NEW YORK — It took the Ducks 15 hours to get to New York and once they arrived in the City That Never Sleeps, their jetlagged offense snoozed through 60 minutes of a 5-2 loss to the Rangers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
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They had to switch airports and then change planes en route to the Big Apple, turning a comfortable Sunday afternoon arrival into an early-morning Monday landing. That provided a less than ideal start to their dense four-game trip.
In nearly five decades in the NHL as a player, scout and coach, Ducks bench boss Joel Quenneville had experienced his share of nightmarish travel scenarios.
“There’s many of them over the years. Usually you get a good response when something like that happens. That’s the disturbing part,” Quenneville said.
The Ducks narrowly averted a shutout with garbage-time goals from A.J. Greer, his first as a Duck, and Nick Jensen in the veteran defenseman’s Ducks debut. Ville Husso bore the brunt of the Ducks’ sluggishness, allowing five goals on 30 shots.
Veteran Oliver Bjorkstrand found the back of the net twice for the Blueshirts, his 22nd career two-goal game. Former King Sean Durzi, Rangers captain J.T. Miller and second-year standout Gabriel Perreault also scored for the Rangers. Alex Lafrenière contributed two assists. Dylan Garand continued to spell the injured Igor Shesterkin superbly with 29 saves. He won for the fourth time in six decisions this season, with one of his losses being a 1-0 heartbreaker in overtime.
The Ducks lost for the first time this season on the road (3-0-1) while the Rangers remained undefeated at home (6-0-0). They didn’t win their sixth game at MSG until Jan. 26 last season, when they had already piled up 17 losses on home ice. All those wins have come in 60 minutes’ time, whereas last year they waited until March 29 for their sixth home regulation win.
Even so, their early-season success played second fiddle to the NBA champion Knicks, whose season was set to open on Tuesday.
“We heard what was going on tomorrow night, so it’s nice to give [the fans] back-to-back good nights at MSG,” said Durzi, who was traded to New York this summer. “They’ve been great. Being here, the welcome, the support that I’ve gotten, it’s been incredible. It makes it a little more special to give them a nice show on home ice.”
The Rangers scored just 78 seconds after the opening draw when Durzi flicked a low shot through a Miller screen to give the hosts a 1-0 edge.
The Ducks had a higher volume of chances but trailed by a goal through 20 minutes and could have been in a deeper hole if not for a pair of stops by Husso. He denied Mika Zibanejad’s bullet off an odd-man rush and lunged to quell a point-blank bid from Pavel Dorofeyev.
There were also three minor penalties in the first 7:08 of the contest, and the Ducks faced a two-man disadvantage during that sequence, negating both penalties successfully.
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Yet they couldn’t come up with a kill 4:38 into the middle frame when another point shot, this one by Adam Fox, was tipped in by Miller, who again provided traffic in front.
“They were pretty well in control of the game from the start. We weren’t good tonight,” Quenneville said. “We were standing around too much, there was too much carelessness with not enough puck support and not enough pace.”
Goals at 10:17 and 13:14, both off Beckett Sennecke giveaways, buried the Ducks before the second intermission.
First, Sennecke’s backhanded clearing attempt was picked off by Lafrenière, who found Zibanejad for a shot-pass so slick that Perreault simply had to tuck the puck inside the far post.
Then, Sennecke’s twirling blind pass in the defensive zone was devoured by Bjorkstrand, who took it to the house for an unassisted goal.
“Our top guys weren’t very good tonight. You can name ’em all, and you wouldn’t be happy,” said Quenneville on a night when defenseman Tristan Luneau might have been the only standout performer.
Bjorkstrand poured salt in the Ducks’ wounds at the 3:26 mark of the third period. He hit the middle with speed to receive a touch pass, bursting into the zone to split Luneau and Tyson Hinds for his second goal of the game.
Jensen scored off a one-timer and Greer banked a puck off Garand, at 18:51 and 19:27, respectively, to create some facade of respectability in the score.
“You don’t want to chase the game and that’s what we did tonight,” Ducks captain Mikael Granlund said. “It wasn’t our best effort and not a good way to start the road trip. Tomorrow, we have another chance, so let’s move on.”
The Ducks are slated to traverse I-495 for a date with the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
“This team is not one to make excuses. Whether or not there are travel problems, there’s adversity all around the league, so you can’t use that as a crutch every time you lose,” Jensen said. “It wasn’t a game that we were happy with, but we have to have a short memory and get right back at it tomorrow.”
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