It was a great night for Henrik Lundqvist, but not a good night for the New York Rangers. In what is becoming a disturbing trend, the Rangers blew a two goal lead for the second night in a row and lost to the Minnesota Wild 3-2. The Blueshirts thought they had tied the game in the last second, but the referee ruled that they had pushed goalie Cam Talbot into the net and there was enough there to stand up on review.
The Rangers cannot let the disallowed goal be the reason they lost. They lost because they played 20 minutes of good hockey and then forgot how to forecheck, pass, hit and shoot. It was not a good effort and two of the Wild goals came off turnovers in the neutral zone.
Coach Gerard Gallant said “We came out and we’re ready to play, whether it’s back-to-back and the players are tired, I’m not making excuses. but maybe that was the case, I don’t know. But it’s frustrating to watch the second and third periods the way we played the first.”
Mika Zibanejad had a simple answer about the game. “I thought we stopped playing. We came out strong in the first, they had their push back….it was hard for us to get the momentum back, especially the way we start the game, not be able to follow through, it’s a tough one.”
He was upset that they couldn’t win on Lundqvist’s big night. He said “It just sucks that we couldn’t end the night on a better note, especially the way it started, seeing him and seeing his family and just listen to that crowd, really.”
The crowd was the loudest of the season and the team seemed to build off the energy in the building, but they lost their mojo and by the third period the chants were “Henrik” and for “Zuuuc” when Mats Zucarello touched the puck.
It didn’t help that the team was missing Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil and Patrik Nemeth, but if anything, it shows how thin the team really is. Chris Drury is going to have to find reinforcements somewhere because this team is not going anywhere with the likes of Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier, Greg McKegg, Jonny Brodzinski and Ryan Reaves playing significant minutes.
A positive is that it was a one-goal game despite the Rangers being forced to use two rookies (Braden Schneider, Zac Jones) and two sophomores (K’Andre Miller, Libor Hajek) on defense against a very high powered offense.
The Rangers appear to have solved their slow start issue. Now, the problem is becoming holding onto leads. It’s not the first time they’ve done this. Remember that they blew third period leads in two straight games to Vancouver and Edmonton in November, but got away with one point in each game.