A disappointing 4-1 loss to the Bruins

About the game

The Rangers knew they were in a game on the first shift when Patrice Bergeron pasted Ryan Lindgren and Brad Marchand hit Colin Blackwell.  If anyone believes that team captains don’t matter, the Bruins captain set the tone for the game with his hit on Lindgren who had singlehandedly upended the Bruins on Friday. It was a hit with a purpose and he got his message across.

The Bruins got the first power play when Ryan Strome was called for a crosscheck at 5:35.

The next turning point was at 13 seconds later when Nick Ritchie took a tumble and landed on Alexandar Georgiev’s head.  It didn’t look like Ritchie made an extra effort to avoid the contact and his big body knocked Georgiev’s mask int his face, cutting him above the eye.

Play was stopped while he underwent some medical attention.    Ritchie took two roughing penalties while wrestling with Ryan Lindgren to negate the Strome penalty.  It was during the subsequent 4v4 play that the Bruins got on the board on a great individual effort by Charlie Coyle who got into the Rangers’ zone and put a shot over Georgiev’s shoulder.

Coyle got past a K’Andre Miller stick check to get the shot off.

Right after the goal, the NHL called down and had him removed to undergo the concussion protocol and he was replaced by Igor Shesterkin.

Just six seconds after the goal the Ranger were handed an opportunity to get back into the game when David Pastrnak was called for high sticking Alexis Lafrenière including 13 seconds of a five on three advantage.

The Rangers could get only get one shot on goal on the power play as they had one shot blocked and two missed the net.

After the game, Georgiev and Colin Blackwell both said that they knew that they had to “weather the storm” and that is what the team did, playing the Bruins evenly until the Bruins scored what Quinn called “the back breaker.”

It wasn’t K’Andre Miller’s finest play as he failed to clear the puck and that left Connor Clifton with a point shot that Trent Frederic deflected when Miller failed to tie him up.

Georgiev returned in the second period and it was two mostly futile period as the Rangers could do nothing right.  The next goal was going to be crucial and Charlie McAvoy iced it with a goal midway through the second period.  Bergeron won the draw in the Rangers end and it was a one timer from the blueline that eluded Georgiev.  The Ranger goalie was completely screened by two Bruins in front of the net.  Who was it providing the screen?  Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.  The Rangers could learn from that.

The Rangers could do absolutely nothing until Colin Blackwell got them on the scoreboard with 9:13 left in the game.

K’Andre Miller got the outlet pass to Alexis Lafrenière who led the rush into the Boston zone.  He made a drop pass to Blackwell who rifled it past Rask.  Right after scoring, he ran into Greg McKegg of the Bruins, knocking him down. McKegg to a vicious two handed slash at Blackwell and there was a brief scrum.  Both McKegg and Blackwell took roughing penalties, though Blackwell did absolutely nothing to deserve the call.

The goal gave the Blueshirts some life, but the sloppy passing continued and they could do nothing.  The referees gifted the Rangers a late power play on a unsportsmanlike penalty to Craig Smith with four minutes left.

The Rangers pulled Georgiev shortly into the power play but could not score with the six on four advantage and Charlie Coyle got the empty net goal when he cleared the puck the length of the ice and into the net.