It’s not like the New York Rangers didn’t know what to expect when they took on the Boston Bruins Sunday afternoon. They knew that the Bruins would play physically. They knew that the Bruins would put a lot of pressure on them. They knew that the Bruins are one of the best teams in the NHL and would do what they would need to to do halt their slide. They also knew what they would need to do to win just as they had on Friday night.
The disappointment is that despite all of that knowledge the Rangers came out flat, were physically overwhelmed and barely competed in this game.
To say that the Rangers were not sharp is an understatement. Their passes missed their targets more often than not. Their shots missed the net. This Ranger team is really frustrating to watch.
Brendan Smith was very honest after the game. “We didn’t match their effort…we knew they were going to come with a push…and we didn’t respond as well as we should have. We knew they were gonna come and that’s something we’re going to have address in the room and get ready and this feeling that we have right now we’ve got to channel it to the next game.”
Coach David Quinn was fairly charitable in assessing the team. “In the first period they upped the ante but I thought we continued to do the things we did the night before,…I liked our first period. I thought the back breaker was the second goal, that really took the wind out of our sails. The second half of the first period we started coming and doing the things we were going to need to do. I thought we withstood their push early, and then after that, they were just a better team… they really were.”
The number support that. The Rangers were outshot over the last two periods, 29-13. They were outhit 25-16. They did withstand the early Boston push, down only one goal and they played the Bruins fairly evenly. That all ended when the Bruins scored with only 1:44 left in the first period, the Rangers looked like they knew that they were doomed.
It was another game where the top six didn’t do enough to get the Rangers out of their funk and in this game, the bottom six couldn’t make the difference.
This game showed how desperately the Rangers need to get Artemi Panarin, Flilp Chytil and Kaapo Kakko back into the lineup. It also showed that Friday was the aberration and not the standard for this Rangers team.