and almost single-handedly gave the Rangers second chances against a MUCH more talented team…but he also had almost no help as the Bruins allowed nearly 30 shots to him in 40 minutes…and all of them Problems with the penalty occurred in the first third. You're only as good as the support you get, and Brandon Bussi hasn't been able to succeed and he hasn't overcome the handicap placed on him at all.
• As for the positive? Well, Mark Kastelic definitely seems to want to stick around; After picking up a really nice feed from Drew Bavaro, Morgan Geekie still kept a pretty solid hand on the boards and fed Brett Harrison for a strong push into the net to take Jonathan Quick out of the game and score. Matthew Poitras definitely seemed to enjoy playing Zacha and Pastrnak, even if they didn't add a point to their night.
• To a number of players, all I have to say is: Get ready to learn where to park at Amica Mutual Pavilion. Cuts are likely to come soon.
• Whatever. It's preseason; Let’s just forget that ever happened and start over on Saturday against Philly. Sounds good?

As already mentioned, the pre-season continues with a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. This game is on NHL Network (for some reason) and the puck drops at 7:00 PM EST.

See you there!