Backs to the wall again after ugly 3-1 loss

The New York Rangers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 and now have to win two in a row to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. They have been in this position before so you cannot count them out.  What’s curious is the way the Blueshirts got there.

The Rangers were thoroughly outplayed by the Hurricanes who extended their home playoff winning streak to seven games. Carolina’s vaunted forecheck and transition game was in full view and the Rangers were able to only get 17 shots on Antti Raanta, equaling the fewest shots they have had in a game this entire season.

It felt like the Canes won every puck battle and every Ranger foray into the offensive zone was repulsed with no problem.  Despite a desperate need to score in the third period, they could only muster seven shots.

It’s easy to give credit to the Hurricanes for shutting down the Rangers’ offense, but the Blueshirts need to take some blame for not forcing the issue. Though credited with 31 hits, none were memorable and it’s hard to recall any prime scoring opportunities.

Still, it was a one goal game until Andrei Svechnikov scored with seven minutes left on a breakaway to build an insurmountable two goal lead.   In fact, the Rangers thought that they had scored midway through the second period on a Ryan Strome shot, but the goal was called back because it was preceded by an offside.

It would have given the Rangers a 2-1 lead and would have been devastating for the Hurricanes.  Instead it gave them a life and they were able to get the go-ahead power play goal shortly after.

A tired team

Coach Gerard Gallant called this the worst game of the five in this series, saying that “I didn’t think we played our game at all, I thought we were reaching with sticks instead of finished checks with the body the way we did the other nights.”

He also said that he was disappointed, saying ” We got to be better than we were tonight.  We weren’t quick enough, we weren’t strong enough.  We can make excuses about them clogging up the neutral one, but we weren’t competitive enough tonight.”

He did say that the team looking tired.  He wouldn’t call out his top players, instead criticizing the entire team.  He also said that they knew the Strome goal would be disallowed.

It’s refreshing that Gallant didn’t hide behind the Hurricanes excellent effort, he put all of the blame on the Rangers.

Non-existent offense

There’s not much to talk about.

The Ranger did have an argument just seven minutes into the first period.  At first it looked like Alexis Lafreniere saved a goal when he stopped a Vincent Trochek wraparound headed into the open net, but on replay, Brendan Smith clearly cross checked the Ranger, knocking him into the net.

No penalty was called, but the Rangers got the first power play of the game on a Svechnikov boarding call.  Instead of scoring, the Rangers allowed their third shorthanded goal of the playoffs after allowing only two the entire regular season.

Trochek’s goal came off a sloppy play by Jacob Trouba in the offensive zone and it was compounded by K’Andre Miller going down too early against the two on one.

With three minutes left in the period, they got another power play and took only six seconds to knot the game. Mika Zibanejad won a faceoff and scored the power play goal, shutting up the crowd and taking away Carolina’s momentum.

The first period ended with the score tied 1-1.

After the Strome goal was disallowed, it was Carolina’s turn to finally scored on the power play for the first time this series when Teuvo Teravainen scored’

The Rangers never really mounted a push in the third period and the game was put out of reach on Andrei Svechnikov’s goal.

The only time they came close was on a rush by Alexis Lafreniere.

Gallant had mixed up the lines, replacing Kaapo Kakko on the Kids Line with Tyler Motte, fundamentally to step in for Filip Chytil on faceoffs.  That didn’t work with him winning only one of six draws.  It might have been a mistake since the Kid Line had been the one line that was able to create possession time in the offensive zone earlier in the series. That’s what was missing in this game.

Shesterkin’s night

Igor Shesterkin was just ordinary in this game.   On a night when the Rangers could muster no offensive push, they needed him to steal the game and he couldn’t do it.

Sure, he made a number of fine stops, but he was aided by the crossbar and posts and he allowed two goals on odd man rushes.

The irony was that Antti Raanta appeared shaky on the Strome called back goal, but the Rangers could not take advantage.

Here’s a video recap of the game.

What’s next

The home ice streak will hopefully continue for at least one more game as the Rangers return to Madison Square Garden for an elimination game. They were in this situation against the Penguins and were able to prevail and the expectation has to be that we will see them in a Game Seven on Memorial Day.  But for them to do that, they need to remember how they played on Tuesday because the Hurricanes won’t hand it to them.

With the Oilers winning their series against the Flames, that means the game on Saturday will start at 8pm EST and it will be televised on ESPN.