There has been one theme this season for the New York Rangers that has been disturbing. They have not shown an ability to deal with adversity. They fall behind and seem to fold. They don’t have what it takes to mount a comeback and they are fragile. One bad goal and it sends the team into a tailspin.
The 4-0 loss to Boston was a perfect example. When the Bruins scored a shorthanded goal at 17:34 of the first period, it was described by Coach David Quinn as a “back breaker”. Yes, a goal with over 42 minutes left in the game and a deficit of two goals was the death blow that the team couldn’t recover from. He was right, how the team came out in the second period told the story.
Five minutes…game, set, match
Here’s the first five minutes of the second period:
- The Rangers iced the puck twice
- The Rangers took a holding penalty
- The Rangers got no shots on goal
- The Bruins won four of six faceoffs
- The Bruins got five shots on goal
- The Bruins scored two goals, the first on the power play and the second on a takeaway in the Rangers’ zone.
At the moment in the game when the team needed to come out and change the momentum, they were overwhelmed and borderline incompetent. It’s easy to blame goaltending. If Alexandar Georgiev had been on his game, two of those four goals might not have been scored, but that’s till two goals against.
What it points to is a lack of resiliency and the numbers prove it.