3 Takeaways from Game 1 loss to Carolina
That was a tough one for the New York Rangers.
In what was Game One of a short five-game series against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Qualifying Round on Saturday, the New York Rangers came up well short in a number of areas.
After an influx of optimism and high hope, the Blueshirts were brought back to earth with an almighty crash by the Hurricanes.
Quite literally too.
From the first drop of the puck Carolina flexed their bulking muscles and put their recent postseason experience to good use, making it look like a literal case of boys against men at points.
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Former Ranger Brady Skjei absolutely leveled Jesper Fast with a bone-crunching hit, a hit that forced the forward out of the game.
That was a sign of things to come as Jaccob Slavin beat Henrik Lundqvist, who was starting in place of the injured Igor Shesterkin, top shelf with just over a minute played.
Ryan Strome was then left worst for wear after dropping the gloves with veteran and Game 7 expert Justin Williams, and a flurry of penalties prevented the Rangers from ever really getting into a rhythm or flow.
It didn’t help that the Hurricanes just looked more prepared and more willing to engage in the war of attrition that is the postseason.
Sebastian Aho converted on the power play via a tip-in early in the second period, and Martin Necas’ wicked slap shot went through Lundqvist off the skate of Marc Staal to draw first blood for Carolina in this series.
The one positive for the Rangers was that, despite looking like a team that had hardy played together before, were always in the contest thanks to Mika Zibanejad‘s tip-in and a rocket of a slap shot from Staal.
They will have to give a whole lot more in Game 2, however, but before we move on we had some takeaways from Game 1…