The New York Rangers fell to the Ottawa Senators in Game One of the second round last night. Here’s our thoughts.
-First of all, that’s a game the New York Rangers should have won. New York is a better team than the Ottawa Senators, and the Senators did not play a particularly strong game. Their first period was impressive thanks to numerous power-plays, but the remainder of the night was spent trying not to lose to the Rangers. It worked. It should not have worked.
-So what exactly went wrong for the Rangers? Perhaps caused by the slow start, New York never looked like they fully had their footing. They would get chances, but non-threatening chances that Craig Anderson swept away. They would get a few threats here and there, but Ottawa will take “few” every game.
The Rangers couldn’t find the holes in the Senators’ defensive set-up, passing the puck around aimlessly. Having the puck means nothing if you can’t do anything with the puck.
-New York looked like they knew they were the better team and therefore a win would be handed to them. Instead, the gift was handed to the Senators, as a bad angle Erik Karlsson shot found its way past Henrik Lundqvist. Senators got the dirty goal, Senators got the win.
Related Story: Rangers-Senators Series Predictions
Game One Ups and Downs
-Rick Nash deserves a boatload of blame for the Senators’ game winning goal. Let’s rewind to the Montreal Canadiens’ Game Two overtime goal for a second. Rick Nash tried to weave his way through the Canadiens’ entire defense, failed, and the Canadiens bolted the other way for the eventual game winning goal.
This time, Rick Nash tried to pluck the puck away from Ottawa to go for a breakaway rather than making sure he cleanly got the puck out of the zone. He did not get the breakaway, nor did he get the puck out of the zone. The Senators scored. The Senators won.
-Other than that, Nash had a fine game. He did not jump out as much as usual, but he was by no means a bystander.
-J.T. Miller looked impressive and especially aware of how to get through the Senators’ suffocating defense. Chris Kreider used his speed to his advantage, but it was Michael Grabner who caused Ottawa fits throughout the entire evening with his own speed. Grabner doesn’t need to score to wreak havoc.
-Brendan Smith had a rough night, while Brady Skjei didn’t quite look like himself. Nick Holden was average. Marc Staal had his worst game of the post-season, continuing to look like the worst defenseman left in the playoffs. That leaves us with Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh as the only two defensemen that played a strong game. That won’t win you many playoff games.
Even if McDonagh was phenomenal yet again.
Related Story: Five Storylines for Rangers-Senators
Moving Forward
-Oddly enough, the belief here is Game Two is not even a must win. The Rangers can beat this Senators team two, three, maybe even four times in a row. New York has a better roster and a system built to destroy the Senators’ system. They just have to play Rangers hockey and put their feet on the gas.
-For Game Two, the Rangers need to utilize their speed far more, and get the puck on net far more. Be creative to get into the zone, but once you’re in the zone, use the zone time wisely. That’s the recipe for success.
-If Tanner Glass is in the lineup for Game Two than Alain Vigneault deserves to lose all of the credit he got for the Rangers’ strong finish in the Montreal Canadiens series. That mistake cannot be made. It could cost the Rangers their post-season. The lineup was not a problem. The play was.
Next: Rangers Leave Lundqvist Out to Dry, Lose Game One
-The Rangers must also focus on being more disciplined in the coming games. The one area that the Senators did look threatening in was the power-play. Derick Brassard especially was firing on all cylinders on the man advantage, but was nearly invisible at even strength.
Winning the special teams battle will go a long way towards winning the series.