NEW YORK. It happened again…
The New York Rangers broke a gruesome club record with their seventh straight home loss last night – and were also shut out for the fifth time in front of increasingly disgruntled fans at Madison Square Garden.
– It’s mental, we have some kind of barrier here at home, says Mika Zibanejad with a heavy sigh to Sportbladet after the 0-5 blow in the derby against the Islanders.
Bjurman’s New York – a day like Korre
27:42
A peculiar curse seems to rest on the New York Rangers in this year’s now month-long regular season.
They score goals and win away from home – but can’t for the life of them do either at home in Manhattan.
The night’s loss in the derby against the Islanders was thus the season’s seventh, out of a possible seven – and for the fifth time since the premiere at the beginning of October, they scored exactly zero goals.
Strong fan reactions
It’s a dismal record, never before have the “Blueshirts” started a season with seven straight losses – or with so insanely few goals (a total of six, including five against San Jose a few weeks ago…).
The fans’ reaction?
Loud.
They boo louder with each loss and probably broke a decibel level record of their own last night.
And the booed players understand only too well
– This can’t really be explained and I don’t think anyone who isn’t here in the dressing room can understand. We create good chances in the first ten or twelve minutes tonight but don’t get a payoff and then we start grabbing the clubs too hard and simply can’t score, says a anything but happy Mika Zibanejad when we meet him afterwards.
– If it’s mental? Yes, of course it is. Shall we say it’s just luck that we’ve won seven out of nine away games? No, we have played fantastic hockey and been good even in the home games, but we have some kind of barrier. It’s hard.
“It eats away at us”
Even coach Mike Sullivan feels that way.
– We are only human and it is clear that it eats at us that we still haven’t won a home game, he mutters.
– But this match was different from the previous ones, we beat ourselves by inviting the Islanders to too many counterattacks. At the same time, you have to give them credit. They were really good.
The colleague in the other booth, Patrick Roy, agrees.
– Yes, we played really well and had a bit more “swagger” than before. I love that.
The team’s Swedish duo Emil Heineman and Simon Holmström each contributed an assist and above all Heineman’s sandwich to Bo Horvat’s 1-0 goal at the end of the first period was memorable.
The Boston Bruins are the hottest team in the Eastern Conference. They picked up their sixth straight victory last night – by winning the so-called Hall of Fame game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto 5-3.
– I think they were impressed, how we played five against five and how we acted at the end. I was happy with what I saw, says new successful coach Marco Sturm.
Viktor Arvidsson, who seems to have found just the right thing in Boston, scored another goal and can now look back on three complete hits in the last four games.
Hampus Lindholm was recorded for an assist (on David Pastrnak’s 399th goal), as were blue-yellow Maple Leafs William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
It doesn’t seem to matter how much Nashville grinds and grinds – they still get beat.
Last night, they put in a solid effort against tough Dallas at home at Bridgestone Arena, coming back from behind several times and turning around to take a 4-3 lead with the help of a Steven Stamkos bomb early in the third period.
But then the visitors scored two goals in the space of a minute and so the fourth consecutive Predators loss was a fact.
– It is frustrating that we can never score the extra goal that takes us over the threshold, comments Stamkos.
Filip Forsberg scored his seventh goal of the season early in the middle period and Oskar Bäck had an assist for Dallas.
The dazzling kids in San Jose are bringing down heavyweights on the assembly line at the moment. Yesterday they beat Winnipeg 2-1 and tonight they followed it up with a 3-1 win against reigning champions Florida.
Young superstar Macklin Celebrini – tied for first in the scoring league – scored his tenth goal, as usual on an assist from best friend Will Smith.
At the same time, Alex Wennberg took the opportunity to put his fourth in an empty net and Timothy Liljegren answered for an assist.
Vancouver secured a much-needed 4-3 win against Columbus at home in Rogers Place overnight.
They appeared to be in trouble when the Blue Jackets’ unstoppable power forward Kirill Marchenko tied the game at 3-3 midway through the third period, but with less than six minutes left, Brock Boeser managed to put the puck in the winner.
Elias Pettersson was noted for a play.
Other results from the night: Ottawa beat Philadelphia 3-2 on an overtime goal by Tim Stützle, a highly inspired Montreal ran over Utah 6-2 at the Bell Center (Kevin Stenlund assisted on one of the visitors’ goals), Tampa won a tighter drama against Washington 3-2 (an assist for Victor Hedman) and Carolina took a 6-3 victory against Buffalo (Joel Nyström assisted on one of the home team’s goals and Noah Östlund’s on one of the visitors’ goals).
