10 takeaways from a bitter overtime loss

Now that we’ve had a chance to reflect on the four hours, 48 minutes of hockey we all watching last night, here are 10 takeaways from the New York Rangers’ bitter loss to the Penguins.

1. The Rangers blew a 2 goal lead

There’s no denying it.  After 23 minutes and eight seconds of play, the Rangers were sitting pretty with a two goal lead.  They had the game in hand and if not for the heroics of Casey DeSmith in the first period, it could have been a blowout.   This is a story we have seen before.  The Blueshirts just do not possess the killer instinct that they need to succeed.  It’s why they give up goals right after they score.  It’s why the constant mantra about the need to play a full 60 minutes was something we heard too often this season.

The simple fact is it is inexcusable to blow a two goal lead in any game, but in the playoffs it can alter the outcome of a series.  That said, no lead is safe in the playoffs.  Ask the Toronto Maple Leafs about blowing a three goal lead in the third period of a Game Seven to the Bruins.  Stanley Cup Playoff history is full of dramatic comebacks.

2. Shesterkin is out of this world

79 saves in one game. The second most saves in NHL history.  All of that in his first playoff game.  The Rangers did a disservice to their goaltender in not winning this game. There have been only eight goalies since 1955 who have had 70 saves in a playoff game.  Only three of them actually won the game.

Considering the workload, the question has to be whether there will be any physical issues for Shesterkin, coming off that game. He’s an athlete in top shape and they have a full day off.  He should be fine.

3. That disallowed goal

Every single Ranger fan on planet Earth believes that the goal should have counted.  Here’s rule 69.1:  “If an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with the goalkeeper, such contact will not be deemed to be contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.”

The key question is whether Kakko made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. Observers who believed that the call was correct justified it by saying that Kakko took advantage of the push by Brian Dumoulin to make contact with DeSmith.   The question is whether Kakko was prevented from trying to make  “a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.” We will never know and the easy answer was to disallow the goal since there was clear contact that took DeSmith out of the play.

While Gerard Gallant called it a 50-50 decision, but he was being gracious.  It would be a bitter pill if the turning point in this series occurred just 57 minutes into the first game.

One important fact to note.  The decision is rendered by the situation room in Toronto, not by the on-ice officials.  They have input, but the decision comes from the video room.

4. The Pittsburgh goalies

Casey DeSmith joined Jeff Zatkoff and Matt Murray as first time Penguins playoff goalies who have stymied the Rangers.   DeSmith was excellent in the first period and kept the Penguins in the game.  His workload got much easier after the Rangers took the two goal lead.

Louis Domingue’s relief job has taken over the narrative about the game, especially after he revealed that he had a dinner of Chinese spicy pork and broccoli after the first period.  It’s all they were talking about on NHL Sirius Radio this morning. Hey, there’s no denying that it is a funny story and the fact that Domingue emerged as the winning goalie made it even better.

However, the bottom line when it comes to the Rangers is that they did very little to make life miserable for DeSmith or Domingue after the first period.  Most of the Rangers shots were off the rush or from the perimeter.   According to Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers created six rebound attempts in the entire game.  The Penguins created 17 such chances.  Too often, it was one and done for the Rangers when they were on offense.

In the modern NHL, when it comes to goalies, the fact is if they can see it they will stop it  Although the Rangers got 17 shots on Domingue, most were from distance and he had a clear view of them.   It’s no mystery that the winning goal was off a Malkin deflection from in front of the net.  They Rangers didn’t have many of those.

5. Penalties

Another complaint from Ranger fans was the fact that the Rangers were called for four penalties while the Penguins took only one.  There’s some validity to the argument especially on the Jacob Trouba boarding penalty that gave Pittsburgh a two-man advantage, allowing them to tie the game after Chris Kreider’s shorthanded goal.  There were at least a dozen fouls that could have been called that were comparable to what Trouba did that weren’t.  It was a crucial call and was a game changer.

The NHL tried to right a wrong when they allowed referees to go to replay to confirm major penalties.  It’s why Ryan Lindgren’s totally legitimate bodycheck on Rickard Rakell was reduced to a two minute minor.  What makes absolutely no sense is that if the referees review the play and decide that there was no major penalty, they have to reduce it to a minor penalty. It cannot be wiped out completely.   That’s insanity.  What it  means is that the referees can totally blow a call, but even if they did and verified it on review, there still has to be a  penalty.

While the Rangers killed off the penalty, it came in the first period when they were dominating.  It gave the Penguins a breather and allowed them to regroup and it helped them in their comeback after trailing.

Let’s not even get into the two bizarre non-icing calls in the second period.

6. Sidney Crosby has to be stopped

Sidney Crosby entered the game with the most playoff games experience of any player on either team. He’s seventh overall in playoff scoring with 69 goals and 193 points. He was the main reason that the Penguins flipped the game completely  around and tied the game.  He set up both of Jake Guentzel’s goals and he was the dominant player on the ice from the second period on.

Crosby played 34:49 and took 48 of the 102 faceoffs in the game, winning 56% of them.  He was out for every key draw, one reason why it appeared that the Penguins were winning many of the line match-ups.

Do the Rangers have an answer for Crosby?  They tried to get the Zibanejad line on the ice whenever he was, but that didn’t help the Blueshirts offense.  It’s one reason why Zibanejad ended up with only three shots on goal, though Chris Kreider and Frank Vatrano did have six shots each.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan tried to get Crosby on the ice to exploit the Rangers’ young defense, especially the third pair of Braden Schneider and Patrik Nemeth. Taking all of those faceoffs helped.

7. Malkin vs Panarin

While the Crosby line won the battle of the top lines, in the competition between second lines, Artemi Panarin was not as effective as Evgeni Malkin.  Andrew Copp did score, but of the 16 shots generated by the line, only two were by Panarin.  That’s par for the course for Panarin considering his pass first mentality, but in a crucial game the Rangers need him to be among their very best.

8. The kids are all right

If there is one thing to takeaway from this game, it’s the fact that the third line played well.  They played physically, especially Alexis Lafrenière who had five hits, mostly in the first period.  Kaapo Kakko made a fantastic play on the disallowed goal, passing the puck to Chytil while on his back.   He had three shots on goal and along with Kevin Rooney, was one of the two Rangers who didn’t give away the puck.

It was an encouraging performance and if they get better, it will help the Rangers win this series.

9. The fourth line has a job and it’s not scoring

The fourth line came out like gangbusters and were a big reason why the Rangers dominated the Penguins.  Ryan Reaves was a wrecking ball in the first period, with massive hits on Chad Ruhwedel, John Marino (twice) and Marcus Pettersson. He had all of the Penguins looking over their shoulders.

The only problem was that Reaves had six hits in the first 25 minutes of the game and only two more the rest of the way.

Kevin Rooney is in the worst goal scoring drought of his career and a Reaves goal has to be considered purely a bonus.  It leaves Barclay Goodrow as the sole offensive threat on the line without much help.

That means that in order to be effective, the fourth line has to hit and forecheck.  They need to cause havoc in the offensive zone on every shift.  When they stop hitting and cycling in the offensive zone, they become a liability in their own zone.

10.  No one said it would be easy

We might have been misled by the Rangers’ dominance of the Penguins in the regular season.  That said, the way the Rangers played in the first period was a clear display of the kind of hockey they need to play to win.

Coach Gerard Gallant said that it’s impossible for the team to play that way for 60 minutes, but the turning point was that they came out of it with two goals when it could have been more.

The fact is that Pittsburgh has two of the finest forwards in the NHL in Crosby and Malkin along with playoff-hardened supporting players like Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and the ageless Kris Letang.

The Rangers matched them goal for goal and play for play for over 105 minutes in a game that either team could have won. The good news is that a Rangers’ team full of playoff rookies went toe-to-toe with Pittsburgh and got an education on what it takes to win in the playoffs.  It’s a crash course, but it will help them the rest of this series and hopefully beyond.