Rangers shut out by Sergei Bobrovsky, fall to Columbus

COLUMBUS, OH – The New York Rangers are coming back home disappointed after getting shut out by reigning Vezina Trophy Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Rangers got to Bobrovsky 36 times but could not get anything passed.

Brendan Smith came back and had a nice chance at a goal half way through the first period, but a nice pad save by Bobrovsky prevented a goal. Smith, with 14:25 mins on ice and -1 rating, didn’t have the comeback he wanted after being a healthy scratch the previous six games.

Smith had an interference penalty mid-way through the first period along with three shots. Chris Kreider had no shots on goal and Zibanejad had only one.

Zuccarrello after his one-shot performance said, “Every game is important. I mean we haven’t had a great start so now every game is important, every win like I said early today. I think that they out fore-checked us and we couldn’t get the same pressure as they did and we got to make some more plays with the puck so we didn’t deserve to win today and they were the better team.”

Lundqvist had 40 saves to no avail as the Rangers struggled to give him any defensive love.

Lundqvist said after the game about his 40 save performance, “They played well they played a very structured game it made it tough for us to get in front and create the big chances with some shots from the outside overall we just had a tough time getting in front I thought they played a pretty fast game they had a lot of odd man rushes especially in the second it’s still just one goal game until it’s like ten minutes left or something we were right there but it was not enough I feel like they were the better team tonight.”

Jimmy Vesey and Michael Grabner had four shots on goal.

Zach Werenski assisted by Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky scored after Vesey missed a nice shot with turned into an advantage for the Blue Jackets.

The Rangers went 0-3 on the power play as the Blue Jackets capitalized on one in the third behind Artemi Panarin (fourth of the season).

After the game, head coach Alain Vigneault said, “It was a hard fought game, you know we’re going in to the third in a tough building against a good team we’re only down by one goal we had some good looks we haven’t been able to beat their goaltender then, we made a bad mistake on a penalty killing a puck that should’ve been down the ice and instead of being down one shot game now it’s a two shot game against a goaltender that’s got, obviously his game tonight that made it pretty hard. We had some looks in the third, couldn’t get it done. It was a hard-fought game came up short.”

Now after going 0-2 on this road trip, the Rangers (9-9-2) look to rebound and heat up again against the 8-4-5 Ottawa Senators on Sunday at 7PM EST on MSG+.