The 4 Nations provided the New York Rangers with a much needed break to recover and get back with renewed energies for the Stanley Cup Playoffs hunt in the 2024-25 NHL season. However, the team seemed to have missed the memo as they fell awfully to the Buffalo Sabres, by a score of 8-2 during their return to the ice. After the game, head coach Peter Laviolette dropped a blunt admission about his team’s outing.
The Rangers are currently sitting four points behind the second wildcard berth in the NHL‘s Eastern Conference. A divisional spot is almost out of reach, as the New Jersey Devils (third in the Metro division) have a ten-point cushion over their cross-Hudson rivals.
New York needs every single point they can get to find their way back into the mix, but performances like Saturday’s against Buffalo, the worst team in the East, are definitely not going to cut it for the Broadway Blueshirts.
After the game, which was ultimately decided by the first intermission with the team down 5-0 after the first period, Laviolette didn’t hide his frustration and anger at his players for the disastrous outing.
“It wasn’t good. There was nothing that was good about the game,” Laviolette firmly stated, via Mollie Wlker of The New York Post. “Terrible start, terrible first period. Didn’t get much better from there. It was not the game we were looking for coming out of the break. That’s it in a nutshell.”
No one is off the hook
There were no positives to take from the awful beatdown at KeyBank Center, where the Rangers delivered arguably their worst performance of the season. That’s saying a lot, considering the campaign has been far from a success in New York.
When asked whether consequences, like diminished ice time, could be seen for those players who underperformed, Laviolette dropped a harsh admission: “It would be an awful lot of guys that you’d have to cut ice time.”
Shesterkin’s night to forget
Igor Shesterkin returned to action after suffering an upper-body injury before the 4 Nations break, but his performance was far from what he had accustomed fans in The Big Apple to.
The Rangers’ goaltender was pulled before the buzzer sounded at the end of the first period, after allowing five goals on 16 shots. His frustration didn’t fade throughout the night, as he skipped his postgame media availability.
“There’s no sense talking about any one particular individual inside of this gathering right here. We weren’t good as a team. We got what we deserve, so,” Laviolette said about Shesterkin’s night.