The Islanders continued their recent habit of rallying from two-goal deficits, coming back 2-0 and 3-1 down to defeat the Rangers on a snowy Tuesday night at MSG. The Isles outworked the Blueshirts much of the evening, making the Rangers' lead on the scoreboard look better than how they played on the ice. The end result was a disappointing loss for the home team and another solid victory for the visitors.
Game Lowlights:
The theme of the night is how little things matter. There is no question that overall, the Islanders carried play most of the night (see the quotes below). That positional and territorial dominance resulted, or at a minimum, contributed to several of the breakdowns that led to the first three goal. I broke down each of the goals, trying to highlight where the main flaw in the Rangers D occurred with the end result a marker for the Islanders.
First Goal:
Derek Stepan made a great feed to Chris Kreider, who tried a similar move to the one used by Rick Nash on his second goal but Kevin Poulin was up to the task, making a pad save. The Islanders transitioned from offense to defense, with Kyle Okposo battling to an almost standstill with Stepan to the side and back of the net. John Tavares earned his first of three assists when he eluded Girardi with a good spin move, then was able to slide it past Ryan McDonagh, who was almost flat footed, to Matt Martin steaming down the slot. Martin beat Talbot in close at 17:22 for his third of the season and first since Nov. 1 to cut the margin to 2-1.
To me the main culprits in the goal were Girardi, who allowed Tavares to spin past him, and Daniel Carcillo failing to pick up Martin in the slot after he came off the bench.
Second Goal:
Vanek carried the puck across the Rangers' blue line and found Okposo on the right wing. From a severe angle, Okposo made a perfect pass across the slot to a cutting Hickey on the doorstep at 13:22 to cut the Rangers lead to 3-2. The main culprit in this goal was Girardi, who failed to stay with Hickey or even cover the front of net, allowing Hickey to get inside position and beat Talbot. Other than that, even though the Islanders had position of the puck, the remainder of the team had pretty good position, but one huge breakdown and the comeback had started.
Third Goal:
Just over three minutes after the Islanders narrowed the gap to one, Talbot made one of his better stops of the night as he knocked away Tavares' shot from in close with his glove. But Colin McDonald found the rebound and spun around before firing a shot from the slot that beat Talbot high to the glove side at 16:36 to tie the game 3-3. The play started with the Rangers having a good chance in the offensive zone, the Islanders once again did a good job going from defense to offense, but the key part of the sequence was the drop pass to Tavares to create a 3-on-2. That was a result of Brad Richards failing to beat Tavares or at least hinder him from getting all that open ice, which resulted in Staal and Del Zotto collapsing down low on the initial shot, opening up the slot for McDonald.
I agree with the view that the second and third lines were invisible. Little pressure, especially from the Zucc-Brassard-Pouliot line. Despite that, I am not ready to say wholesale changes are needed, that Pouliot needs to be benched, that the Rangers need a better linemate than Pouliot. For now, I will chalk it up to a bad game. Pouliot hasn't scored in a few games, but none of us expected the streak he was on to continue, so unless this continues for several more games, his streak gets him a little bit of a pass.
The top line was solid, as seen by the two by Nash, who missed a third when robbed by Poulin, and would have loved to see him go top shelf. I thought Stepan overall had a good game, though when you compare JT to him, the variance in strength and talent is very evident, but it is unfair to compare the two as Tavares is a superstar. On the too-many men penalty, while Kreider touched the puck, there were seven men on the ice. As Carp points out, "the two guys who jumped on early were Kreider and Stepan, they were coming on for Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin. Ryan Callahan never got off, and Rick Nash never came on. So … since it was off an icing and 62-19-24 were stuck on the ice for a defensive-zone faceoff and should have immediately changed, going up ice and into the offensive zone instead of changing was mistake No. 1. Then, being out of gas and slow to the bench was mistake No. 2."
Fourth Goal:
Lots of blame to go around and the Islanders benefited from on the power play. Tavares was able to get to the puck on the boards, beating Stralman to the puck, setting up the whole play. If the puck is even touched by Stralman or Dominic Moore, then Tavares can't go cross ice to Nielsen. The puck then went Nielsen to Tavares, who found the opening in the slot and deflected to Vanek, who beat a helpless Tavares.
The post-game quotes were right on target as to the game. As pointed out cranford93 in a comment on my prior blog, don't love the laissez-faire comment by our captain, but I will chalk some of it up to frustration after the game. The Rangers have to do a better job against the Devils and Islanders, especially with two more games, the final of the season series, upcoming over the next 10 days.
"I really thought that we were the better team the whole game. Even though they went up 2-0, that was the only two opportunities they had," Tavares said. "We missed some chances and then we got a big goal to get us back into it. I thought we carried the play."
The Islanders captain's blunt assessment didn't get much of an argument from his Rangers counterpart.
"I thought they were controlling most of the game for large amounts," Ryan Callahan said. "We got off to that lead, but then we have to try and grab control of that hockey game. We need to up our intensity, our energy. For whatever reason, we didn't do it."
In the past, the Rangers rebounded from bad losses. This year, as Carp said, they did it against Toronto after the Pitt debacle. Other than that, most of the struggles were much earlier in the season, when the whole team was having a tough time. Thursday they will face an angry St. Louis squad coming off a 7-1 blowout loss to New Jersey. That game will give us some insight as to the heart and resiliency of the 2013-14 New York Rangers, will they step up and rebound or fall to an elite Western Conference team.