Traverse City NYR vs CBJ: Highlights and Analysis

The New York Rangers began the 2019 Traverse City Tournament with a bit of a turbulent start, falling to Columbus 6-2. Bryan put together a quick recap, which you can read here.

Both of the Rangers’ goals were scored by WHL free agent invite Brett Kemp. Here was his second goal.

The best player for the Rangers was, without a doubt, defenseman Adam Fox (#23 Blue).

The 21-year-old showed why he is expected to make the Rangers out of camp, as he displayed incredible puck poise and vision throughout the game’s 60 minutes. He is extremely confident on the puck and also showed some ability to read plays on the defensive side, taking intelligent angles towards puck carriers and timing his attempts at disruption incredibly well.

Igor Shesterkin had a decent performance, all things considered. I’m sure that he would love to have another crack at a few of the goals simply because of his competitive nature, but realistically speaking it’s difficult to put any blame on him for the six goals against. The Rangers gave up numerous breakaways and odd-man rushes.

Here were some of those goals against.

It took Vitali Kravtsov a while to get going, but in the second half of the game he started to find his form (#74 Blue).

Along with Fox, Patrick Newell (#34), and Karl Henriksson (#70), Kravtsov also combined to create one of the best passing sequences you’re ever going to see in a prospect tournament. Only an incredible save from Blue Jackets’ goaltender Elvis Merzlikins kept the puck out of the net.

Jake Elmer (#63) also had a solid game. He had a few creative passing sequences, including this give-and-go with Newell.

Joey Keane (#82) had a mixed performance, but he had one patented end-to-end rush which he has made himself known for.

Finally, I’m hesitant to single him out because he was far from the only player to make mistakes or even have a bad game, but 2019 fourth-round pick Hunter Skinner (#53) made mistakes which led to two of the goals against. On the first, he was overly aggressive and gave up a two-on-one.

Then, on the fifth goal, he made a disastrous turnover up the middle of the defensive zone.

The Rangers continue the tournament today at 7pm against Dallas.