Any good will generated by the two straight wins over Detroit has vanished after a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars at Madison Square Garden. The Stars showed why they are a playoff team and the New York Rangers showed why they probably aren’t.
The New York Rangers played a very strange game. They scored three power play goals against one of the best defensive teams in the league, but they allowed two power play goals and three at even strength and lost a game that they had a chance to win.
The Stars are the prototype of a team built for the playoffs. They have a rock solid defense with excellent size. Their corps of forwards are big and physical. Although they have difficulty scoring, they have players who have been elite scorers in the NHL and if they heat up, look out.
They did get goals from two of those players in Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry. Both have been underproducing and came through with big goals in this game.
This was the first time that the Dallas Stars scored more than four goals in a game since November 21. Their power play had been ice cold and leave it to the Rangers to provide the tonic for both of those woes.
There were a lot of storylines coming out of this game for the Blueshirts. Henrik Lundqvist was pulled after allowing four goals in two periods. David Quinn lost a goal challenge, leading to a delay of game penalty that absolutely killed them. Pavel Buchnevich was benched despite scoring a goal. Brendan Smith should have been benched for taking a dumb penalty at a bad time. Chris Kreider didn’t play and by the third period, the entire lineup was being shuffled.
To make matters worse, with a 4-2 lead, Dallas turned on the defense and they gave the Rangers no room to move. It wasn’t pretty.