New York Rangers lose game one in overtime: wash, rinse, repeat

The New York Rangers lost game one of their second round series much in the same way that they lost game one of their first round series. Against both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins the Blueshirts lost a heartbreaker in overtime. Why were these losses heartbreakers? Simply put, both these games were losses that should have been wins.

It’s deja vu all over again for the New York Rangers

In both games the New York Rangers controlled play early and would open the series scoring less than 10 minutes in, but would eventually squander their good fortune. For as good as they were early in these games their opponents would find their own rhythm and take over. The Penguins gained their footing earlier than the Hurricanes, but the result was still the same.

Kaapo Kakko was again involved in the would be game winning goal that was not to be, though far less controversial the second time around. Both losses were decided off a ‘throw it to the net’ type shot that deflected in front to elude Igor Shesterkin. The New York Rangers were again left to pick up the pieces of a win shattered by defeat.

“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”   – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Fortunately, there are also similarities that can be seen in a positive light. Having lost game one to the Penguins in much the same manner, this is not uncharted territory for this New York Rangers team. This team rebounded with their most complete game and a convincing win in game two of the last series. The team would also win that series in dramatic game seven overtime fashion and transfer their broken hearts to the Penguins on the handshake line.

The continued growth of the “kid line”, the teams best line throughout the playoffs is nothing, if not positive. Yes Kakko missed the opportunity to seal the game, but he along with Alexis Lafrenière and Filip Chytil were the only line to produce any consistent offense for the Rangers. They had several grade A chances to score and eventually did when Lafrenière stole the puck from Tony DeAngelo and set up Chytil for the Rangers lone goal.

The team should also recognize that their big gun players, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, who were relatively silent in this game, can break out to push the team forward as they did against the Penguins. Perhaps most importantly, they have learned valuable do’s and don’t’s regarding their game play for the remainder of this series.