New York Rangers Game Two Thoughts: Opportunity Wasted

The New York Rangers fell to the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in overtime on Friday night. Let’s look at some thoughts on the wild affair.

How The Game Was Lost

-Let’s start with the overtime winner by the Montreal Canadiens against the New York Rangers. No one to blame on that one. Perhaps Mika Zibanejad could have tied up Alexander Radulov better, but overall the game was not even lost in that moment.

-The game was lost by the Rangers’ horrendous overtime play. New York allowed Montreal to control play throughout the entire period. It was only a matter of time for the Canadiens. Unacceptable play in a crucial time. Sounds far too familiar in the Alain Vigneault era.

-Up 3-2 with a minute remaining, Alain Vigneault put Marc Staal and Nick Holden on the ice. It was the worst coaching decision of the season, and it cost the Rangers the lead. Staal and Holden were the two worst players on the ice by a country mile all night. They had no business being anywhere near the ice during a close, late game situation.

It showed a continued lack of understanding in good defense by Vigneault. It’s his primary Achilles heel, but he cannot allow it to hurt the team to that degree. Make no mistake about it: Alain Vigneault cost the Rangers the lead. Nick Holden played his part, but Vigneault enabled him to do so.

-After showing plenty of promise in not shelling in game one, the Rangers shelled at the end of game two. Montreal dominated play throughout the latter half of the second period, and that led to the game tying goal. In addition to scratching Nick Holden, Alain Vigneault must stress pushing pace throughout the entire game.

A lead does not mean sit back and defend it. A lead means attack and extend it. The Rangers must understand this to move on.

The Negatives

-On the first goal against, a few different options were available to the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist’s stick broke, but New York didn’t take any of the options. First, any player could have given Lundqvist a stick.

Second, the Rangers could have skated the puck back to Lundqvist and let him cover it. Finally, New York could have simply iced the puck, allowing Lundqvist to grab a stick on the stoppage.

Instead, the Rangers kept playing. We will never know for sure if the Rangers didn’t know he didn’t have a stick, they couldn’t hear anyone yelling he didn’t have a stick, or some combination of the two. The alternative is that the team completely mishandled the situation, and that’s the scary possibility.

Regardless, it was a gaffe that won’t happen again. But the goal counted all the same. Tough pill to swallow.

-The second goal against happened with Nick Holden and Marc Staal both behind the net. Marc Staal was at least covering a man, but Nick Holden…..Nick Holden was not doing anything.

Holden and Staal were awful last night. There’s no sugar coating it. Staal managed a couple of scoring chances and looked better than Holden, but any of you reading would have looked better than Holden.

After the game one victory, we said the main concern was Nick Holden. That hasn’t changed after two games. At this point, any of Adam Clendening/Steven Kampfer/Kevin Klein would be a fine addition to the lineup. However, the expectation is the Rangers maintain the status quo.

New York Rangers

The Positives

-Henrik Lundqvist made a decision before the playoffs started. He was going to win despite the defense in front of him, not with assistance from them. Lundqvist was all over the place last night, scrambling all across the Rangers’ zone. For the majority of the game it worked, too.

Lundqvist looks more determined than ever, and became a third defenseman out there. It remains to be seen what this Lundqvist means for the Rangers going forward, but he looked like a man possessed out there. He won’t go down without a personal fight, whether the team helps him or not.

-Tanner Glass and Dan Girardi continued to look fine out there. While Pavel Buchnevich is without a doubt a better player than Tanner Glass, Glass has not played his way out of the lineup. Girardi struggled in the possession game in game two, but his overall game was adequate.

In a perfect world he’d be heavily sheltered and Nick Holden would be scratched, but that won’t happen. Let’s start with scratching Holden.

-Rick Nash had a tremendous evening and was the best Ranger on the ice not named Henrik Lundqvist.

-Brendan Smith had the game of his life. In the first period he was on the ice for zero scoring chances against and zero shots against. In the second period, he dominated up and down the ice. Smith’s pass to Mats Zuccarello for a deflection gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead late in the third period.

The newest Ranger defenseman must play more moving forward. While Nick Holden and Marc Staal struggle to hold onto the puck, Brady Skjei and Smith are setting up quality chances in the Canadiens’ end.

Moving Forward

-The Rangers were gifted a power-play early in the second period, so the expectation was a make-up call would happen. However the make-up call the referees chose was unacceptable.

Steve Ott hit Mats Zuccarello high and away from the play. It was charging, interference, you name it. A scrum ensued and the referees called off some of the participants.

Ott received nothing for a dangerous hit that could have injured Zuccarellio, and Zuccarello received a penalty for defending himself.

If that’s the precedent the referees set, there will be multiple injuries this season. Montreal has plenty of dirty players.

-The Rangers also received a penalty a few minutes later for defending Henrik Lundqvist. After letting the players play in the first period, the referees called whatever they felt like calling in the second. Zero consistency. Classic NHL.

-If you said the Rangers would be tied 1-1 going into Game Three it would have sounded fine going into the series. However knowing the gift the Rangers turned down in Game Two, it’s disappointing. Owning a 2-0 series lead going home would have been huge.

Now, the Rangers must at least split their two games in New York. Remember, the Rangers play worse at home than on the road. The belief here is game to game momentum is a silly concept, but New York must show they have Lundqvist’s back and that the regular season home woes were flukey.

Next: Rangers-Canadiens Thoughts Following Game One Win

The prediction here? Whoever wins Game Three wins the series. New York should be thrilled about the first five period of hockey they played, and ashamed of the final two. Alain Vigneault must be better. Nick Holden must be scratched. Game Three is coming up, and the series will shift one way or the other.

New York must shift it in their favor.

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