The Rangers, save for the first 51 seconds, were outhustled and outplayed by LA in their 4-2 loss to the Kings. Very little went right in the contest for the Blueshirts, who were a step slow throughout. Los Angeles came in as a desperate team and it showed in how they played.
Turnovers. Poor own zone coverage. Stifled through the neutral zone. All of those apply and then some to New York yesterday. Los Angeles used their size and speed to control play and dominate the game.
It would be easy to point out all the mistakes, though this blog would be paragraphs and paragraphs long. Suffice to say Cam Talbot gave the puck away on one goal. Los Angeles stole the puck on another leading to a goal. Dan Boyle just put the puck on a Kings' stick and New York failed to recover leading to a third. Lastly, the Kings' puck possession I referred to above was evident on their last goal when Anze Kopitar just held on to it before finding Jake Muzzin wide open inside the blue line. Muzzin blasted it over Talbot's glove, in essence ending a game that likely was over earlier.
To me, wipe the game from the memory banks and view it as a one-off aberration. Prior to this contest, NY had been very good in general and especially against the West. Yesterday, they were outplayed. Granted, you could say that the compete level needed to be better, but part of that might be that LA just dominated action preventing that.
Now focus on Ottawa. The one piece that the Rangers could take from yesterday's game is that this how desperate teams play. The upcoming contests are all against teams vying for a playoff spot. That means the Blueshirts need to bring a lunch pail approach and expect those teams to come in with an edge. Ottawa, Boston and Washington are all fighting for their postseason lives and they are likely to play like it.
Henrik Lundqvist, who returned to full practice yesterday for the first time since his injury, should play in one of the weekend games. As of now, my expectation and what seems to be general consensus is that he will play Sunday against the Capitals. Not surprisingly, it sounds as if the Blueshirts did struggle initially with going full bore in Lundqvist, but that got resolved as practice wore on.
My one concern with Lundqvist is how will react to game action. That means while he has said he so ready to go, that sounds great in theory but we will have to see how that translates into practice. Lundqvist is an elite and mentally tough athlete but he had a dangerous and scary injury and one that is not the norm. While he is wearing a guard to prevent against whiplash, the unknown is how he will react to traffic in front and/or high shots. Can he get past the mental concern about a reoccurrence of the injury? Will he stay in to the last second or start cheating to protect himself? While I don't believe that will be the case, this will be one aspect to keep an eye on.
For now, New York needs to move forward and focus on the next game rather than dwell on Tuesday's debacle.