NEW YORK — In the end, it was the Detroit Red Wings’ 41st shot of the game that made the difference.
Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond circled the New York Rangers’ net with less than four minutes to play. He waited for Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick to drop out of position, then fired the puck into the open net.
It was a killer for the Rangers, considering that Quick turned aside 40 shots in Sunday night’s 2-1 loss — New York’s seventh regulation defeat at home. But as assistant coach David Quinn, filling in for head coach Mike Sullivan, out for a personal matter, told reporters afterward, the Rangers played inconsistently.
“I thought there were stretches we were good and doing the things we needed to do to put ourselves in a position to win a hockey game,” Quinn said. “And then I thought at times, we forced things to the middle of the rink, costly turnovers, and all of a sudden you’re scrambling in your own end.”
Postgame chaos
At the final buzzer, the Rangers and Red Wings gathered on the ice in a baseball-style bench-clearing brawl.
Red Wings center Mason Appleton had shot the puck into the empty net after the horn, breaking an unwritten rule.
“I don’t know why they were surprised,” Quick said.
Quick saves 40
Quick kept the Rangers in the game and bailed his team out several times.
In a mostly uneventful first period, he made a series of glove saves. In the third, he did the splits to stop Lucas Raymond on a rebound that had bounced off the end boards. Later, after Carson Soucy fell, Quick made another important save on a Nate Danielson one-timer in the slot.
“If it wasn’t for Quickie, that game could have been wide open,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said.
Detroit generated 25 shot attempts across five Rangers minor penalties and 10 high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. They only scored on one, when Alex DeBrincat opened the scoring just before the halfway point of the second period.
“Every single game [he] gives us a chance to win,” Miller continued. “And seems to make really big and timely saves.”
Power play stays hot
The Rangers scored a power play goal for the fourth consecutive game, as Mika Zibanejad tapped in the rebound off an Artemi Panarin point shot to tie the game at one in the middle frame.
New York’s power play has also scored in five of the club’s last six games.
Afterward, Quinn said that the unit didn’t look as good as it did earlier in the season, when it struggled to score. The biggest difference now, he continued, is that the Rangers are taking advantage of the chances they’re generating.
“We haven’t been as consistent on it,” Quinn said. “But I think there’s a little bit when we create chances and when we score, there’s a pace and a tempo to our game, then, you know, we have a little bit of a five-on-five mentality, and that’s when we’ve been generating offense and scoring goals on the power play.”
Mike Sullivan out for personal reasons
Sullivan was not behind the Rangers’ bench on Sunday for personal reasons. Quinn and Joe Sacco split the head coaching duties in Sullivan’s absence.
Quinn did not have an update on the length of Sullivan’s absence postgame.
“From the coaches to the players of the organization, we certainly are thinking about Mike and his family,” Quinn said. “Never an easy situation, when you have to tend to your family.”
The delegation of work, Quinn said, was easy. He’s been managing the defense, while Sacco normally works with Sullivan on the forward lines.
Gabe Perreault assigned to AHL Hartford
The Rangers sent down top prospect Gabe Perreault to the Hartford Wolf Pack on Sunday morning.
“This is a man’s league,” Quinn said about Perreault’s demotion. “Gabe did some good things while he was up here, but when Gabe is here, he plays on the top two lines, and when you play on the the top two lines, you play against everybody’s top D pairings, and you play against everybody’s best players, and that can get a little overwhelming for you, physically and with the pace.”
Quinn added that the demotion was part of Perreault’s growth and development process.
Scott Morrow makes Rangers debut
Scott Morrow, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-shot defenseman acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in the K’Andre Miller trade this summer, was called up on Sunday and made his Rangers debut.
Morrow played 9:56 across 15 shifts and generated one shot attempt at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Quinn said he liked Morrow’s game and that the defenseman did a good job.
“I thought he kept it simple,” Quinn said. “He moves the puck well, got us out of our end when we needed to get out of our end when the chances presented themselves. And I thought he defended well.”
