Rangers Shut Out Ducks, 3-0

The Ducks just didn’t have anything left at the end of a long road trip. They were a step behind on most plays and the fore-checking Rangers were on top of the Ducks’ defense all night long, eventually leading to Ducks’ mistakes and Rangers’ goals.

The main reason the Ducks lost again today was the lack of energy, but another night of unsuccessful penalty kills cost them the game. The first two goals were on Rangers’ power plays before an empty net goal, which was scored with the Ducks on a late power play, closed the scoring for the game. Although it is still early, it looks like the PK will be the Ducks’ biggest issue again this year.

Goalie J.S. Giguere played extremely well for the Ducks and stopped 35 shots, but some bad bounces and tired play led to two power play goals. The first came on a shot that was deflected by Scott Niedermayer and went directly to the top of the net. The second goal occurred when both Ducks defensemen went behind the goal after the same player, leaving another wide open in front. Artem Anisimov scored his first NHL goal on the play.

The main concern for the Ducks, though, should be the health of Todd Marchant. Marchant went sliding hard into the end boards after being hit as he took a shot just below the faceoff dot. The collision with the boards made a large thud at Madison Square Garden, and Marchant didn’t get up for a very long time. It looked as if he went hip-first, so we can at least be glad it wasn’t a head injury. I will update his status as it becomes available.

But the Ducks will go home with what they can call a successful road trip. They played some of the top teams in the league and came away with five out of a possible eight points, but they did lose James Wisniewski, as you can read about here, and possibly Marchant along the way.

The Ducks will have a travel day and another day to rest before taking on the Minnesota Wild again on Wednesday at Honda Center. The Ducks will be looking for revenge against a Wild team that came from behind to take away an extra point from the Ducks.

NOTES:

– Brendan Mikkelson took the spot of Wisniewski on the second pairing with Ryan Whitney. He did not look out of place.

– Sheldon Brookbank took the place of Nick Boynton on the third pairing with Luca Sbisa. Boynton began to look slow and make bad decisions in the last game.

– Sbisa was hit hard a couple of times by Sean Avery. The hits were clean, but Sbisa will need to learn to deal with players like Avery to be successful.

– Rangers’ starting goalie “King” Henrik Lundqvist was given the day off as today was the first of back-to-back games for them. Stephen Valiquette got the shutout in his place.