There is no need to sugarcoat this. Doing so would be an insult to the Rangers’ intelligence and to the viewing audience. You could hunt for hours and you still would not be able to locate and identify a redeeming quality to Tuesday’s 6-1 paddy whacking at the Garden by the fast-approaching ’Canes.
“We let each other down for sure,” Vincent Trocheck said after the match his team chased from the 1:49 mark, when Carolina scored the first of its two first-period power-play goals. “Divisional game, right behind us in the standings, those games are extremely important no matter what time of the season.
“Those are tough ones to swallow.”
The defeat dropped the Rangers into second place overall in the NHL, but more of the moment is that Carolina has moved within five points of the Metro Division leaders off a 7-1-3 run. It is way too early to focus on this, but even as the Blueshirts have played two fewer games than the ‘Canes, the race has been joined by a serious contender.
The Rangers had ridden to the top of the league off their superb work on both ends of the specialty game. They were first in the NHL on the power play and fifth on the penalty kill. The combined special team coefficient of 115.8 was best in the league ahead of the Bruins’ 113.2.
Their work has allowed them to overcome a mediocre record at five-on-five in which they entered the match having scored just one more goal than they had allowed. When the game ended, that had been reversed, the Blueshirts now minus-1 at five-on-five.
Do you know why that might be meaningful in assessing whether the Blueshirts fit the profile of a Stanley Cup champion?
It is because only one team has won the Cup with a negative five-on-five differential since the NHL first expanded to 12 teams in 1967-68 and the playoffs increased from a two-round format. That team was the 2011-12 Kings, who allowed one more goal than they scored at five-on-five while slipping into the playoffs as the final seed in the West before storming through the tournament behind a young goaltender named Jonathan Quick.
Again, though, the Rangers have overcome their inefficiencies at full and even strength at five-on-four and four-on-five. Until this one, the Blueshirts had allowed more than one power-play goal against only once, in the fourth game of the season on Oct. 19 against the Predators.
The ’Canes went 2-for-4 on Monday, going up 1-0 at 1:49 with Nephew Jack Drury beating Igor Shesterkin on a one-timer from the left circle before padding the lead to 2-0 at 19:29 when Andrei Svechnikov took advantage of poor coverage.
And until this one, the Rangers had earned three or more power-play opportunities in 24 games. They’d scored at least one PPG in 22 of those contests. But the club went 0-for-3 on Tuesday. Not only that, but the power play that had been sailing along at 30.9 percent could not get out of its own way against an aggressive PK that pressed at the line and at points of decision.
The Blueshirts had 6:00 with the man advantage. They were outshot 3-2 while generating only three attempts. This was Opposites Night. It was not flattering. Five-on-five was only barely acceptable through the first two periods, unable to press the issue. And it seemed as if the team were playing only for participation trophies while conceding three goals.
The Rangers could not get to the inside. They could not consistently prevent the ’Canes from getting to the front. The question about whether this successful regular-season team can successfully make the transition to the postseason, where time and space shrinks for elite talent and will trumps skill in a rock-paper-scissors competition, are going to be exacerbated by this one.
It will be on GM Chris Drury to fortify his team between now and the March 8 deadline with players who fit the playoff profile, not necessarily ones with marquee names or fancy scoring totals. That, by the way, is what 1994 was all about. That was what Tony Amonte for Stephane Matteau, and Brian Noonan and Todd Marchant for Craig MacTavish were about.
Thirty years ago, GM Neil Smith did not have to deal with a cap. He did not have to deal with no-move clauses, one of which surely would have been granted to Mike Gartner back in the day, and oh, how Mike Keenan would have loved that, right? By the way, Smith dealing with Keenan was surely more of a challenge than hypothetically dealing with the cap.
“I think we’re capable of more but they’re a good team that plays big and strong and physical and don’t make a lot of mistakes,” said head coach Peter Laviolette, more disappointed by the third period than by the first two. “They didn’t [make mistakes], so we had to take what they gave us.”
It was a bad night for the special teams. It was a mediocre night at five-on-five at both ends of the ice. The Rangers got exactly what they earned against a team that could very well be in their way come April or May. Which was nothing.
Uncle Chris Drury should have taken notice.
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