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The second period started and less than a minute in Jeff Skinner scored to make it 2-0. Funny how leading up to the draft so many Ranger fans didn’t want Skinner because he was going to be too slow to play at this level, but there are reasons snipers are snipers and he showed that tonight. The Rangers lead by Ryan Callahan responded as Cally drew an elbowing penalty and 52 seconds into the man advantage it was Callahan who cashed in with another mid air goal. Maybe that is the secret for the Rangers to hit the net, instead of it being on the ice make them play baseball with it and swat puck from the air. The Ranger surge continued later in the period when Ruutu slashed Todd White in frustration leading to another power play. Suddenly a Ranger power play that was 1-20 at home before the Cally goal would score a second as Eric Christensen gave a beautiful feed to Marc Staal at the left circle for what would be the game tying goal.
A Rozi giveaway at the blue line would lead to Ruutu finding Skinner and Skinner and putting a backhander past Lundqvist to give the Hurricanes the lead back but once again the Rangers would respond 2:24 as it was Callahan and Dubinsky hooking up for a beautiful goal in which Dubi roofed a wrist shot just under the bar to make it 3-3. The Rangers dominated the play in outshooting the Hurricanes 18-8 in the period but with all that they only outscored them 3-2 and went into the 3rd tied.
Once again the 3rd period would decide the fate of a Ranger home game and once again the Rangers would come up short. The powerplay that would lead to the eventual winner for the Canes by Erik Cole was a bad call as Skinner did a great job of embellishing any contact and adding to it himself by holding onto Boyle’s stick and taking himself down. To say that is what cost the Rangers the game though in my opinion is a cop out for the club because good teams overcome it and kill the BS penalty off and at home right now this team cant find a way to get the big kill. It cost them in the 3rd vs Colorado, in the 3rd eventually vs Atlanta, in the 3rd tonight and also on the road at the Isles. Every loss so far this year has seen the Rangers fail to kill off penalties in the 3rd period and frankly they are not good enough when they don’t.
The story of the game was clearly the goalies as Ward and Henrik both stood on their heads at times, but Ward bested him with his 40 stops and as I said before the game and in the week preview he is the key to that team. People didn’t give enough attention to what his loss early last year meant to that team and in my opinion was the single most important reason they didn’t make the playoffs. That the Rangers shot the puck that much and created as many chances as they did is a good sign and you have to hope that offensively they wont face such a hot goalie while keeping up similar effort in future contests. On the defensive side the way they hung Hank out to dry was pitiful in many different cases as he was constantly having to make repeat saves without getting any help from his teammates either in terms of taking the body or just clearing the puck out of danger areas if not the zone.
- The Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan line was phenomenal again tonight and if it keeps up the Rangers cap may be eaten alive by Dubi and Cally’s new deals as both are playing way above prior years.
- Grachev showed aggression and physicality in his limited time, racking up 4 hits in 9 shifts and 6:55 TOI.
- MDZ’s defensive deficiencies cannot be continually overlooked or excused as he was awful in his own end.
- Staal played a 2nd straight poor defensive game
