In private conversations over
the last couple of days the discussion has been about how important tonight’s
two points were to the New York Rangers at a critical juncture of the season
and the different ramifications that could result. The team had the chance to go into Detroit
with only two possible outcomes to be had.
They would either secure a huge win against a great team to snap a skid,
or they would walk out having gone winless in five straight. Despite a very good effort, the Rangers would
fall short in yet another 3-2 loss in which the ineptitude of the power play
would play a critical part. Now the team
is left without a game until Friday against the also struggling Thrashers,
having not won a game since January 24th.
While the Thrashers continuing
to lose is a slight saving grace for the Blueshirts, they cannot take those
kind of moral victories as Carolina is on their heels and suddenly Buffalo,
while nine points back, has five games in hand on New York. Friday will obviously be a crucial game, but
it will also be very interesting to see what the team does over these three
intervening days.
In terms of the game, the
Rangers came out of the gates playing their style of hockey. The pressure was creating turnovers, they
were forechecking and cycling the puck and had plenty of chances to get the
early goal on Jimmy Howard, who came in struggling. Unfortunately, as has been the case a lot of times
of late, the Rangers were unable to get one in and make all their work pay
dividends on the scoreboard. Detroit
started to play their game in the latter half of the period, but at the end of
one the score was tied and the Rangers had a penalty that was going to carry
over.
After failing to convert on the
carry over penalty, Detroit had some momentum and Pavel Datsyuk would make that
momentum grow with a beautiful individual effort. Datsyuk would use the physics of the game instead
of the force of the game to work the puck free from Brian Boyle and then work a
give and go from the corner in which zero Rangers picked him up. Biron would stop the initial shot, but after
Boyle did not follow him out of the corner, Avery failed to pick up the stick
in front and McDonagh was caught high guarding another player, Pavel would put
home the rebound.
The Rangers would have some
beautiful chances to score, including one for Sean Avery that was created by a
beautiful stretch pass from Martin Biron to Mats Zuccarello who played a
perfect saucer pass to Avery, who was in alone on Howard, but could not finish.
The Rangers would once again
head to the third down a goal. It marked
the 15th time in the 18 games the Rangers failed to have a lead
after two periods. They would get on the
board early in the third, Matt Gilroy played a saucer pass to Derek Stepan for
the finish which tied the game at 1-1.
Less than two minutes later the
Red Wings would score a highlight reel goal on a tic-tack-toe passing play
where Hudler would start the play at the point, the puck would work to the far
side of the ice and the winger on that side never followed Hudler as he broke
to the net and he would end up with the easy finish. Detroit had the lead back at 2-1, just over
five minutes into the final period.
After that goal the Rangers
would get a power play on a delay of game call, generate little and fail to
score. I actually joked when they took
the penalty with 13:30 remaining in the game that it would be the first of
seven consecutive penalties they would take to ice the game. Little did I know how prophetic that would
become.
Late in the third, Drew Miller
would make it 3-1 and almost every Rangers’ fan I know thought that was surely
the end of the game. Brandon Dubinsky
and Sean Avery would combine to bring back hope or prolong the agony, depending
on how you look at it, when Avery fed Dubinsky for a goal to cut it to 3-2 with
just over four minutes to play. Even
though Dubinsky scored, I thought Avery should have taken the shot on the
two-on-one, but Dubinsky would convert from the tough angle.
With 3:40 to go in the game,
Sean Avery was hit with a high stick giving the Rangers a 5-on-4 power
play. When the clock read 2:24 the
Rangers would get a 5-on-3 advantage for 44 seconds as once again it was Avery
who was high sticked. This time Avery
was cut (ended up with four stitches) so it was a double-minor which meant the
Rangers would either score or end the game still on the power play.
If there was anything that
typifies the Rangers struggles beyond the power play itself it was the fact
that they have a 5-on-3 for 44 seconds and they lose the faceoff, then three
players get outhustled by Henrik Zetterberg and basically kills of 30 seconds
of the two man advantage. The Rangers
would fail to convert and the game ended.
The most interesting things of
note about the power play were that both Marian Gaborik and Michael Del Zotto
were mainly glued to the bench during them.
Gaborik had plenty of time on the power play, but not much of it during
the late opportunities. I thought the
main purpose for Del Zotto being here was to help the power play, but he only
played 51 seconds with the man advantage.
- Sean Avery was the Rangers best player
- Gaborik once again had an excellent first period and then basically disappeared.
