COLUMBUS, Ohio — Well, at least the Rangers provided head coach Peter Laviolette with a fair amount of teaching moments Saturday night.
For after their buttoned-down performance Thursday in a 4-1 season-opening victory in Buffalo, the Blueshirts were far more scattered in going down to the Blue Jackets, 5-3, despite an overwhelming 39-6 advantage in shot attempts during a third period in which the visitors desperately tried to make up for the first 40 minutes of the contest.
There were issues in defensive-zone coverage, especially in net-front work. Boone Jenner recorded a hat trick from the front, two on deflections and one on a rebound. There were issues setting up in the neutral zone 1-3-1 after giving up the puck in vulnerable areas in the offensive zone that led to Columbus counterattacks.
It took only 23 seconds for the Blue Jackets to create an odd-man rush and a glorious opportunity on a rebound. From that moment on, the Rangers were not in Buffalo.
“We were obviously not as good as we were in Buffalo but this wasn’t a drop-off where we played horrendously,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post. “There are areas in which we can do better but we talked about doing better after the first game, too.
“I think some of the decision-making and some of the execution wasn’t as good. [Columbus] had a lot of movement in our D-zone and there were times when there was confusion as our coverage so that resulted in open shots and tips in front of the net.
“Those are some of the things we are learning.”
The Rangers have long known how valuable Ryan Lindgren is to the cause. That was reinforced in this one, when he was sidelined with an unidentified upper-body injury even though he practiced on Friday and took part in the morning skate Saturday.
Absent Lindgren, Zac Jones entered the lineup and was paired with Braden Schnieder while Erik Gustafsson moved up with Adam Fox. It was a tough night individually for both Schneider and Jones, minus-two in 12:16 as a tandem with all sorts of trouble tying up opponents and sticks in front of Shesterkin.
Laviolette though did not pin the loose play on Lindgren’s absence. The Rangers had more issues than that, unable to press the issue and create Grade-A scoring chances through two periods even while owning the territorial advantage in this strange kind of match in which three goals were disallowed — two Rangers goals successfully challenged for offside infractions, one for Columbus that did not cross the goal line — within a span of 7:08 in the first period.
“It was a funny game, a tough game. There wasn’t a volume of defensive things but there were some issues that could have been better,” Laviolette said. “We have to do a better job of tying up sticks and blocking shots from those areas.”
The Rangers seemed off to the races when Gustafsson banked one off a Columbus skate for a 1-0 lead only 50 seconds into the game and less than a half-minute after Shesterkin had denied the Blue Jackets’ odd-man rush. When Filip Chytil beat Elvis Merzlikins at 5:28 off a tic-tac-toe play, the Blueshirts looked like a powerhouse. But that was the first of the three disallowed goals. And the game changed dramatically.
The Rangers had the puck, but couldn’t make a play. They were scattered and disconnected for shifts at a time. They were chasing the Blue Jackets, chasing the puck and chasing the game. The Chris Kreider-Zibanejad-Kaapo Kakko line was ineffective. Columbus disrupted the Artemi Panarin-Chytil-Alexis Lafreniere line.
Panarin was double-shifted in the third period, getting 11:07 while also lining up in Blake Wheeler’s place on the unit with Vincent Trocheck in the middle and Will Cuylle — who notched his first NHL goal — on the right. Laviolette essentially went with three lines, sitting the Barclay Goodrow-Nick Bonino-Jimmy Vesey unit for all but a couple of shifts. Wheeler, too, took only a couple of even-strength shifts.
And the Blueshirts surged. Until they didn’t. Now, they go back to work on Monday, when they face the Coyotes in their home opener. There is much to improve upon. There is much to learn.