Mike Del Zotto and Carl Hagelin celebrate his first goal of the season.
AP Photo/Kathy Willens

Instead of being the hunters, the Rangers were Duck hunted literally. A month after suffering a 6-0 humiliation, they fell for the second time to a cheap Anaheim team. This time by the count of 2-1 at The Garden. It ended a three-game win streak.

This one is pretty simple. Two sloppy turnovers came back to hurt them. Simply put, the Ducks took advantage of two costly mistakes in the first period. That’s what good teams do. It is frustrating for several reasons. Anaheim was without Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu and Jakob Silfverberg. With Viktor Fasth also hurt, it was third stringer Frederik Andersen who held the Rangers to one goal. He was good making 32 saves. The problem is our team has a history of turning no names into Vezina caliber. It’s maddening.

Equally as baffling was the officiating of Dennis LaRue and partner Rob Martell. To sum it up, brutal. This is easily one of the worst refereed games I’ve seen in quite some time. Normally, I don’t blame refs. But the incompetence at 33rd and Seventh was enough to make one wonder if they had somewhere else to be. Among the missed calls were a Ducks bench minor and two blatant cheap shots on Derek Stepan without the puck. In what world were they? It’s bad enough the puck hit an Anaheim player and then they scored thanks to Derick Brassard’s stupidity along with sloppy coverage from Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi. The two hits on Stepan were penalties. Each he was nailed up high from the blindside. He complained on both.

There were other mystifying non-calls on Ducks tackling our guys. Of course, they gave them a make up call sending Ryan Getzlaf to the box for a love tap. It was too little too late. The Ranger power play couldn’t take advantage of a 10 second five on three. Alain Vigneault didn’t do a good job late either pulling Henrik Lundqvist with 35 seconds left on a five on four with about 1:35 left. He waited too long. It was painfully obvious to everyone else that they struggled to beat Andersen. Shots were difficult to get through against a stingy Anaheim D that blocked 20 shots including a game high six from Cam Fowler. Yep. That guy.

Pulling Hank for a full 2-man prior to the cheesy Getzlaf call might’ve made the difference. Instead, Benoit Pouliot took a lazy hi-sticking penalty negating the power play and then the Rangers self destructed. Desperate to get Lundqvist off, they made a horrible change sending the skater on way before he could get to the bench. Just lousy execution. If you want to blame the coaching staff, be my guest. I thought the days of undisciplined bench minors were over. Maybe they can blame Tort.

This is easily the most frustrating loss of the year. Sure. They tried hard to rally with Mike Del Zotto scoring his first late in the second to get the crowd back in it. Del Zotto was superb in 26 shifts pushing the offense every chance he could. He’s definitely come on after a miserable start. He has points in three of the last four games. I’m liking how active he’s been. It’s a welcome change that hopefully will continue. They need him.

Carl Hagelin and Chris Kreider had strong games. For the third time in four games, Hagelin picked up a point helping set up Del Zotto’s goal with some scrappy play in front. His shot rebounded out to Del Zotto, who made no mistake. Ryan Callahan got an assist in his return and got better as the game went on. Fittingly, he took 24 shifts. Identical to his number and had six hits. The captain always comes to play. But they lost. Blame Cally. 😛 Seriously, what the heck is Taylor Pyatt still doing on the roster?

Brad Richards was miserable. It was his turnover that led directly to Jersey kid Kyle Palmieri burying one off the post past Lundqvist for the game-winner. I’m not going to rip Richie. He’s been good. It just wasn’t his night. Still, sloppy turnovers like the one Brassard had and Richards can’t be tolerated. Opportunistic teams capitalize. The Ducks made it stand up by trapping the hell out of the Rangers the rest of the game and taking cheap runs at our players.

One final thought. It’s unacceptable that no one stood up for Stepan. Twice, he got nailed. When do the Rangers ever stand up for themselves? Enough’s enough! You have Brandon Mashinter on the bench all night. The least you can do is send him out and pound someone. Ironically, Palmieri was the guilty party. McDonagh’s double hit sequence on Corey Perry was nice at the end of the second. How did the Ducks respond? By punching McDonagh. Somehow, they didn’t receive a penalty. Another missed call. But there’s a big difference. Even if they were sent to the box, they had their teammate’s back.

If the Rangers intend to be a good team, they can’t be pansies.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Mike Del Zotto, NYR (1st of season, 2 SOG, 2 hits, takeaway, blocked shot in 20:36)

2nd Star-Dustin Penner, Ana (assist, 6 shots, 2 hits, 4 for 4 on draws-size was noticeable)

1st Star-Francois Beauchemin, Ana (assist, blocked shot-great defensively in 21:07-plays the way a defenseman should)