On the day that New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was named to the All-Star team, he put on a very non-all star performance and was chased from the net as the Penguins dismantled the Rangers 7-2.
The Rangers needed to be at their best to beat the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins. They were anything but and after a solid first period, the Rangers fell apart and suffered their worst defeat of the season. It was one of the rare games when their franchise goaltender couldn’t bail them out.
The first period was controlled by the Rangers. It wasn’t scintillating early as there were four icings in the first two minutes of the game. The Rangers had an early advantage when Sydney Crosby took a tripping penalty. The five forward power play took the ice and moved the puck well, but only could manage two shots by Kevin Hayes.
The Rangers had several excellent changes, but Matt Murray kept the Pens in the game. He stopped Vlad Namestnikov on a two one break with Mats Zuccarello and he also stopped Filip Chytil who had two shots on a break-in.
The Blueshirts gave the Penguins a power play when Zuccarello was called for hooking, but the penalty kill was solid and Pittsburgh didn’t get a shot on goal.
It was a very good period for the Rangers, who outplayed and outshot the Penguins 12-5.
The second period was another story. It was pretty even play for the first few minutes and then, at 6:29, the Pens got on the scoreboard.
Pittsburgh made history with goal as Zach Aston-Reese became the first Staten Island born player to score against the Rangers.
Slick pass, quick shot, BIG GOAL! pic.twitter.com/YkmgYiuUij
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 3, 2019
I don’t believe that Nick Fotiu ever scored against his hometown team so Aston-Reese would be the first.
16 seconds after the goal, the Rangers got another power play when Jack Johnson hooked Mika Zibanejad, but they couldn’t muster much offense.
At 11:11, Jake Guentzel got the second Pittsburgh goal off a very nice feed from Sydney Crosby. Things went from bad to worse when Kris Letang picked Pavel Buchnevich’s pocket and went in for an unassisted goal, flipping the puck over Lundqvist’s shoulder.
With three goals in 5:51 it didn’t look like it was going to be Lundqvist’s night. Let’s just say that it would have taken excellent saves on all three shots, but he could have stopped them.
The Rangers answered right back when Ryan Strome deflected a Brady Skjei shot from the blueline past Murray.
The optimism didn’t last long. Three minutes later Dominik Simon scored a goal when he slipped past a sleeping Kevin Hayes, took the pass from Malkin and scored on an uncontested break-in.
Believe it or not, the Rangers outshot the Penguins 12-10, but it was a bad, bad period for New York.
The third period got off to a lousy start when Evgeni Malkin scored one minute in. Malkin crashed the net and with a delayed penalty called, he tapped the puck past a Lundqvist poke check. Why Lundqvist went for the poke check is a question, but down 5-1 it didn’t seem to matter.
The Rangers came back when Pavel Buchnevich scored off a nice feed from Fredrik Claesson. The defenseman carried the puck behind the net and passed it to the front of the net where Buchnevich had an easy tip in.
At 3:16, Namestnikov was called for tripping and the Penguins power play went to work. Tanner Pearson scored the Penguins sixth goal a minute and a half into the man advantage, putting a snap shot puck over Lundqvist’s shoulder. That was the end of Lundqvist’s night as Quinn sent Alexandar Georgiev in to relieve him.
Sydney Crosby finished up the scoring after a strong forecheck. This game was embarrassing. With road games coming up against Colorado and Vegas, the Blueshirts need to pick up their game and fast.