What Rangers prospect Zac Jones showed in his NHL debut: 'He got better and better as the game went on' (2024)

We’re required by law to first look at the standings before we go off on a tangent about the Rangers.

So … after their clunker of a 3-2 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday at the Garden, the grim reaper got a step closer. Pittsburgh and Boston won. Not that the Capitals or the Islanders were still in sight, but the Caps beat the Isles, who got one of those NHL loser’s points anyway.

So, the Rangers, with nine games left, trail Boston by eight points, with the B’s holding two games in hand. If the Bruins go NHL-.500 the rest of the way (11 points), the Rangers cannot catch them. Pittsburgh and the Islanders are nine ahead. One of those teams will need an epic collapse for the Rangers to have a prayer. And even if one does, the Rangers are almost going to have to win out.

With that out of the way, and with the rebuild clearly being the focus of what remains of the season: Zac Jones made his NHL debut on defense Thursday.

It was a mixed bag for the prospect, with his parents and girlfriend in the arena and his teammates giving him the traditional “rookie lap” treatment for warmups, and the poor youngster was victimized — though it wasn’t at all his fault — on the winning (losing) goal.

“I thought he got better and better as the game went on,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “Not an easy situation to be put in. I thought he handled himself well.”

Jones, fresh off his NCAA championship 12 days earlier, played his first NHL game — as Chris Kreider did, though his was in the playoffs in 2012. Jones (20) joined K’Andre Miller (21), Adam Fox (23), Ryan Lindgren (23) and Libor Hájek (23) on a very green defense that, by the way, badly missed Jacob Trouba, out with what almost certainly is a concussion.

The last time the Rangers had five defensem*n 23 or under in the same game was 1980, and their names were Barry Beck, Andre Dore, Tom Laidlaw, Ed Hospodar and Chris Kotspoplous. I think it’s fair to say that the current group could turn out to be several time zones better than that one.

This is kind of why we sat at the 2018 and 2019 drafts and laughed when the Rangers kept picking defensem*n. We weren’t laughing in mockery but at the potential of riches they might eventually have at one position — and that was after they’d acquired Lindgren and Hájek, and before they traded for Trouba and Fox.

You have to assume not all of them will turn out great, but feel free to assume that some of them are going to be pretty damn good, and some better than that. The Rangers brass is going to eventually have to make some big decisions.

The Rangers, if all or most of their big cupboard of defense prospects pan out, are going to have to deal from that strength to fill other needs in the organization, because in the future they will have Jones, Miller, Lindgren, Fox, Hájek, first-round picks Nils Lundkvist and Braden Schneider, as well as Matthew Robertson, Tarmo Reunanen, Hunter Skinner, perhaps Yegor Rykov and others.

Jones, whom the Rangers felt was a steal in the third round in 2019, has done nothing but get better in his two seasons at UMass. On the day he was drafted, by the way, Jones had the classic reaction: “I blacked out,” he said.

Zac Jones takes his rookie lap #NYR pic.twitter.com/fFZQzJxJPS

See Also

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— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) April 22, 2021

Now he’s here.

And it’s such a shame so many of these youngsters making their NHL debuts, or playing their first full seasons, are doing so in front of small or, earlier, no crowds.

Jones played 9:45, had three shots on goal, two giveaways, one takeaway and two blocked shots. He was on the ice for the decisive goal, but it sure wasn’t his fault.

Jones cleverly broke up a two-on-one by aggressively knocking the puck away from Kevin Hayes in the second period.

He played sheltered minutes, partly because the absence of Trouba forced some odd pairs. Jones played some with Lindgren, played some with Brendan Smith, played some on the power play. Quinn kept him apart from Hájek, who had been a healthy scratch the previous two games. The one time they were together was a disaster.

As of current projected 20-man game rosters, here are the 15 youngest NHL teams:

BUF – 24.3
NYR – 24.5
OTT – 24.5
NJD – 24.6
CHI – 25.9
LAK – 26.0
CBJ – 26.1
VAN – 26.2
CAR – 26.6
CGY – 26.7
FLA – 26.7
COL – 26.8
PHI – 27.0
SJS – 27.4
ANA – 27.5

— CapFriendly Depth Charts (@CF_DepthCharts) April 22, 2021

To make the jump directly from college to an NHL defense corps is enormous. Miller did it, but he had two training camps — one in the bubble last summer, then the regular camp before this season. Jones was forced in by necessity in a desperate playoff race. Well, it was a race until Tuesday and Thursday.

“Just a real heady player, a guy that can really shoot the puck,” Quinn said before the game. “Plays with a lot of confidence, a lot of swagger. And again (he’s) had a very successful career. Our organization’s been very high on him since the day we drafted him, and he’s done nothing to disprove why we shouldn’t be high on him.

“It’s just where we’re at. It’s a guy we’re excited to get into the lineup and see.”

The young get younger, and now with the race almost over, the Rangers will likely add one or two more youngsters, most likely forward Morgan Barron, before all is said and done.

“Listen, this is our lineup,” Quinn said. “Our kids have done a good job since they’ve been here. They’ve been a big reason why we’ve had this little run here the last six, seven weeks. And it’s just another young player who’s going to get another opportunity.”

Thoughts

1. The Rangers, who had gone 13-4-3 in the 20 games before Tuesday’s loss to the Islanders, really were counting on a resurfacing of the one identity they’ve had this season and for a bit of last season — the ability to shake off stinkers and bounce back. They’d been 7-1 after their previous eight losses.

“It was certainly something that wasn’t expected because usually when we’ve had games like we did against the Islanders, we’ve certainly responded,” Quinn said. “This is the first time all year this hasn’t happened. I don’t know. Maybe the realization of the situation we’re in kind of took the wind out of our sails after the Islanders game.

“We were a resilient group all year, and we certainly weren’t tonight. … We’ve usually been able to dust ourselves off from a night like that and come right back.”

2. Now the odds are so firmly stacked against them.

“We’re going to keep fighting until we’re, you know, officially, maybe out of it,” Fox said. “We’ll just keep fighting.”

Tuesday was a body blow of mega proportions. This one, as a follow-up, was a near knockout punch.

”Every game at this stage of the season is a big one,” Ryan Strome said. “The last 15-20 games, our team has pretty much been in a dogfight every night, and I thought we’ve done a pretty good job coming to the rink and having a good mindset and playing as hard as we can. I don’t think tonight was our best effort.

“Like everybody’s talked about, there’s been a lot of stuff around this team and there’s been a lot of chances for our group to quit, and we haven’t. There’s nine games left. I think that’s going to be the message going forward. I think we have to finish strong here and see what happens.”

3. It was another far-too-polite Rangers-Flyers game; the Rangers were credited with 12 hits. And I thought that number was high. They also took far too many mostly soft minor penalties, uncharacteristically gave up two power-play goals (though one was a fluke). The constant parade to the box stifled any of the few things the Rangers had going. The teams meet again Friday at the Garden.

4. It started as racehorse hockey, because the Flyers have let the Rangers play that way and the Rangers sure are comfortable doing so. But they missed the net so many times that instead of the previous games (remember 9-0, 8-3, 5-4 in OT?) this one looked like a defensive struggle if all you saw was the scoreboard at 1-1 into the third period. It wasn’t. It wasn’t very good, either, for the Rangers’ dried-up offense, which now has goals only from Kevin Rooney and Brendan Smith the past two games. Woof.

5. As they come down the stretch, it’s probably time to end the Colin Blackwell experiment now, and nothing against him. He’s been better than could have been expected, and all credit to him. But what’s the endgame of playing him in the top six now?

6. So, 32 seconds in. Blackwell stole the puck and got it to Artemi Panarin, then drove to the net for the two-on-one return pass but was stopped by goalie Brian Elliott. Smith took a penalty and Igor Shesterkin robbed rookie Wade Allison (with a pinball-paddle-like kick of his left pad), as he did multiple times. But during the kill, Fox broke two-on-one and drew a penalty to Jakub Voracek.

Shesty doing Shesty things 🚫 pic.twitter.com/lcx3vj2tuy

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) April 22, 2021

7. Kakk-O-Meter: Kaapo Kakko, who had a forceful start, especially below the icing line, drew a penalty. But on it, Shesterkin had to stop Ivan Provorov on a short-handed breakaway, and then the Rangers iced the puck. Ugh.

But when the power play ended, Jones went to the bench and Smith jumped on. He took Miller’s pass, stepped to the top of the left circle and ripped it through Brett Howden’s screen and past Elliott. 1-0.

8. Filip Chytil, who had the second assist on the goal, nearly made it 2-0 minutes later but clanged the post after dipsy-doodling the puck between his skates.

9. Kreider took a Pouliot (offensive-zone penalty) in the second, but during the kill, Smith drew a penalty to Travis Konecny. So the Rangers got a power play, and with Kreider tying up two Flyers down low, Panarin popped wide open. Elliott got across to somehow glove Panarin’s shot.

10. Fox took a high-sticking penalty, and during the Flyers’ power play, Konecny’s shot deflected off Miller’s stick and was headed wide until it hit James Van Riemsdyk square in the mouth and caromed into the net. Van Riemsdyk went straight to the locker room for repairs. 1-1. He returned early in the third, wearing a protective shield over his chin.

11. Fox argued the penalty, on which his stick appeared to catch Voracek around the neck. But he and Lindgren were so vehement about the call, as if Voracek had embellished it. “When it first happened, I didn’t think I got him,” Fox said. “I watched the replay and I might have got him with my stick. You know, just heat of the moment.”

James van Riemsdyk just scored a goal with his face. pic.twitter.com/Mf082hQlrK

— SB Nation NHL (@SBNationNHL) April 23, 2021

12. The Rangers’ poor play got worse as the second period continued. Fox got trapped up ice, and Joel Farabee had a breakaway with 50 seconds left in the period. Hájek hooked him from behind, and Farabee was awarded a penalty shot — the first ever faced by Shesterkin in his NHL career. And the first stopped.

🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/aecm4JaDeX

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 23, 2021

13. My buddy Steve Valiquette of MSG Networks, who tracks such things, says Shesterkin is statistically the best goalie in the NHL on breakaways the past two years. He said Shesterkin reminds him of the best he’s ever seen on breakaways, Henrik Lundqvist. But, once again, Shesterkin reminds me more of Mike Richter — who, by the way, was 12-for-13 on career penalty shots, including a fairly important one on a June evening 27 years ago.

14. Man, that Panarin-Strome-Blackwell line has gotten pinned in its own end for long shifts frequently in recent games. So it did again in the third, and Miller eventually took a penalty, a double-minor for cutting Sean Couturier with a high stick, and the Flyers had a great chance to take the lead … against a really depleted defense group for four minutes

15. At the tail end of the first minor, Shesterkin made a ridiculously quick snag of a deflected shot. But on the second penalty, Mika Zibanejad lost a draw cleanly and Van Riemsdyk deflected Provorov’s shot past Shesterkin. 2-1. In behind Fox and Lindgren, by the way.

16. At the end of a long shift, Hájek pinched poorly and Couturier’s outlet left Jones all alone for a two-on-one against a pair of veteran stars, Voracek and Claude Giroux. Voracek snapped a wrister past Shesterkin. 3-1.

Top cheddar from Jakub. #PHIvsNYR | #AnytimeAnywhere pic.twitter.com/4wVaTry1rD

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) April 23, 2021

17. With two minutes left, and the Rangers net empty for an extra skater — and after a timeout by Quinn — Panarin one-timed a 45-footer through Kreider’s screen and past Elliott. 3-2. Too late. It ain’t over till it’s over. But it’s pretty much over.

My Three Rangers Stars
1. Igor Shesterkin.
2. Filip Chytil.
3. Alexis Lafrenière.

(Photo of Jones: Elsa / Getty Images)