Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Rangers Phone It In



"They wanted it more." - Vincent Trocheck

I'll say this for Trocheck, he's honest.

With a chance to close out their series with the Carolina Hurricanes in front of their loyal fans, the New York Rangers had one of their worst performances of the season. How bad was this game? According to CSA Hockey, which is owned and operated by Stephen Valiquette, they had only one high danger scoring chance to the Hurricanes 10 the entire game.* And that one HD scoring chance was Jacob Trouba's shorthanded goal in the second period, which gave the Blueshirts a 1-0 lead that they took into the third period. Think about it: as bad as they played, they were still 20 minutes away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It is incomprehensible and indefensible that this team was not prepared to play a Carolina team that was facing elimination. Even during their swoon in January, the Rangers mustered better offensive efforts. Frankly, I'm at a loss to explain it. And now this team, which had a commanding 3-0 series lead, heads back to Raleigh, clinging to 3-2 lead, but facing a Hurricanes team that has all the momentum on its side.

It is an axiom in sports that when you have your opponent pinned, you don't let him off the mat. Perhaps it was unrealistic to believe that the Rangers were going to sweep a Hurricanes team that finished only three points behind them during the regular season. And given how tight this series had been through the first three games, two of which went to OT, the law of averages dictated that the Canes were due for a win.

But what happened at the Garden Monday night had nothing to do with the law of averages. This loss was not inevitable; in fact, it was completely preventable. Considering how the Rangers imploded last season against the New Jersey Devils, you'd think every player in that locker room would be cognizant of that fact before the game. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

Alarm bells should be going off all over this team. From their slow starts, to their suddenly ice-cold power play, which is now 0 for its last 8 after starting the series 4 for 9, the sense of urgency is simply not there. About the only thing they're excelling at is their penalty kill, which is 19-20 with two short-handed goals in this series. Overall in the playoffs, the Rangers penalty kill is a league-best 91.9 percent.

The Rangers will have to step up their intensity if they expect to put away Carolina. What worked in games one, two and three did not work in games four and five, and it won't work in game six either. Of all the teams in the playoffs, the Rangers should know that most of all. Two years ago, they were faced with no less than six elimination games and they went 5-1 in those games. So far this postseason, the Hurricanes are 2-0 facing elimination; it is imperative that they not get to 3-0 after Thursday night.

If the Rangers need a little inspiration, they need look no further than the other tenant that resides at MSG. After getting embarrassed by the Indiana Pacers Sunday afternoon, the New York Knicks took to the court Tuesday night and, in front of their adoring fans, returned the favor. They outscored the Pacers in every quarter and out rebounded them 53-29, en-route to a 121-91 rout. Now that's what I call resiliency; that's how you take care of business. If the Rangers were smart, they were watching that game and hopefully took some notes.

Fourteen years ago yesterday, the Philadelphia Flyers, down 0-3 to the Boston Bruins, successfully completed a four-game series comeback. They're one of only four teams in NHL history to achieve such a feat. The coach of that Flyers team was Peter Laviolette. If the Rangers don't wake up, Laviolette will have the distinction of being the only head coach to be on both sides of an 0-3 comeback.

And that's a piece of history neither this coach nor this team should want any part of.


* According to Valiquette, this was just the 9th time since 2016 that the Rangers had been limited to one or fewer HD scoring chances in a game.


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