Avalanche 2, Rangers 1.
Click here to read my early story from lohud.com.
Click here for the boxscore with links to the game summary, etc.
Thoughts:
1) Once again, I want to thank Commissioner Bettman for the opportunity to see two games against every non-conference team. Wow. More please.
2) Seriously, the argument that exists – “I want to see all the league’s stars” – is so ridiculous. If you put two free tickets to a Rangers-Islanders game on a table, and two free tickets to a Rangers-Avalanche game on the same table and asked 100 Rangers fans which tickets they’d want, I’d bet 98 would take the Islanders game.
3) So one night after the best atmosphere of the season, and probably, almost certainly, the Rangers’ best performance of the season, we get this. Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon in the house. Snore. You know those really deep yawns, where you involuntarily make all sorts of noises on the inhale and the exhale? I had a few of those last night.
4) I still say this, which I said after the Flyers game (a review that apparently crashed the blog, thus a review that not many saw). This is a slump. It’s not an apocalypse. It’s not writing on the wall of some impending implosion or doom. Every team in any long-season sport goes through this, at least twice in most cases. It’s 1-4-1, and it looks and smells awful (the shootout loss in Brooklyn the lone and obvious exception).
5) But some people, more on Twitter than here, act as if they’ve never seen a team go through a slump before, that any team that goes through a slump is a thorough disaster. Time to tear it down and rebuild. That’s not the case here.
6) By the way, last season, on Dec. 8 the Rangers began an eight-game winning streak and won 13 of 14, which kind of ignited a pretty remarkable final 57 games. The year before, they took off on Dec. 22. Neither of those teams had this team’s record at this stage of the season. Just sayin’.
7) The excuses – the schedule, the injuries – are somewhat legit in that they exist. The Rangers haven’t been able to practice. But, honestly, I think they are losing games between the ears. Honestly, I think they have mismanaged most of their losses during this thing. And that it was easy to manufacture the focus against the Islanders because they it’s automatic in a game like that, but that it was easy to kick away that focus in some of the other games, too. That’s on the Rangers, not on the excuses.
8) Emotions were certainly an issue Thursday, because you can’t manufacture artificial emotion. Legs were certainly an issue, because the Rangers weren’t just playing back-to-backs, they were finishing five in seven. But there’s not a lot of excuse for banging your head against a wall over and over again, unless your brain takes the night off. The Rangers faced a team that plays some form of passive neutral-zone garbage, whether it’s a trap or a lock or whatever, and didn’t do what they had to do.
9) That is, get the puck deep, go to work, get it back, create offense in a half-court game, so to speak. This team doesn’t do that nearly enough, and that’s a big reason the stats guys have a field day with them. The Rangers prefer the fancy-pants, offense-off-the-rush game, and it sure is grand when it works. It sure stinks when it doesn’t. They had the puck in the offensive zone a fair amount at times during the game and A) refused to shoot, B) missed the net, C) tried one of those cute wide shots hoping for a redirection or a big hop off the backboards.
10) The Rangers defensemen are sure in love with C).
11) The Rangers had a couple of little bursts there, Mats Zuccarello and Oscar Lindberg, each setting up the other for a one-timer. Zuccarello’s was stopped, Lindberg whiffed as the puck, perhaps, bounced, or was too far in front of him.
12) Great job by Dave Maloney to break down the second Colorado goal. A lot of the blame went to Kevin Hayes, who, in a literal sense, turned over the puck at the offensive blue line. Maloney pointed out how the Avs were lined up across the blue, and how Marc Staal had to therefore fire it into the zone. Instead, Staal sent an ill-advised pass to Hayes, and it was also a bit behind Hayes, putting him in no-man’s land. The turnover was not on him. Could he have busted it back harder? Probably. Did that matter on that particular goal? No, it didn’t.
13) Dylan McIlrath, who again had a pretty solid game playing his fourth in six, could surely have played the 2-on-1 better. Not sure what he was doing, or what he could have done, but he didn’t do anything to stop the pass across. It was a slam dunk for Duchene and pretty much Game Over.
14) Game Over? Well, when your team scored one goal the night before, got four off some comical goaltending by Cam Ward the game before that, and got shut out by the Flyers – the Philadelphia Flyers! – the game before that, 2-0 after two periods is likely all she wrote.
15) The Rangers offense is dried up. The No. 1 line, which has had some defensive and offensive struggles lately, gave up the 1-0 goal. It wasn’t completely their fault. Ryan McDonagh was trapped at center by a little tip pass, and Mats Zuccarello was late getting back. Dan Boyle was too far on the right side. Still, a nothing play that started with two plays behind the Colorado net, with the Rangers in a good, passive forecheck position, shouldn’t result in that quick, that dangerous an offensive chance for the Avalanche. Just shouldn’t. It ended up in the net.
16) Antti Raanta, again, deserved better. He was the victim of zero goals worth of support Saturday. And zero until Oscar Lindberg’s window-dressing goal with Raanta on the bench for an extra skater last night. I thought he was really good in both games – the first two home-ice losses of his career. Raanta didn’t see a lot of shots early on, as both teams teams struggled to create much, but had to make a couple of beauts, one up high in the first, then the one on wide-open Barrie early second.
17) The Rangers went the first 11:36 without a shot on goal against Semyon Varlamov, letting a strugging goalie gain his confidence and breathe a little. They didn’t give up much at all during the same time, or really throughout the game. I thought, defensively, this wasn’t a bad game at all.
18) So Jarret Stoll and Dominic Moore is a new defense pair, or were BOTH Rangers defensemen trapped on that play where Raanta had to rob MacKinnon?
19) That Rick Nash skate in Erik Johnson’s face was pretty freakin’ frightening.
20) Until that coughup on the 2-0 goal, I thought Staal was having his second big game in a row.
21) Since hybrid icing came to the NHL, has there been one game without one in the first minute?
22) Chris Kreider. I am speechless. I have no speech. I don’t even know what to say. He had that breakaway in third. Ugh. Was involved in a couple of collisions. Did he do anything else at all? Did his linemate, Hayes? Kreider’s struggled all season, but he and Hayes together have been awful.
23) So Tanner Glass fought Cody McLeod, good battle, and they’ve gone at it many times over the years. Seemed to wake up the Rangers for a bit. Not sure it did, or the Rangers just found their game for a while later in the first. I wonder if Glass stays, if he plays over Emerson Etem when Etem’s ready to return, or if he or another forward will be on the roster when the Rangers fly to Vancouver Monday.
24) I thought this was one of Keith Yandle’s better games. He created a great chance in the first, two more early second. Was in deep on a 3-on-2, also, in the second, when Derick Brassard went toe-drag and lost the puck. Then had a steal and led the rush with the fourth line. Had the puck a ton.
25) How many times do you think Patrick Roy’s nose was broken? The guy is progressive, I’ll give him that, and not just in his crazy gambles pulling his goalie early. I’m sure that was a planned play, when the Avs iced the puck with just over 2:00 left, won the next draw, iced it again. So his guys get to stand around while Rangers go back for the touch-up or hybrid call. Of course, you have to win the draw first, but if you win it, it’s a smart play to ice it again.
26) I can’t say this nearly enough, or make the point more strongly. The Rangers and the Garden do fabulous things for charity. Especially the Garden of Dreams. Just wonderful.
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My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Keith Yandle.
2. Oscar Lindberg.
3. Antti Raanta..
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Your poll vote for Three Rangers Stars:
1. Oscar Lindberg.
2. Dylan McIlrath.
3. Keith Yandle.
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