New York Rangers: Three keys to a tough 4-2 loss to Montreal

The New York Rangers took on yet another team battling for playoff positioning and though they were competitive they fell beind and couldn’t pull off another comeback, losing to Montreal 4-2.

As you watch this Ranger team over the last five weeks of the season you will see some flaws that they will need to remedy as they rebuild.   Although they played a solid game, they were beaten by a better team that doesn’t have those issues.   There were three key elements to the loss.

First: Their goalie outplayed our goalie

This is not a condemnation of Henrik Lundqvist.  It’s just that Carey Price became a wall after giving up a quick goal to Vlad Namestnikov.  Although the Canadiens outshot the Rangers in the first period, the Rangers dominated and it felt like all nine shots were grade A opportunities.  Price proved why he was a Hart Trophy winner.

Lundqvist made his share of excellent saves, but he was let down by his defense, bad boards and bad bounces.  A miscommunication between Lundqvist and Brady Skjei led to a giveaway and a quick deflection by Brendan Gallagher.  A bizarre bounce off the  boards caromed the puck right into the crease and two Canadiens beat the Rangers to the puck for an easy goal.  On the crushing third goal, Joel Armia simply outmuscled Brady Skjei and beat Lundqvist.

Were any of these goals stoppable?  Absolutely, but they shouldn’t have been the prime opportunities that they were.

Second: Finishing is necessary

We’ve been saying this all season.  Stop the top line and you stop the Rangers. Zibanejad, Kreider and Vesey were held off the scorecard and although the Namestnikov line tried to make it up, they just couldn’t break through.  As a matter of fact, the top line was outplayed, finishing minus seven.

Namestnikov singlehandedly could have ended this game in the first period. He had four shots on goal and Price got to three of them. He played as he has all season, but it’s becoming obvious that he just doesn’t have a scorers touch.  He finished with seven shots on goal, but was looking to the ceiling by the middle of the second period.

Third: Follow the formula, stupid

The Rangers had settled into a solid formula over the last two games.  Be dominated and fall behind early then come storming back to tie the score only to lose in overtime. They abandoned the formula against Montreal and it cost them.  Instead of falling behind the Rangers totally dominated the first period and took an early lead.

That was fatal.  When Brendan Gallagher deflected a shot off a flukey shoot-in to tie,  the Canadiens took over the game and until Brendan Lemieux scored with less than three minutes left,  the Blueshirts were never really in it.

As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  Oh well.