Game 5: Penguins 6, Rangers 3.
Click here for the boxscore with links to the official game summary, etc.
Thoughts:
1) Well, that was fairly predictable. I know a lot of you guys held out hope, and with good reason. You counted on the core of this team that had done so much good for four seasons, on its pedigree and its playoff chops, to flip that switch after a meaningless regular season. I think they counted on that too. You counted on the theory that, after winning the Presidents’ Trophy and seeing how useless that title is, the Rangers subconsciously coasted during the season waiting for what really matters, what really counts.
2) You counted on having, still, an advantage in goal in any series.
3) But those who held out hope also, in addition to just being loyal fans, understood that this team wasn’t the same. You watched all season as it broke down, again and again and again, in front of and around its own net. You watched a hideous, fatal penalty kill. You saw, except for a 30-game stretch, a lousy power play. Mostly you saw something you hadn’t seen the previous four years – a shocking lack of try in a lot of games by a lot of players, and a less-than 60-minute effort by the entire group many nights.
4) You saw that this team had transformed into something it had not been, something not nearly good enough, something at times unacceptable. A lazy, inept team that, instead of coming together when it counted most, broke into chaos, into fire-drill hockey. You saw goals against come in groups. You saw blown, botched leads. You saw players – many of them top players, top-six forwards, top defensemen – disappear or simply decline. To me, the idea of not playing hard, of not being able to play for 60, and to not have the moxie to hold it together instead of crumbling – those are the major indictments.
5) A lot of you guys saw this a lot earlier than I did – you said it’s a one-and-done team a lot longer than I did – but once I saw it, once I was convinced it was not going to be fixed by Game 83, after the Rangers had their best stretch of the season into the trade deadline, then toppled back to the same awful habits, I knew they weren’t beating this Pittsburgh team. And I didn’t think it would be close.
6) This was a top-to-bottom debacle, and by top I mean the coaches and the best player. Then the other supposed best players. The Derek Stepan turn-away from a check on the first goal, by ex-Ranger Carl Hagelin, was awful. The Derick Brassard glide and giveaway on the goal by ex-Ranger Matt Cullen, was typical for that player and the epitome of this team, and if it wasn’t, then the four players above the circles on the uncontested first Bryan Rust goal was.
7) Rust, Conor Sheary and Kuhnackl were all better than any Rangers forward in this series, and that’s not even mentioning Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel, et al. And it wasn’t close with those guys.
8) Let’s not act like this awful defensive play just started in the playoffs. It has crumbled for 87 games. “We gave them a lot with our mistakes,” Rick Nash said. “In previous years we were more stingy.”
9) The caveat, as I’ve been saying for a couple of weeks now, was that to have a chance, Henrik Lundqvist would have to play out of his mind. Well, he most certainly did not. He played terribly.
10) Lundqvist stopped Tom Kuhnackl on the first serious chance he faced to keep it 1-0 in the middle of the first, maybe raising hope that he’d be better than he was in Game 4 (lifted after four goals on 18 shots). Then it fell apart, some of it UNCONTESTED, the theme of this season, some of it not. By the second period, when it was 4-2, had allowed eight goals on 36 shots last two games. Then two more. Then yet another trip to the bench. Whatever level of blame you want to toss on him, that’s not even close to good enough. That’s not even mediocre goaltending. That’s awful.
11) Lundqvist, after he did his usual “I have to be better,” which he’s had to do far too often since November’s brilliant start, added, “The way we play, the way we give up chances, it’s going to be tough to win, that’s my opinion,” Lundqvist said to MSG Network. Then he added, about the second period, “it was a feeling of embarrassment to give up that many goals. But also a sense of hopelessness. We played a team that was smarter, better and (had) better goaltending.”
12) On some of the goals, he was hung out to dry. The Hagelin goal, the first Rust goal. The Phil Kessel goal was going wide, and Lundqvist knocked it into his own net with the handle of his stick. He had a chance on the second Rust goal, and the Cullen goal, and the Sheary goal, and didn’t make a save.
13) Raise your hand if you thought Antti Raanta would play in three games in this series.
14) To back up just a bit, though. First things first. Pittsburgh is just a much, much, much, much better team. Not even a debate.
15) Tomorrow I’m going to weigh in on Alain Vigneault and his staff and the job they did and what happens from here. But honestly, he and they bear an enormous portion of the blame, and I’m not talking about his handling of Tanner Glass/Kevin Hayes/Oscar Lindberg/Dylan McIlrath. And I’m certainly not talking about his lineup decisions yesterday. Though it was interesting that Hayes (for the second game in a row) Glass and Dan Boyle – who is headed to retirement – were finally yanked from the lineup. I wasn’t surprised at all that he went with Dan Girardi, or that in this desperate time, he’d take a shot at Raphael Diaz helping the power play, which he did, too late.
16) I’m more looking at the things that didn’t get fixed all season long, which reminded me of a John Muckler/Ron Low season – although, obviously nowhere nearly as bad or hopeless.
17) I really have no idea how his boss, Jeff Gorton, views the job AV did this year, no idea if he’s in any danger at all. But I was pretty sure his predecessor would be back after 2013 and after the overachieving that much-weaker team accomplished, and he got canned. That was a different GM, though, Glen Sather, and that was more the result of a mutiny than the result of a lockout-shortened season.
18) This group had a much softer, kinder coach behind it, had two amazing seasons, came back with almost the same group that went to a Stanley Cup Final, then was the best team in the league last year, and was tied in the third period of a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final with four injured defenseman and no Mats Zuccarello. That same group, mostly, didn’t respond at all this year. Yeah, it won games early. Yeah, it beat some really good teams during the season. Yeah, it ended up with 101 points and was, in my opinion, clearly the third best team in the weak Leastern Conference. But it was bumpy, and it was inconsistent and it was often ugly.
19) Again, I’m not discounting the idea that the mileage has caught up to the core. It very well might have. No way of knowing until next season, now that they’re going to get a full summer to recover. But we’ve seen the other teams who logged playoff mileage the last few seasons struggle. LA missed the playoffs, then went out in the first round. Chicago’s regular season was nothing to holler about, and it has had to do some remarkable things to get to a Game 7 in St. Louis.
20) The first period sure had its share of sloppiness, as usual, but it was one of the Rangers’ best first period of the series, and by far a more competitive period than the six they played at the Garden. Nevertheless, despite a gift goal credited to Dominic Moore, they had two leads blown, and were 2-2 after one.
21) Nash deflected Girardi’s shot for quick 1-0 lead. Girardi had another chance on the rush with the Nash line at 7:00. Nash took a stick to the mouth, bloodied, no call. Was boarded, no call. Kris Letang knocked him down then jumped on top of him. No call. Finally he slashed Letang, and Letang reacted softly, and both went to the box. Hey, ya never know.
22) Daily Nash-O-Meter. He actually had two goals and two assists in the series and was one of the Rangers’ better forwards. Of course, Nash was playing the same game he played all series. But a puck goes in, and all of a sudden Jeremy Roenick think’s he’s good again. (JR in his summary of the Hockeyville contest, said “bucolic” and “unwavering dedication.” Yeah, I’m sure those were his words). Not sure what they will do with Nash this summer. We’ll get to a lot more of this player by player stuff during the coming week(s).
23) AV rolled the dice with his defensemen being more active in the offense, and why not after being outscored 8-1 in the previous two games, against a second-string rookie goalie? And it was effective for a while. But 9:50 in, the same old, same old. The Rangers broke down in the D zone after a Jesper Fast turnover. Stepan lost Hagelin in front, turned away, and Hagelin scored from the paint, from Kessel.
24) Forty-five seconds later, the Rangers got just a fluky goal, Fast’s soft shot hit Crosby’s stick, went through Matt Murray, off post, back out front and off Hornqvist’s skate, ticking Moore’s leg on its way in. Could have read: Hornqvist, from Crosby and Fast. 2-1, Rangers
25) Brady Skjei was called for boarding and the PK does it again. This time on the rush. Kessel, from Crosby, around Marc Staal for a nasty wrister from the right circle. It was going wide when it hit the handle of Lundqvist’s stick and went up and into the net. 2-2. At that point, the Rangers penalty kill had allowed eight goals on 20 attempts. Meanwhile, their power play was 1-for-16 (and 0-for-15 during 5-on-4 play).
26) After another useless Rangers PP gifted by Malkin’s slew foot on Eric Staal, Crosby hit a post. Crosby also had a dangerous shot that Lundqvist kicked out on the 4-on-4 created when Nash slashed Letang.
27) Second period, the Penguins were coming at the Rangers and you knew what was next. And of course there were breakdowns, the biggest on the 3-2 goal by Rust – Yandle turned it over, then chased the puck, as the system dictates, above the circles. But all three forwards – Eric Staal, J.T. Miller, and Oscar Lindberg – were also above the circles, only Ryan McDonagh back. Another UNCONTESTED goal. Disgusting defensive-zone coverage. All year long.
28) And another minus for Eric Staal, another playing his final game as a Ranger?
29) Big Game Brass couldn’t be bothered to move his feet to chase down a loose puck in his own end, so Rust easily caught up to him, forced him to cough it up for another UNCONTESTED shot from the slot 4-2.
30) So Lundqvist gets clubbed to the back of the head. No reaction from Rangers. But they get a power play, which produces one scramble around the net, lost by the Rangers, an unscreened 50-footer by McDonagh to the logo and one good save on Zuccarello. Naturally, the Rangers’ power play scored a garbage-time goal in the third to make it 6-3, Kreider tipping Diaz’s shot home
31) Before that, of course Sheary does the Jack In The Box, coming out of the penalty box for a wrister without a challenge from Zuccarello, over Lundqvist’s glove. 5-2. On the sixth goal, Zuccarello missed Girardi at the point with a bank pass for a 2-on-1. Skjei – fitting right in – doesn’t take the shooter (Malkin) or take away the pass to Rust. 6-2.
32) WAIT, DID NBC REALLY CUT TO COMMERCIAL AT THE END OF A SERIES, BEFORE THE HANDSHAKE LINE? WHAT IN HOLY HELL??? THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!!!! A slap at each and every hockey fan, a slap to the supposed partner. NBC came back from commercial, showed 6-7 seconds of handshakes, then signed off. Unacceptable and embarrassing.
33) AV said he thought the series turned with the Rangers up 1-0 in a tied series in Game 3, on the penalty (Marc Staal, for the late Crosby goal to tie the game in the final seconds of the second period) and the two defensemen (Yandle and Boyle) colliding after the Boyle turnover. Pretty sure that shouldn’t carry over, but the Rangers followed that goal with the softest third period you could imagine (four non-threatening shots) against the Pens’ trap. Then they got spanked in Game 4.
34) Tank talk? People were saying Saturday that the Rangers, if they had tanked, would not have beaten the Fish Tanks or Del Boca Vista if they played the way they did against Pittsburgh. Maybe. But I think the Penguins would sweep the Tanks or Del Boca.
35) Home-ice advantage? Courtesy of Kenny Albert. Visiting teams were 4-0 Friday, 13-3 the last four days, and 23-15 overall before Saturday’s games. Home teams were 3-0 Saturday
36) Here are the teams remaining in the West: Chicago, St. Louis, Anaheim, Nashville, Minnesota, Dallas, San Jose. The Rangers were 10-3-1 against those seven.
37) Kinda nice that the ads for the World Cup – a joint venture of the players union and the league – has chosen such a quality human being as Patrick Kane as its representative.
38) Thank you guys, all of you, those who agree, disagree or strongly disagree with some of the stuff I spew September through, well, sometimes June or beyond.
39) There’s plenty of analysis to come. I’m going to tackle some issues Sunday and Monday, which should also be breakup day – the plan, fingers crossed, to provide some audio clips.
40) Going to break down a lot of stuff moving forward, too, personnel issues, etc. Going to discuss the system the Rangers play, or attempted to play … or well, played with little or no exertion for so many games this season.
41) As always, if anybody has anything he or she wants to say in guest blog post all summer long, you are welcome to do so. Just let me know when to expect it via email at rcarpini@lohud.com.
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My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Dan Girardi.
2. Ryan McDonagh.
3. Rick Nash.
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Your poll vote for Three Rangers Stars:
1. tie, Dominic Moore.
1. tie, Viktor Stalberg.
3. Jesper Fast.
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Photos by the Associated Press.
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