The Rangers split their weekend games, falling 7-3 in Reunion Day against the Lightning and defeating the Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday. With the win, New York ended Carolina’s playoff chances, as remote as they were. In addition, the task to slide further down the standings and increase their chances of a higher pick because more difficult with the victory.
Rangers-Lightning recap:
The end result and game itself was a sideline to two events. First, the return of Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller for the first time to MSG following each of their respective departures. The video tribute, as expected, hit all the right notes. Playing the game seemed anti-climactic.
Video tribute to Miller, Girardi and McDonagh:
As jimbo posted, Henrik Lundqvist clearly felt the loss of G this season, having had the whole year to process his thoughts, unlike the move of McD, which is fresher:
“I’m sure that there will be times during the game that I’ll think about it and appreciate what they brought to the team and how they helped me,… Lundqvist told The Post before Friday’s match. “Mac is so new, but when Dan happened, I thought about how good he was at shutting down the other team’s top players.“Even the other night in Washington, I was thinking about how he would go up against [Alex] Ovechkin. He was such a big part of our matchups and the way we played. He was such a big part of us winning.
“You know he’s not there. At least I do,… said the netminder. “The style he played, we haven’t seen it since he left.…
Second was the presentation of the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award. I had thought Chris Kreider or Jesper Fast night have won it. But it deservingly did go to Lundqvist. While not a salve for this season, a nice recognition of what he means.
Award presentation:
Conor McDonald presents @HLundqvist30 with the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award presented by @NorthwellHealth. pic.twitter.com/mC1wPMXzuY
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 30, 2018
The game was a microcosm of the season. Some good, lots of bad and an inability to adjust or stem an adverse tide. Up 1-0, New York gave up a pair of goals close to the net to make it 2-1. Ondrej Pavelec made a big save mate in the second to keep the deficit at one after Kreider’s double-minor roughing penalty resulted in a Tampa power play. But the roof caved in beginning early in the third.
Miler on the PP right in front of the net at 0:35 of the period started the tide and AV and the Rangers never recovered. Before you blinked, the score was 5-1 and that was all she wrote. Cedric Paquette scored his second of the game 1:18 after Miller’s followed by Brayden Point’s 29th of the year 45 seconds later. Three goals the first 2:38 of the period, no timeout, no adjustment, end result, game all but over. The one positive was Filip Chytil netted his first career NHL goal and Chris Kreider tallied his 16th of the season. Girardi adding one on the PP in front of the net to end the scoring seemed almost like poetic justic.
Rangers-Hurricanes Recap:
Saturday, where another loss would really keep New York in the hunt for a possible top-seven pick, the Blueshirts defeated the Canes. Ryan Sproul scored his first since November 15, 2016 as a member of the Red Wings. Kevin Hayes continued his strong end to the season with his 23rd of the year. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 40 shots to net the victory.
Neal Pionk played almost 22 minutes, as he continues to be used heavily. But he was outdone by Ryan O’Gara, who played 22:56, and Brady Skjei, on ice for 26:08 in the contest. Contrast those numbers with John Gilmour, playing 12:46, Sproul, at 13:12 while Marc Staal was at 21:12.
O’Gara has looked much better than he did after first arriving from Boston. He is steady on his own zone. I would like to see him be even more physical and better positional play, but he has shown enough that he should get third pairing consideration next season. Pionk is the clear bright spot from the blue line, far surpassing Gilmour and maybe rivaling Skjei as the defenseman with the most upside. That said, I am far from bailing on Skjei, who failed to take that next step this season. Defenseman growth is not linear, and despite his step back, I still would lock up Skjei long-term if a team friendly type deal, like what Carolina has done with Slavin and Pesce, was available.
Despite the growth from some of the blueliners, the team still is surrendering shots at a prolific rate despite the changeover in players. If you want to claim part of that is due to the new personnel, I might buy it. But because this is age-old problem that has not gotten better even with the extra teaching that reportedly is done because of all the new faces. This either means that the system is flawed - my choice - or the players still don’t get it - less likely. The lack of improvement in this area is a major red check against AV and the myriad of defensive coaches that have parades through the past several years, Samuelson, Beukeboom and Ruff.
Here is the continuing run down for the last 16 games of the season. After losing to Winnipeg 3-0 on March 6, Tampa 5-3 on March 8 and Florida 4-3 in a shootout March 10, New York defeated Carolina 6-3 on the 12th and Pittsburgh 4-3 in overtime March 14. St. Louis defeated New York 4-3 on March 17 and the Rangers fell 5-3 Columbus (March 20) and Philly 4-3 on March 22 before defeating Buffalo 5-1 last Saturday, New York lost 4-2 to Washington on Monday at MSG and 3-2 Wednesday. They fell 7-3 to Tampa on Friday (last home game) and defeated Carolina 2-1 on Saturday to close out March. In April, New York faces the Devils, Islanders and Flyers, all on the road.
With the final week of the season upon us, the Rangers sit in 22nd with 77 points. Chicago is in 23rd with 79 points, also at 79 games. Edmonton sits in 24th and the Islanders in 25th, both of them also with 74 points and 79 games played. The Oilers have two more wins than Chicago while the Islanders are even with Chicago and obviously two behind Edmonton in wins, yet are below the Oilers and Blackhawks, possibly due to a worse goal differential. It’s three points to Detroit in 25th. Carolina is in 21st with 81 points in 79 games while Calgary has 82 points in the same amount of contests and sits 20th in the standings, but the Isles have their first round pick from the Travis Hamonic deal. The Blueshirts are unlikely to slide further down unless they likely lose all three games and any of the three teams below them win two of three, which looks fairly unlikely.