Quick was Quick. The Kings were the Kings. And the Rangers suffered another very frustrating loss at the hands of Los Angeles.
It's looking bleak for the Rangers as Jonathan Quick put up a goose egg on 32 shots from the frustrated Rangers forward corps. Several in the first period were of the spectacular variety as well.
After the game Doughty had this to say about his netminder:
Doughty on Quick "best game of the playoffs, made saves he had no business making. Stood on his head"
— Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) June 10, 2014Despite a rather lopsided scoreline, the chances were heavily in favor of the Rangers. The blue shirts just couldn't solve Quick, even on 22 registered scoring chances. They also had 6 powerplay opportunities and couldn't convert. Little bit of trivia on the night, Quick was playing his first ever game in MSG tonight. That's a nice way to get a first win, but I'm sure he'll be thinking about the potential 2nd win more than this one.
On the other side of things, call it luck, good bounces, or right place at the right time but the Kings potted 3 goals past Lundqvist on just 9 chances and 15 shots. It doesn't get much more frustrating for Henrik Lundqvist when the goals go in like this:
like this,
and yes...like this.
Tough to blame Lundqvist for any of those, but I'm sure he doesn't care. Neither does Alain Vigneault. All that matters now is that he and the Rangers face an uphill battle like none other. They are in the dreaded 3-0 hole, which has only been overcome once in the finals before. It was way back in 1942 when the Toronto Maple Leafs erased a 3-0 series deficit on the Detroit Red Wings to take home the championship.
For New York they got another fine performance from youngster Mats Zuccarello, but were left with question about too many of their top players. Brad Richards, Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, Ryan McDonagh, and Dan Girardi all continue to be average at best in the series. Even the description of average is generous for some of them. It's not impossible to comeback from a 3-0 series deficit, and seems more common and possible in today's NHL than ever before. However, if the Rangers want even a sniff at making this series competitive, Alain Vigneault has to get something out of his top players. Going hand in hand with that, he has to get them dialed in on the powerplay. The Rangers are currently on an 0-for-31 run on home ice on the powerplay. Right now though, it just seems like there are too many questions and not enough answers for the Rangers.
Then you have the LA Kings, who played what you could consider a classic LA Kings style game. Despite a lopsided number of chances, they played incredibly well in the neutral zone, and the opening period was much much better. The breakouts looked sharper than in Games 1 and 2, and overall they handled the pace of the Rangers much better. It seemed like the Kings really locked up the portion of the ice between the blue lines, making it very tough for the Rangers to break out with speed. They still gave up way more chances than they wanted to, but some of that you can chalk up to situational chances. Up by 2 and 3 goals, you knew the Rangers were going to get more chances. The only other concern for the Kings tonight was the exorbitant amount of penalties they took. While they were unpunished on them on the scoreline, there was a large portion of the 2nd period where the Kings were caught down a man. Had the Rangers scored on any of those extra man chances it would have been a gigantic momentum swing. They got away with it there, but expect a more disciplined effort from them in Game 4.
After the game it was, as expected, more of the same from the Los Angeles Kings.
Love the Kings attitude - just won the game to go up 3-0 in the series. They hardly celebrated , that is championship maturity at its finest
— Rick Tocchet (@RealRocket22) June 10, 2014Darryl Sutter was in fine form with more snarky answers and that less than enthusiastic press conference persona that we've all come to love.
Question: Can you draw on 2012 when you were also up 3-0, then the Devils win a couple, trying not to look past what’s next?Sutter: I haven’t even thought about that. Really that has nothing to do with this series when you look. I mean, hell, we got thrown under the bus by everybody on earth seven weeks ago, so…Right?
Question: So how did it feel playing with a lead?Sutter: We’re used to it.
Sutter did however mention how important the penalty kill was on the night though.
Question: What was the key tonight for the penalty kill for you guys?Sutter: I think the key was obviously they didn’t score on any of them. I think the second period was probably the most important part of it. We scored on the power play and they didn’t. That’s a big difference. If you look at the series, if you want to base it on that, coming into this game, we scored a power play goal, they scored a shorthanded goal, we scored power play goal. They’re up on the special teams, so tonight we’re even.
It was a great bounce back game for Matt Greene as well who is a part of that penalty kill unit for the Kings. Greene registered three blocked shots in almost four and a half minutes of shorthanded time. Someone who had a similar stat line was Jake Muzzin. Muzzin also scored on the evening, giving him a total of six postseason goals. He had five during a 76-game regular season campaign.
Justin Williams notched an assist and extended his point streak to five games. He has nine points over that stretch.
Williams now has 24 points in 24 postseason games, which is 2nd overall in the league behind Anze Kopitar. However, Williams has just 2 powerplay points which gives him the highest even strength point total in the playoffs. I would not be surprised to see Williams grab the Conn Smythe in these playoffs given his tremendous performances. He would be only the third right winger in the last 20 years to grab the award if he does. There is still a lot of hockey left to be played before we start thinking about that though.
The Kings go back to MSG on Wednesday to try and put the series away. They had Chicago on the ropes before and let it get back to seven, so we'll see if they can take care of business this time around. One more game stands between them and a second cup in three years.
Rangers need to do some soul searching, otherwise it's going to be a very long summer for their fans, the locker room, and Glen Sather.
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