The Rangers took a major step backwards performance-wise Thursday in their 2-1 loss to Edmonton. Coming off possibly their best and most complete of the year, New York did a 180 in terms of their compete, contest and urgency level against the Oilers. There is several possibilities for this, each of which I will touch on and dismiss below.
Game Lowlights:
1) Trap game - the easy excuse is that this was a trap game on many levels. It came between Colorado and Pittsburgh, each of whom are a step up in class compared to Edmonton. In addition, they may had one eye also on the break in addition to Pittsburgh, but that is a hollow reason. You have put yourself in a better position in your division and know that in two days many of you will have two weeks off, so hard to say that because of this the effort shouldn't be there, since that should be easy to provide knowing what's upcoming.
2) Didn't get the bounces. We have often spoken that you make your breaks. The bounces the Rangers got against the Islanders at Yankee Stadium were lucky but also came as a result of hard work. Last night, that hard work quotient was low, especially on the two goals allowed.
Carp in describing both goals clearly points out that the bounces that Edmonton got were because of hard work.
"The GWG stands out, but the first goal of the game was equally hideous, a Kevin Klein pass into a dangerous area, behind Brian Boyle and off his skate, directly to a wide open man. There was an unfortunate bounce, and Talbot lost the puck as it fluttered behind him, and nobody knocked Ryan Smyth on his keyster. But what led to the shot was terrible."
Carp on game-winner with 1:38 left in the third -"The Rangers also got caught on a change, with Chris Kreider overstaying his shift, then taking a nap on Nail Yakupov, Brad Richards—who is rarely good in his own end—getting beaten and knocked down by Taylor Hall on a puck behind the net, and yeah, battles lost. (also, Ryan Callahan wasn't great while Anton Stralman and Ryan McDonagh didn't do much as well on Yakupov's game-winner, which deflected off Kreider's stick past Cam Talbot (29 saves))"Vigneault seethed: “The winning goal was five guys on the ice getting beat to loose pucks and them protecting the puck and finding an open man all alone in the slot.… Talbot, who lost his second straight start, pointed out that “with a minute and a half, we’ve got to have our coverage.…
3) No power plays. Granted the officials held their whistle, only calling one penalty all game, though the Rangers didn't do much to warrant them. That said, the ones in black and white should have called Ryan Jones' elbow to Zuccarello’s head, the tackle on Richards driving to the net on the pass from Callahan and the slash on Rick Nash. But the Rangers didn't really force the action enough to make the officials use their whistles.
4) Shortsightedness and fallacy of evaluating everyone game to game. Look we all fall into this trap, taking each game as a mini-season. While it's okay to break down plays and lay blame or credit, which yesterday was easy as most of the team, save for the Pouliot-Brassard-Zuccarello line, Talbot and maybe Callahan, played lousy, but extrapolating that to the lineup and making judgments that vacillate wildly game-to-game is a bit crazy. If that was done, in essence we would add up all the grades, divide by 82 or the numbers of games a player played and give their overall rating. That would make us miss out on a bunch of things including intangibles etc. that are key to a player and teams rating.
RANGERS
Kreider – Stepan – Nash Hagelin – Richards – Callahan Pouliot – Brassard – Zuccarello Boyle – Moore – Carcillo
McDonagh – Girardi Staal – Stralman Moore – Klein
Henrik Lundqvist (starting) Cam Talbot
Check out Ryan Wilson's blogs for a great take on the Penguins.
PENGUINS
Kunitz-Crosby-Gibbons Jokinen-Malkin-Neal Glass-Sutter-Megna Pyatt-Adams-Engelland
Orpik-Martin Scuderi-Bortuzzo Maatta-Niskanen
Marc Andre Fleury
Importance of Friday's game. The Rangers are coming off loss at home Thursday. The other teams in the conference and the division continue to win. They are playing a major division rival where winning also sends a message and you don't want to go into the Olympic break losing two in a row. In addition, who knows given all the Callahan and Dan Girardi rumors and unsettled situation what the mindset of org would be if they went in losing two in a row. Win tonight and go into the break on a happy note. Lose and have almost three weeks to think about a two-game losing streak.