The Rangers picked up a point Monday thanks to the brilliance of Ondrej Pavelec. Notice I used the words picked up and not earned because the only player that earned his paycheck against Dallas was Pavelec. The rest of the team should have just stayed home, and given how they played, looked as if they had during the contest.
Game recap:
MSG Post-game:
The Rangers couldn’t do much of anything the first two periods, and even when they attempted to accomplish something, it was a major failure. Passes were either in a teammates skate or thrown awry. Defensive zone coverage was but a mystery and invisible. More turnovers than a bakery was on the menu. The end result was that after two periods, the Rangers had only 10 shots and were eventually outshot, 45-25, and out-attempted by a 90-45 margin (no, that isn’t a misprint).
Saturday’s team and effort never showed up Monday, save for maybe a few moments in the third period and in a highly-entertaining overtime. This wasn’t the first time New York began a game poorly, as we have seen that occur way too many times recently. Friday against Washington was one recent example, but even in that game, despite being down 2-0, they in no way looked as bad as they did yesterday.
Pavelec, though, was brilliant. He was sharp throughout, aggressive in net, coming out to cut down angles. Pavelec was solid in his rebound control and a stalwart on wide-open slot shots and breakaways. Forty saves the first three periods and four more in the overtime that had a ton of action allowed New York to steal a point. The Rangers are in the midst of six games in nine nights, including back-to-back contests this weekend. Pavelec should get at least one more start and his play last week against Pittsburgh and last night verses the Stars (17-13-1) has to inspire confidence and enable AV to turn to him when needed without tremendous worry.
Coach Alain Vigneault shook up the lines and D-pairings after the second. The blender resulted in Kreider - Desharnais - Zuccarello, Nash - Miller - Buchnevich, Grabner - Hayes - Fast and the same fourth line. On D, Smith was moved up to play with McDonagh, who wasn’t particularly good again, Skjei and Shattenkirk stayed together while Holden was moved down to play with Staal. That could be the third pairing moving forward, though they will need to be sheltered in usage and deployment. The shifting did improve the attack, resulting in the goal by Nash, who was stoned several times by Lehtonen, that deflected off his body from Skjei’s initial shot.
In the shootout, AV started with Zucc, who scored and is a stalwart there. Turning to Desh seemed odd, especially since his strong numbers on the shootout were from 2013-14 and he has done little since then. I get going with Shattenkirk, since he scored in his last attempt, but with others like Nash and Vesey and Buchnevich and Hayes all available, you can’t go Desh and Kirk, maybe go with one and use one of the other available players as the second option.
AV presser:
"I don't think anyone in our dressing room doesn't know that other than him, we didn't play real well tonight. There are two positives, Pavs played unreal and because of his performance we were able to get a point. Other than that....we weren't good.""I think I summarized it pretty good there. Thanks guys."
Zuccarello was pretty clear in his disappointment:
“I think everyone in here knows that was embarrassing for two periods. They smacked us around and we didn’t win one battle, we didn’t win a puck battle in front of the net. We weren’t first on the pucks.…“It’s not acceptable for the team that we are supposed to be. I think everyone in here knows that. Getting something out of this game is all Pav. We have no business getting anything out of this game. I think everyone understands that.…
It’s great both coach and Zucc, and in fact everyone who spoke after the game, realized the error was unacceptable. Now, fix it. Don’t come out slow again Wednesday and trot out the same post-game comments. Because you then will be talking about another disappointing loss and possible one in which you failed to even pick up a point.