Rangers blow a winnable game, lose 5-3 to Columbus
By Steve Paulus
Every team in the NHL has a stinker and this was the New York Rangers’ turn. For the first time this season they played a team out of the playoff picture and lost, dropping a 5-3 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Considering that it is January 27, that winning record is pretty amazing.
Gerard Gallant knew this was coming and warned about it repeatedly before the game. After the game he was obviously displeased. “Your players aren’t going to be ready every night to play their best game, tonight there was three guys I was really happy with and the rest of the guys were below what they usually are.”
When asked about the slow starts, Gallant said that he didn’t consider that the team had a fast start. “We scored two goals, but I don’t think we played great. It wasn’t like we were dominant in the first period….It was 2-2, it wasn’t a great period and I don’t think either coach would have been happy with that, we gotta be better. The second period we came out and it wasn’t a good enough push. They dictated the play more than we did and that was the difference for me.”
The shame of it is that they had this game won in the first five minutes. They scored twice on a fragile team, a team that had been steamrollered by the Calgary Flames the night before. You could see that Columbus was emotionally beaten when it was 2-0, but the Rangers let the Blue Jackets back into the game. They scored twice to tie the game and then added two goals in the second period as they kept the Rangers on their heels.
The Blueshirts finally woke up late and scored on their first power play. It was all Rangers in the third period,but they came up short. The Rangers had their chances. Goodrow hit two posts and Trouba hit one. Joonas Korpisalo robbed Julien Gauthier point blank. Woulda, shoulda, coulda.
Barclay Goodrow was visibly upset by the loss after the game saying “We emphasized having a good start which we did…next thing you know it’s 2-2 after the first. We let that good start slip away. Our second period wasn’t great, played really well in the third, but it takes 60 minutes and we know that and we’ve got to learn from this.” He concluded saying “It sucks losing, especially when you have start llike we did, up 2-0 five minutes into the game.” He took responsibility for taking a crucial penalty that led to the second Columbus goal.
The worst news for the Rangers is that Adam Fox left the game after one shift in the third period with an undisclosed injury. It came on a hit from Vladislav Gavrikov just 40 seconds into the period. After the game Gerard Gallant called it a day-to-day injury.
The Rangers have been getting into a dangerous habit of falling behind in games and they have shown a lot of resilience in coming back. This game, they did it once too often and it cost them.