Lightning 2, Rangers 1.
Click here for the boxscore with links to the game summary, etc.
Thoughts:
1) Ryan McDonagh needs to sit a few games. Alain Vigneault should be fired for this. Worst loss I’ve ever experienced. Disgusting. … Seriously, these are things people were saying after the Rangers’ first loss in a month. The Rangers are 11-1-2 in their last 14 games, and holy shishkebab. What a bunch of no-perspective knuckleheads. They deserve to re-live 1998-2004.
2) The Rangers got what they deserved, after a month of, many nights, getting more than they deserved. They didn’t create nearly enough, passed up chances (where have we heard that before?). Then their power play finished off their nine-game winning streak.
3) Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh were pressured into a bad spot on the late power play, Stepan tried a little saucer pass back to the point and a dangerous play blows up in their faces for a 2-on-1 short-handed game-winner. I thought McDonagh hesitated then froze after the puck hit his shinpads, and on the 2-on-1 — this is hindsight after thinking about it — maybe should have let Henrik Lundqvist handle the the fourth-liner J.T. Brown and take away the pass to the skilled Valtteri Filppula. McDonagh actually didn’t have the time to dissect it as I did. And Lundqvist nearly got a piece of it.
4) Of course, even on the ensuing 6-on-4, with Lundvqist pulled, seconds left, streak on the line, the Rangers continued to pass-pass-pass-pass. Also, of course, there was no timeout after the goal to set up the 6-on-4 with 1:05 left.
5) Hey, eventually they had to lose one. They probably played better overall in this game than they did in some of their find-a-way wins.
6) I thought it was a fabulous pace early, though the Rangers didn’t shoot the puck at all. Didn’t have any zone time until the second period, and then didn’t generate much at all off all the good things they did in the zone. Yes, some credit to the Bolts. Maybe more than some.
7) Well, Keith Yandle WAS having a good game until he committed the Kotska. But Lundqvist has to stop that shot. Alex Killorn’s becoming something of a Rangers killer, isn’t he? He was 4-3-7 in the Eeastern Conference Final last year. Then Lundqvist bailed out the team vs. Nikita Kucherov. He made a great save on Braydon Coburn late second, while Derick Brassard, Keith Yandle and Mats Zuccarello took a nap in the defensive zone, but it was Braydon Coburn. He really had no shot on the game-winning shorty.
8) Ben Bishop’s record (9-0-0 during the regular season) vs. the Rangers is ridiculous. Even though they smacked him around at times during the ECF, he had those two shutouts in Games 5 and 7. I didn’t think he made a legit save until late second period, when J.T. Miller set up Stepan in the slot. The Rangers had a big chance in the third when McDonagh had the puck, left circle. He was grabbed, and Brassard, driving to the net, was tackled. Alain Vigneault went nuts. Hey, ya never know. Then the late penalty call on McDonagh on that nothing-foul. At least they got the Plekanec on Jonathan Marchessault correct.
9) But … those matching minors to Brian Boyle and Kevin Hayes? Pansification. By the way, I’ve heard from many sources that Dave Maloney and Kenny Albert made that the word of the day, and credited me with it. While I admit I have proliferated the term, it pains me to say that Mike Milbury coined it.
10) Then Chris Kreider gets impeded by Sustr, who was the Rangers’ best player in the ECF and somehow they award a penalty shot? On the penalty shot, Kreider chose to go in with speed. Kreider’s scored with speed in the past, plenty … but it’s either been by firing it from the circles, or going across the front and scoring on the backhand. That move he made on the penalty shot? Um. I do know that the Rangers have no right to complain, by and large, after getting a penalty shot and a late power play.
11) Dominic Moore gets the tying goal late third off Anton Stralman’s coughup, forced by Jesper Fast. There goes the Norris Trophy everybody was giving him. There are a lot of nights when the best Rangers hit is thrown by Fast. He had a beaut vs. Brian Boyle in the first. PS, Brian Boyle on the power play? Seriously?
12) For the second game in a row, the Rangers’ third line got less ice time than the fourth line. Which reminds me of freshman football. We had about 60 kids on the team, and we won a lot of blowouts, so most of the kids would get into games even for a play or two, even though they had to borrow jerseys from teammates before they got into the games. Anyway, the scrubs allowed a long touchdown on their first play and as they’re jogging off the field, our coach yells, “Fourth string, you’re now the fifth string; fifth string, you’re now the fourth string.”
13) Daily Nash-O-Meter. Drew a penalty. Made another slew of good defensive plays. Had a golden chance, didn’t score. Same old story. Just a lot of the same.
14) So early on, Brassard right down the middle, dishes a low-percentage pass for Nash, which missed, and the Lightning went the other way. Then Stralman, with a shot near the inside/top of the right circle, instead gives it up to Braydon Coburn, who couldn’t score on Lundqvist if the goalie left his skates and helmet in the crease and went to the room. You can tell Stralman is an ex-Ranger. But he did rob Zuccarello on the power play, after Bishop made an initial save and was down and out, then Stralman made another one later. Remember how many saves Stralman made in the ’14 playoffs?
15) I thought the first power play was pretty darn good. But …
16) How about Yandle with the old-school stick-rake on the back of Brown’s head. Got to like Dan Boyle’s jumping in there. Boyle had a real chip on his shoulder in this game and I thought played his second pretty decent game in a row (with a healthy scratch in between). Good for him. ICYMI, earlier in the day he told Andrew Gross that he thinks he’ll retire after this season. Not that he’s going to have much of a choice of returning to the Rangers.
17) Boy, Kevin Hayes and Steven Stamkos have a feud that goes back to last May. I think it started, if memory serves, when Hayes roughed up Tyler Johnson. Or one of the Triplets. I can’t tell them apart.
18) Kreider broke the franchise record for going offside in one season.
19) Jon “Squirrely Bowman” Cooper on the Rangers: “You look at those guys, they’re a top-three team in the NHL. So this is a real measuring stick for us.” But I got a big kick out of him saying he couldn’t understand his team’s record because the analytics say the Bolts should be better. Because, as we all know, the game is played on hard drives and paper printouts.
20) So Joe Micheletti is telling us “Zuccarello having words with Kucherov … still having words …” But MSG, typically, is in a closeup of Rick Nash skating to the bench. Pathetic. Surprised MSG stayed with the scrum at the second-period buzzer. Need to do more of that, whether it’s just paying more attention, or not having a happy trigger finger, or not being married to a closeup the moment play stops.
21) That Garden of Dreams thing is just tremendously tremendous. Kudos, MSG.
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My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Dominic Moore.
2. Jesper Fast.
3. Mats Zuccarello.
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Kenny Albert’s Three Rangers Stars:
1. Dan Boyle.
2. Dominic Moore.
3. Chris Kreider.
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Your poll vote for Three Rangers Stars:
1. Dominic Moore.
2. Henrik Lundqvist.
3. Mats Zuccarello.
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