The New York Rangers failures in Montral continued with an
ugly 4-1 loss Sunday night. The loss
dropped the Rangers to 0-5-1 in their last six trips to the Bell Centre.
After dominating the Toronto Maple Leafs top line last night
the New York Rangers watched the Montreal Canadiens top line of Max Pacioretty,
David Desharnais and Erik Cole dance circles around them for three goals and
nine points in a 4-1 loss. While the
Rangers used Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh mainly against the Tomas Plekanec line,
it was this line that made the Rangers defense look lost.
The Rangers certainly did not get the start they wanted as
the Canadiens got on the board only 2:39 into the opening period. Marc Staal had a number of fails leading to
the Montreal goal as he turned the puck over in the neutral zone with a bad
pass allowing the Canadiens to carry back into the Rangers zone. Staal then could not stop Desharnais from getting behind the net with
the puck. With Desharnais behind the net
failed coverages from Wolski, Bickel and Newbury left Lundqvist down and out
when Max Pacioretty eventually ended up with the puck in the slot.
New York got back
into the flow of the game when Stu Bickel dropped the gloves with Travis Moen
directly off a faceoff. The fight came
just moments after Rene Bourque side swiped Carl Hagelin along the wall, which
drew the ire of both Brian Boyle and Brandon Prust.
Getting even on the
scoreboard came 12:49 into the first period when John Mitchell converted a
Derek Stepan rebound from the crease. The
scoring play started with Gaborik working behind the Montreal net feeding
Stepan in the slot for the initial shot which Budaj stopped, but bad rebound
control left the puck laying there for Mitchell. The assist for Gaborik was his 300th of his
NHL career and first since December 20.
Montreal took the
lead back early in the second when the Rangers once again failed to clear their
zone against the Pacioretty -Desharnais-Cole line. Following the failed clear Desharnais played
the puck back to Erik Cole who let the shot go from just inside the blue line
and it was deflected off Pacioretty in front.
Stu Bickel had an awful shift in failing to get the puck out, not
clearing Pacioretty out from in front and helping screen Lundqvist. Following the goal he got an earful from
Tortorella on the bench and never saw the ice again on the night.
The deficit expanded
to two when Scott Gomez found Mike Blunden in the right faceoff that beat
Lundqvist short side. Desharnais got his
turn to finish one off when he beat Marc Staal down the ice in transition and
had a tap-in goal to beat Lundqvist to push the Canadiens’ advantage to 4-1.
The Rangers will look to toss this one aside and get back at
it Tuesday against Nashville.
