The Rangers win Tuesday was one in which they used a hybrid of the previous and the current coach's style of play. The ability to counter-attack and generate offense off of that, while occasionally employed by John Tortorella, is one favored by the current coach, Alain Vigneault. Blocking shots and frustrating opponents, while not dissuaded completely by AV, was and is still in the Rangers' lifeblood beaten into to them by Torts. That meshes of styles proved to be the right mixture, resulting in a 4-1 win and 2-1 series lead.
Game Highlights:
For the second straight game, NY got off to a 2-0 lead and for the second straight time, Philly was able to halve the difference. This time, unlike Sunday, the Rangers were able to hold Philly at bay, eventually increasing the lead. The Flyers' goal clearly spurred them on, as they carried play the remainder of the first and pretty much all of the second. The difference Tuesday as opposed to Sunday was that the Rangers reverted back to what worked for them in the past - blocking shots - they matched the Flyers intensity level by not giving any quarter and were able to boost the lead back up to two goals, giving them some breathing room.
The first goal was just a bad goal to surrender by Philly. The Rangers did a good job of pressuring Kimmo Timonen to get the puck, then created some space in the offensive zone and we have long spoken about the need to put pucks on and crash the net. The first goal came as a result of both. Rick Nash put a bad-angle shot on Ray Emery, who somehow flubbed it and Derek Stepan was in the right place and able to get just enough it to put it past Emery for a 1-0 lead. Nothing special, nothing spectacular, a bad goal, but one in which getting a shot on net and being the right place worked out.
The second goal was just hard work. Stepan put it behind the net, Nash chased it down and Martin St. Louis pushed off Timonen at the side of the net, knocking him down. At that same point, Nash (four assists in three games) got the puck back to the point to Dan Girardi, whose point shot was ably deflected by St. Louis behind Emery. Two games, two goals and five points for St. Louis, who before Sunday had scored just one as a Ranger. At that point, I am sure some felt as they did early Sunday, that this one was in the bag. While those of us that have seen how the playoffs in general have gone and what has happened to two-goal leads, plus what transpired the first two games of the seres, and you just knew Philly was going to come back.
My one criticism of AV is how he uses his personnel on 4-on-4. I would prefer he uses some of his faster skaters rather than his tendency to use Brad Richards who is fine 5-on-5 and on the PP - seen in his five points to date - but not on the open ice afforded by each team sitting one man down. In addition, Benoit Pouliot needs to stop taking stupid offensive zone penalties. Negating one power play - let alone a pair of them - especially in the playoffs should land you a spot on the bench for at least a few minutes to send a message. Taking that penalty negated the man-advantage and partially resulted in the Flyers goal.
Richards and Ryan McDonagh, who clearly is not back to his elite pre-injury form, as he is struggling with playing the puck, got tangled up in center ice. That enabled Philly to gather the puck in the neutral zone and enter the Rangers zone. Claude Giroux, who to date and for the remainder of the game was bottled up by Marc Staal and Anton Stralman, as AV shifted the match ups from McDonagh and Girardi to the second pairing, made a nice pass to get the puck to Jacob Voracek on right wing. Voracek came into the Rangers zone with speed and found a streaking Mark Streit, who beat St. Louis and blasted the puck into net past Lundqvist. Streit's goal was the third by a Philly d-man this series, as Andrew MacDonald scored in Game 1 and Luke Schenn had the game-winner in Game 2. (see Travis Yost's
blog for great info on matchups, as to who Giroux's line played against in Games 1 and 2 versus 2)
New York was then forced to hold on for dear life the next 2:42 of the period to make it unscathed through the rest of the first. The Flyers came out strong in the second, but a questionable goal surrendered by Emery made it 3-1. Great work by Carl Hagelin behind the net and good pinch down low by Staal. Hagelin got the puck to Richards, who found Girardi after he just came off the bench and he blasted one past Emery, partially screened by Dan Carcillo - remember that name for later. A great shot by Girardi, though one Emery wishes he had another chance as the screen didn't seem to that much but maybe it was enough to throw him off.
Then the silliness and poor officiating started. Voracek all but mugged and partially undressed Hagelin, yet each got two minutes. Voracek should have gotten two for the stick behind the helmet and then threw five punches at Hagelin, but got two for roughing as did Hagelin. I guess Boomer's comment about Hagelin embellishing was correct. At the same time that penalty occurred, Carcillo cross-checked Giroux after the whistle, resulting in two minutes in the sin bin. This was the one penalty due to a true lack of discipline in the game by a Ranger, especially by one where that had to be a question coming into the game.
But on that PK, as well as the one four-plus minutes later due to Derek Dorsett's penalty on Giroux, NY looked like it was circa 2011-12, blocking shots everywhere. Of the 28 blocked shots the Rangers had in the game, eight came of those two kills. Especially impressive was Brian Boyle's two blocked shots, one on each penalty kill. Girardi, who also seems back to his '11-12 form and has outplayed McDonagh this series, had five blocks in the game.
The silliness continued later in the third period. Matt Read clearly got his arm up as he and Carclllo passed in the neutral zone with Read making contact with Carcillo's head. No penalty was called. Then, on Carcillo's next shift, which we can question the extent of how much he was hurt and if he was embellishing a bit, though there is no doubt as to the point of contact and it likely was more the surprise of the hit than anything else - he hit the stick - and maybe the gloves as well - of Read's stick, yet a penalty was called. Carcillo was lucky not to get two extra for unsportsmanlike conduct, but he made Philly pay, earning some redemption for the blown call.
After the penalty expired, great job by Hagelin to tie up Brayden Schenn, Boyle took the puck down the left wing and made a beautiful pass to Carcillo, who was steaming down the middle and tipped it past Emery. The post-goal celebration almost resulted in Carcillo decapitating the official and earned him a one-finger salute that went all over twitter. The emotion there by Carcillo was pure, the comments after the game about the Philly fans, I could've done without, but understand where he was coming from. Had a twitter exchange with Ek on it, as his view is that the Philly fans have seen this before from Carcillo and felt he really wasn't injured while Carcillo was annoyed at the cheering while he was down.
I like the move Craig Berube made getting Steve Mason some work. Mason looked a bit rusty and shaky, but he was able to handle the puck a bit, even though NY did little to press the action while he was in. Unless he has a setback, look for Mason to be in for Game 4. It remains to be seen how he will handle traffic in front, but his presence could force a mild short in strategy form the Rangers, since he is a much better puck-handler than Emery, as well as better from side-to-side.
Here is the list of who the Rangers called up from Hartford after their season ended:
Marek Hrivik, Danny Kristo, Oscar Lindberg, Darroll Powe and Ryan Bourque; defensemen Tommy Hughes, Danny Syvret, Conor Allen, Dylan McIlrath; and goalie David Leneveu. Add those 10 to those scratched Tuesday, J.T Miller, Jesper Fast, Raphael Diaz and Justin Falk plus Chris Kreider, who is injured, and we have our 15 Black Aces for the playoffs.
This series still has a long way to go. Will be back Thursday will be a blog likely separate from the series and then Friday with a Game 4 preview blog. Rangers are in same place they were in Game 2 and in many other series the past three years, but can they get that two-game advantage that has proven so elusive?
Schedule
No. 3 Flyers vs. No. 2 Rangers (Metro Division) first-round scheduele
Game 1: Rangers 4 Flyers 1, Thurs., April 17
Game 2: Flyers 4 Rangers 2, Sun, April 20
Game 3: Rangers 4 Flyers 1, Tue., April 22
Game 4: Rangers at Flyers, Fri., April 25 at 7 p.m. (CSN, TSN)
Game 5*: Flyers at Rangers, Sun., April 27 at 12 p.m. (NBC, CSN)
Game 6*: Rangers at Flyers, Tue., April 29 at TBD
Game 7*: Flyers at Rangers, Thurs., April 30 at TBD
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