It’s the playoffs, what did you expect?

Don’t blame injuries

The Rangers have lost Barclay Goodrow to an apparent broke ankle and Ryan Lindgren is out as well.  Those are tough losses, but the Penguins are down their top two goalies along with forward Rickard Rakell and top pair blueliner Brian Dumoulin.

There was no news on Sunday regarding Ryan Lindgren.  Gerard Gallant said they will know more when takes the ice for the morning skate.

This has been an insane playoffs when it comes to goalies.  Besides the Penguins, we’ve see Carolina’s Antti Raanta run over and Colorado’s Darcy Kuemper struck in the face by a stick that got through his goalie mask.  Not only that, but Frederik Andersen, Tristan Jarry and Juuse Saros are all number one goalies out with injuries.

There will be injuries and they will affect the results, but you have to win 16 games to win the Cup and may have to play 28 games to do it.  There will be injuries and it’s how teams cope with injuries that is part of winning it all.

Don’ blame the referees

While the number of penalties handed out by the refs in this series was one-sided for most of the first three games, any belief that they are favoring the Penguins went out the window when they handed the Rangers three straight power plays in Game Three.  The fact that the Blueshirts couldn’t score rests on their own shoulders.

In fact, if you want to blame anyone, blame the situation room in Toronto.  They are the ones that made the call on the Chytil goal in Game One and the first Penguins goal in Game Three.  The on-ice officials called Chytil’s goal a good goal and waved off the McGinn goal.

It’s when the penalties are called that is important.  They put the whistles away in the triple overtime, a decision that we all should be thankful for.  They did call early penalties on the Rangers in the second and third games and both calls were iffy.  But those three penalties in Game Three gave the Rangers a chance to win and they couldn’t do it.

Experience matters

If there is one factor that is becoming apparent, it’s that their prior playoff experience has helped Pittsburgh.  Chris Kreider brought it up in his postgame remarks saying “It was a good learning experience for our group, first period at least. First road period on the road in the playoffs.”  The young Rangers were might have been off balance at the start of the game and the Penguins took advantage.

You have to credit the Penguins for recovering after they let the Rangers tie the score and that they were able to get through the three penalties and score the winning goal.  No matter how you look at it, the Rangers are still the youngest team in the postseason and the Penguins haven’t missed the playoffs since 2006 when Alexis Lafrenière was in kindergarten.

Was Igor Shesterkin a little off due to the “Eeee-gor” chant from the fans?  You would think not, but it’s possible it affected his concentration just a bit.

What about Shesterkin?

Speaking of Igor

When Igor Shesterkin has a bad game, it’s noticeable, but this wasn’t the first time this has happened.  During the regular season, he gave up five goals in a 5-1 loss to Calgary in October.   Less than two weeks later he gave up six goals again to Calgary.

He gave up four goals in a game three times this season.  In his 47 other starts, he held the opposition to three goals or fewer.   What’s important is what he did after those two Calgary games.  After the first game, he shut out the Columbus Blue Jackets.  After the second game, he beat the high powered Florida Panthers 4-3.

Today, Gallant was asked if he senses that Shesterkin was off his game. “I think the first two goals were real lucky and the crowd was going crazy and everything was going.  It just went against us. There were some lucky bounces and breaks and I though at 4-1 why not shake something up.”

Gallant’s expectations for Monday?  “I expect him to be outstanding. It’s a one-off, that stuff happens like that.  Again, nobodies blaming him…our team was dominated in the first period…it’s nothing on Igor. It was two lucky goals the first two and away we go.”

Of course, everyone is looking for issues and the speculation that he was still tired from the triple overtime and that he has never played as many games is pretty baseless.  He had a bad period helped by no puck luck.

Let’s look at that first period.

That first period

If you want to determine what went wrong in the first period, it isn’t difficult.  While Gallant blamed bad luck the reality is that it was a combination of a dumb play, bad luck and some excellent checking.

On the first goal, Patrik Nemeth made a god awful play.

Brock McGinn was as lucky as Artemi Panarin was on his goal in Game Two.  He had the puck behind the net and was trying to center it.  It hit Nemeth who inexplicably was hugging the post and preventing Shesterkin from doing the same.  There’s no way of knowing what Nemeth was thinking backing into the net like that. but it was a costly move.

The second goal, that came three minutes after Kaapo Kakko had tied the score, came on the power play after an incredibly soft holding penalty on Justin Braun, but it was a good goal.

Jeff Carter set an excellent screen and got the deflection that Shesterkin stopped partially.  Was he hampered by Carter who was in contact with him as the puck was shot?  Maybe, but it was a good power play goal.

The third goal, just over two minutes later was another power play goal.

That goal was the definition of a lucky bounce. Evan Rodrigues took the shot, missing the net only for the puck to rebound off the boards where it was missed by Jeff Carter, K’Andre Miller and Danton Heinen to go right to Rodrigues who put the puck past Shesterkin. Rodrigues was in the right place at the right time.

The Rangers might have learned something about the lively boards at PPG Paints Arena as well.  It wasn’t the first time in the game that a puck off the boards didn’t act like it does at the Garden.

The fourth and final goal of the period, scored with just under five minutes to go, was from a mistake by Braden Schneider.

He was stripped of the puck by Brian Boyle who made the pass the Rodrigues who was open in the slot.   If you look at the replay, Dryden Hunt comes back as Schneider is checked, but decides to pursue Boyle and leaves Rodrigues uncovered for the shot with Nemeth screening Shesterkin.

Should Shesterkin have had that shot?  Probably, but Schneider has his pocket picked and then Hunt didn’t check the player who took the shot.   In the end it was just a really good play by Brian Boyle that compounded Ranger errors in their own zone.

So, four goals in 13 minutes 18 seconds.  Did it feel familiar?  Remember when the Rangers scored three goals in 129 seconds against Pittsburgh in March?   It happens.

Coming back

Rangers fans should take solace in the team’s ability to bounce back after losses.  They played 41 games on the road this season and lost two road games in a row in regulation only once this season, back-to-back losses to Minnesota and St. Louis in March and   They also lost two consecutive games in overtime against Vancouver and Edmonton in November and followed that by a loss in Calgary.

The four other losses on road trips were followed by wins in the next game.

This may sound like wishful thinking, but it is true. The Rangers are a disallowed goal and a successful power play from leading in this series 3-0.  There will be ups and downs in a playoff game.

As Gerard Gallant said, “It’s not just with us. It’s around the league…Florida Panthers are a great team, you see the same thing from them. Sometimes it’s hard to change momentum, you do the best you can. If it was just our team, I’d say ‘what’s going on’ but we watch ever night, momentum change swings the game sometimes.  We changed in the second period.  You want to play 60 minutes, but there’s another team across the way that wants to do the same thing.”

Let’s see how the puck bounces Monday.