Rangers Unlimited

After last night’s 2-1 loss to the Bruins, the Rangers have fallen into a 3-0 deficit in their second round playoff matchup.

While two of the games have been close ones, the Rangers were outplayed in each of the 3 games so far.

The last team to blow a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup playoffs was the 2009-10 Boston Bruins, who lost to the Flyers in a second round matchup. The last team prior to that was the 1975 New York Islanders.

The Rangers take the ice again on Thursday, potentially the last day of the 2013 season.

The New York Rangers managed not to ruin Johnny’s taco night, and for that, I say thank you. The Rangers did not play to their capabilities, again. They didn’t give a full sixty (five) minutes. They didn’t come out flying trying to avenge a loss that happened to the same Toronto Maple Leaf team on Monday. But they won. It was a talent win. It was a win that the best player for the Rangers tonight may have been former Toronto General Manger, (and basically the architect of this year’s Maple Leafs) Brian Burke.

The game itself started off terribly. It was downright boring watching two teams playing coy with their offensive games. If you had to nitpick at anything in the first period, it would be pointing out Ryan Callahan taking another bad angle shot (he does this a lot), and the shocking sight of Colton Orr elevating his game to that of a fourth line forward. For those who never had the pleasure of watching him do things besides fight, he wasn’t very good at the other aspects of hockey before this. A real credit to Orr and Maple Leaf coach Randy Carlyle, for developing Colton.

I thought the second period would be the period where the Rangers showed a little spark. I was wrong, luckily Henrik Lundqvist was posting the Ranger’s bail for their criminally lackluster play. The Maple Leafs opened their scoring off a bad play by Ryan Callahan. Fellow American Phil Kessel stole the puck from Callahan in the Rangers zone and caught the entire team by surprise. Then, the reason the Rangers draft this year is the least exciting one in years (and it has nothing to do with the fear of taking Hugh Jessiman, the team has no picks through the first three roundss), Ryane Clowe, dropped his gloves. Debate all you want about fighting and its effect on a game, but the Rangers went ahead and scored the next two goals. And finally, the Rangers got secondary scoring. Carl Hagelin dunked in the rebound of a Ryan McDonagh shot for his first goal in a really long time (11 games if you wanted to feel worse). Then McDonagh got his own goal which came off a really pretty play by who else? Ryan McDonagh, he dangled at the middle point, and then took a blast from the ladies tee that Toronto goalie James Reimer probably didn’t see. Unfortutnately, Dan Girardi had a bad turnover in the Maple Leaf’s zone that lead to a two-on-one goal which resulted in Phil Kessel scoring a pretty (hard to admit) game-tying goal.

The highlight of the third period was Brian Boyle looking great. The Rangers didn’t lack chances at all. All it took for this game to not go to overtime was the puck hitting a different nick in the ice and taking a Ranger bounce.

In overtime, James Reimer made some saves, but Henry made the saves. At one point, he made three saves in a row, including a blocker save on Nazem Kadri that was all sixth sense. In the shootout, Mats Zuccarello took a pretty shot, and it was the only goal. Rangers Win.

Now that this game is out of the way, ISLANDERS.

Notes:

• Nash trying to beat five guys can get frustrating, but five guys being able to collapse on Nash because nobody is even near the net or sometimes in the offensive zone is even more frustrating.

• The team got desperate and tried for those home run passes. This team hay too many good skaters and good puck handlers to use the puck to speed the game up.

• The Rangers prevented the Maple Leafs from getting a shot on goal for over twenty minutes. Keep this defense up, and the rest of the season, and possibly playoffs maybe be really fun. (Result wise, not stylistically)

• Ryan McDonagh had a great game. Big games from his can help compensate for the loss of Marc Staal.

• Boyle really skating well is going to be key. In the playoffs, a lot of teams have two top lines that cancel out. Ever notice a lot of third line guys turn out to be playoff heroes? Third line production matters, and for the Rangers to have that production, it rest on Brian Boyle’s massive shoulders.

• Mats Zuccarello needs to come back next year.

UPDATE: Henrik Lundqvist claims he saw Kadri shooting between the defenseman’s legs.

The New York Rangers started Monday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs holding down the fort, but not firing from any of their cannons. The offense was really that bad, the Ranger power play was the sort of performance that makes you wonder if assistant coach Mike Sullivan has the gumption to cash his paycheques. Then again, it’s not coaching that leaves James Van Der Beek Riemsdyk all alone over the net. It’s not John Tortorella telling Michael Del Zotto to be by the blue line while Toronto is running a net scramble practice drill in front of Henrik Lundqvist.

The lucky thing was that Rangers went into the second period down by a goal. The second period had something weird. The Rangers started out playing a good chunk of the beginning of the period in Toronto’s own zone, yet didn’t set up one good shot. Chunks of the period looked like the pre-trade Rangers. Then the Rangers gave up a second goal. Michael Del Zotto again misplayed this goal. I know he gets ridden a lot, but Michael Del Zotto was the worst player on the ice for the Rangers tonight. That was 25 minutes of garbage he gave us, the sort of play that makes one pine for such stalwarts as Kevin Hatcher. The semi-savior, Rick Nash, made it a one goal game with his first goal of the game. He scored on his signature bull-rush to the net, where he out-muscled the defense and dangled the goalie until he had an open net. To establish a good feeling at the end of the second period, The Rangers decided to not clear the front of the net so that even a Wade Redden-esque 70 Miles-Per-Hour slap shot could find the back of the net due to Henrik Lundqvist being completely unable to see anything.

I went into the third period knowing the Rangers wouldn’t win. My 100% non-empirical gut feelings are not always pessimistic, but tonight there was that feeling of doom. The period was terribly sloppy to start. Praise whatever you believe in, Rick Nash scored a goal, same move as the first. Pure muscle, Phil Esposito would be proud. After a penalty against Michael Del Zotto (soft call), Derek Stepan tied it up on a goal that won’t count as a shorthanded goal since it was a second after the Maple Leaf power play expired, but everyone who saw the goal knew it was. Tie game, Rangers with two unanswered, but the Rangers can’t have nice things. With the Rangers ready to take the lead, they gave up a to Phil Kessel. What was shocking was that there was NOBODY near Kessel. With Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi on the ice, these things shouldn’t be happening. There was a push at the end of the game, but it’s a bad gamble to hope there would be a game-tying goal in the last minute. Still, I somehow think there’s a recap being written about a win 48 hours from now.

NOTES:

• Ryane Clowe had a great shift in the first period, he kept a few pucks in the Maple Leaf zone. The Rangers are a scary team when they get to loose pucks and their own rebounds. Unfortunately, Clowe didn’t have any great shifts after that, maybe he didn’t have any shifts?

• Henrik Lunqvist maybe could have played the fourth goal differently, possibly going with a poke check. But hey, if a goalie gives up one goal a game, can’t really complain. The other three weren’t on him.

• Speaking of goals against, Daniel Girardi was on the ice for all of them. If goals are going in with him on the ice, the team is screwed. Also, this team needs Staal, bad.

• The Rangers had some beneficial non-calls go their way, but then again, the Maple Leafs got a soft call. NHL Referees, for the win!

• Michael Del Zotto gets ridden a lot, but he’s too talented to be playing like this. It would also be one thing if he was getting in on rushes and creating some offensive plays, but when he’s not creating or helping offense, not doing anything on the power play, on top of playing bad defense, he turns into a net negative for this team.

• Despite playing a game that could be graded as a B-/C+ depending on what kind of mood you’re in/how work was today, the Rangers scored three goals. The Rangers weren’t doing this earlier in the year. A slight defensive adjustment (or just playing any defense) should lead to a win. Should.

On the strength of a big second period, the Rangers beat the Hurricanes 4-1, and have now earned at least a point in four straight games.

In the first period, the Rangers looked to be still finding their legs, playing their third game in four nights. Lundqvist was up to the challenge holding the game scoreless while the Rangers were outshot 14-12.

The second period saw the Rangers break the tie and then pull away. The tie was broken on the powerplay after Derek Stepan made good on a Brad Richards centering pass and terrible coverage from Jamie McBain. Thirty-one seconds later, Rick Nash stole the puck from Dan Ellis, who had to wait for the puck to enter the trapezoid, behind the net and centered to Ryan Callahan for the tap-in to double the lead. Rick Nash scored the Rangers second powerplay goal of the period, receiving a Zuccarello pass and firing a wrist-shot past Dan Ellis for a 3-0 lead.

The Canes controlled play through the 3rd period, much like the 1st. They lead 3rd period shots 21-9. Zac Dalpe scored to break the shut-out as the Canes countered off a Brian Boyle neutral zone turnover. Once the lead was cut to two goals, the Rangers weathered two penalties and held on for the win. A buzzer-beating empty net goal from Brian Boyle capped the game for the Rangers.

The Blueshirts take on the Leafs in Toronto on Monday in a game with serious playoff implications.

Who does Marc-André Fleury, the latest mediocre French-Canadian iteration of the “Next Patrick Roy” think he is? He’s so shaky in last season’s playoffs, that he forces the Pittsburgh Penguins to trade for Tomas Vokoun to back him up. For the position he was drafted, he’s a bust. He’s not a great goalie, he’s just good enough. Ladies and Gentlemen, he’s your 21st century Chris Osgood! Tonight, he decided to be the best goalie in the world. Could he do this against other teams and help the Rangers? He better.

As for the game, the first two periods can really be meshed into one. There wasn’t much to pick out of the first period. But then I realized something, the fact that the Rangers weren’t looking out of place was encouraging. It wasn’t Evgeni Malkin feeding Jarome Iginla and Henrik Lundqvist making the sort of saves that make Ranger fans clench up enough to turn coal into diamonds. One thing that was nice to see was a Ranger fight. Nobody is going to mistake Ryane Clowe for Colton Orr, but at least he’s willing to drop the gloves, and the team skated a lot harder after the fight. I noticed that Derick Brassard really adds talent, he’s a great third line center. You can see the talent that made him the number six pick of the draft. He doesn’t need to produce on the level of what we expect Brad Richards to produce, but he can give some production out of the third line, and that depth makes the Rangers a much better team.

In the second period, it was more of the same “no news is good news” situation. The Rangers had an opportunity with a power play. However it ended with Michael Del Zotto stickhandling himself out of the zone. A truly impressive blunder. When aimlessly throwing the puck forward is the substantially better option, it lets you know just how bad of a play it was. Later on in the period, it was encouraging to see Richards getting pucks to the net. The Clowe-Richards-Mats Zuccarello is starting gel really well after only two games. The Rangers were whistled for a penalty when Darroll Powe was called for a delay of game when he lifted the puck over the glass form his own zone. It’s a really terrible rule when it goes against the Rangers, terrible.

The third period is where the game went from a stare-down to a brawl. The Penguins came out strong and were rewarded with a goal thirty seconds into the third. The first push back came back from the Richards line. What felt better about this comeback attempt was that it wasn’t the team clawing back after showing up fashionably late to the game, it was the team playing the same strong game it had played since the puck dropped when the clock read “Period:1 20:00.” It was encouraging when Zuccarello was getting his stick into passing lanes and causing turnovers. It’s good when the team realizes that defense is only partially instinct and smarts, that hustle makes up for the other two at times. At one point, with the Rangers pressing in the Pittsburgh zone, Steve Eminger got the puck a few times. Not once did he shoot from the point. He’s not the biggest part of this team, but he needs to do more than not mess up. The Rangers got a little chippy, whether deliberate, or accidentally on purpose. However, my theory is that this helped. Despite the penalty on Boyle, the Rangers then got the power play because of Pascal Dupuis having to be tough and take a run at Del Zotto (Del Zotto got away with an elbow in the face to James Neal, which doesn’t come close to making up for the calls the refs missed against the Rangers). The real big highlight of the period was the save of the game. Marc-André Fleury, despite being not being as aerodynamic as possible because of his stupid soulpatch, made an amazing diving save on Derek Stepan. It’s a save that he doesn’t make three times out of ten. Luckily for the Rangers, Rick Nash tied the game with his fourteenth goal of the season. Stepan won the draw to Nash and Nash wristed the puck right past Fleury. It was a big face off win for Stepan, who had struggled at the dot for much of the night. It’s something he will struggle with now and then, but should he get it down, it’s one step closer to being a true number one center.

Of course a game this tight went into overtime. Overtime was fairly even, with maybe Pittsburgh getting a stronger push. Back and forth, two teams with plenty of great skaters and some good chances battled. And while Pittsburgh pushed, a couple of bounces and the ice could have tilted in the Rangers favor. It came down to the shootout. And in the shootout, Pittsburghs’ shootout ace, Jussi Jokinen, scored. The Rangers shootout ace, Mats Zuccarello, did not.

The good thing to take away from this game was that on any other night, the Rangers win this game. And on most other nights, Fleury is much more mortal than he was tonight. Hopefully a fading Carolina Hurricanes team doesn’t pose much of a threat to the Blueshirts tomorrow night.

On the backs of trade deadline acquisitions Ryan Clowe, Derick Brassard and John Moore the Rangers defeated the Penguins 6-1 for their second straight victory.

All three acquisitions scored in this, their Ranger debuts. For John Moore, it was his first of the season. Ryane Clowe scored his first two goals of the season, and added an assist. Derick Brassard had a goal and three assists. Brassard and Moore did so while fighting back the effects of jet lag, as they arrived minutes before warmups.

Players who have been Rangers for more than a week got in on the fun as well: Brian Boyle had a goal and three assists for a career-high four points playing wing on a line with Derick Brassard in the middle and Carl Hagelin on the left. Brad Richards, who skated between Mats Zuccarello and Ryane Clowe, had the primary assists on the Rangers first two goals of the night.

The Rangers and Penguins face off again Friday night in Pittsburgh.