Battle Of Hudson

Richie Rich: Brad Richards celebrates at the bench with teammates following one of two power play goals.
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

It started out with a great tradition. Every year former New York City police officer Steven McDonald presents a Ranger with the Extra Effort Award is spine tingling. The paralyzed hero again came out to loud cheers from knowledgeable fans who understand what the meaning of true sacrifice and call to duty are. After the prestigious honor went to crowd favorite Mats Zuccarello, the Blueshirts picked up the pace in the final two periods to fly past the Hurricanes 4-1.

There are a lot of things to like. Maybe not a plethora of glorious chances a speedy Carolina team had in a wide open first period. But once they tightened up defensively, the Rangers held up their end of the bargain to stay up on the Flyers, who at last check were leading Florida 4-2. Columbus won 4-3 in overtime over Phoenix. The power play broke out scoring on its first two chances. Both goals coming off the stick of Brad Richards, who had his best game in a while. He wasn’t the only one with former Lightning teammate Marty St. Louis snapping out of it with three assists. That included a pair of helpers on the power play that set up Richards, who reached 20 for the 10th time in his career.

Derek Stepan also added a goal and assist to continue his strong second half. Benoit Pouliot scored his 14th on what’s been the Rangers’ most effective line. No surprise that it features Zuccarello, who added to his team best scoring total with his team high 39th assist on a beautiful set up for Pouliot. Not to be outdone, Henrik Lundqvist was sharp throughout making 27 saves. That included nine big ones in the first when defense was optional. He made 11 more in a better second.

It didn’t start out great following the ceremony. Patrick Dwyer finished off a Brett Bellemore set up in front to put Carolina in front at 3:22. In an odd sequence, the teams traded breakaways with Cam Ward denying Rick Nash. When Alex Semin snuck behind the defense, Lundqvist had to be just as alert making an aggressive, sliding pad save to keep his team down only one. He also denied Jeff Skinner twice. Ironically, a Semin hooking minor led directly to Richards tying it. Off a Stepan faceoff win, St. Louis fanned on a shot and then made a no look backhand feed to an isolated Richards, who fired blocker side for his 19th at 15:44.

Vigneault wanted a better effort defensively along with a higher tempo. He got both in a strong second that saw the Rangers outscore the Hurricanes 2-0. Zuccarello was instrumental as usual. On a good pinch by Anton Stralman, Zuccarello came out with the puck and found Pouliot on a line change breaking for the net. Everyone thought shot except for Zuke, who neatly set up his teammate for a lay-up that put them ahead 2-1 just 50 seconds into the period.

Zuccarello continued to be everywhere making strong defensive plays including a clean takeout of Jordan Staal. A man much bigger in stature. The size of one’s heart cannot be measured. Zuccarello would later catch a Skinner elbow after releasing the puck to earn his team a second power play. They made Carolina pay with some great playmaking. On a five-on-four already, they took advantage of a Cane without a stick. St. Louis and Dan Girardi worked the puck with Richards before he blasted a one-timer top shelf to the stick side of Ward. That increased the lead to 3-1 at 13:36. Outstanding puck movement with Stepan also involved as the decoy in the slot.

Stepan doesn’t always finish. As evidenced by the 16 goals he had coming in, he’s a smart two-way playmaking pivot who thinks pass first. He was looking for his shot throughout. With the notable exception of a three-on-two in which he passed for St. Louis, who couldn’t hit the net from a tough angle. This time, Stepan got just reward when a rushing St. Louis dropped the puck behind to Stepan who buried his 17th at 4:38 of the third to put the exclamation point on an important win. Stralman helped set it up notching his second assist.

Overall, the Rangers got stronger as the game went on. They were very dangerous in the third with every line buzzing. That included Richards’ line with Swedish mates Carl Hagelin and Jesper Fast. They nearly set up Richards for a hat trick. Fast also had a nice feed earlier for Hagelin after making a smart read. He registered a shot and three hits in 18 shifts (13:54 TOI) and didn’t look out of place. The fourth line took a regular turn providing Vigneault with the kind of energy they have since January.

This was a game you had to like. Everyone came to play. Yeah. The D was shaky at moments including a wild Kevin Klein sequence where he made a sliding recovery after a giveaway. When they did allow chances, Lundqvist was there. The Rangers return to action Thursday for the final time at MSG at least in the regular season. The Sabres will be in for a visit.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Martin St. Louis, NYR (3 assists incl. 2 on power play, best game so far)

2nd Star-Derek Stepan, NYR (goal-17th, assist, strong throughout)

1st Star-Brad Richards, NYR (2 PPG-19, 20, 6 shots, a lot more confident)

Jesper Fast gets a second look with three games left after improving with Hartford.
snyrangersblog.com

One game was all it took for Alain Vigneault to realize the Brian Boyle experiment with slumping forwards Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis wasn’t going to work. Despite St. Louis getting a couple of glorious chances in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Ottawa, the ex-Lightning star remains a puzzling disappointment. He’s failed to fit in totaling a goal and three assists in 17 games since being acquired for Ryan Callahan and two draft picks.

With Richards also struggling, Vigneault has yet to find the right combo that would give the Rangers better offensive balance. The loss of Chris Kreider is being felt. He was a difference maker. With his time table uncertain for the first round, it’s forced Vigneault to mix and match. He finally realized playing one of four fourth liners out of position wasn’t going to work. Unsatisfied with J.T. Miller for unknown reasons, he’s now gone to another kid in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle.

Tomorrow, Jesper Fast will get a chance to play on a line with Richards and Carl Hagelin. He’s quietly been on a good little roll with the Wolf Pack. After totaling 10 points (5-5-10) in March, he posted a three-point game in yesterday’s Hartford win over Norfolk. Fast notched his 16th and 17th goals including the winner.

Despite only playing 48 games, he ranks third on the team in goals (17) trailing Danny Kristo (22) and Ryan Bourque (20). Fast leads the Wolf Pack with eight power play goals and is tied with Miller for third in plus-minus (+14) behind Bourque (+17).

Originally a Rangers’ 2010 sixth round pick, the 22-year old Fast has risen up the prospect ladder since playing for HV 71 back home in Sweden. In ’12-13, he had similar production going 18-17-35 with five PPG’s and plus-13 over 47 games. After beating out Kreider to start the season, he saw limited duty going without a point and minus-five in eight games before getting sent down. Having improved in his first pro season, Fast gets another crack.

It’s no small task. He’s being asked to fill a top nine forward role and perhaps get power play time. Given how badly it’s performed since Kreider went down, why shouldn’t he? He can’t do much worse. A once team strength has regressed to the glory days of Perry Pearn and Mike Sullivan. New York Post Rangers beat writer Larry Brooks detailed its struggles in a Sunday column.

“One bobble, one hesitation, one battle you don’t win, and that can be enough to throw you off. You have to focus on getting good looks and you have to outwork the penalty killers,” Derek Stepan told Brooks of a power play that’s 5 for its last 52 in 17 games since St. Louis was acquired. Coincidentally, he replaced Kreider on the top unit. Of course, Kreider is out of commission for now.

With Fast joining Richards and Hagelin, Vigneault has moved St. Louis up with Stepan and Rick Nash. On paper, it makes sense. It combines their top playmaking pivot and top finisher with St. Louis. A player used to producing at a much higher clip. The cohesive third unit of Benoit Pouliot, Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello remains intact. That leaves Vigneault to choose from Daniel Carcillo and Derek Dorsett to play on the fourth line with Boyle and Dominic Moore.

Regarding the playoff picture, the Rangers still lead the Flyers by two for second. The Blue Jackets inched closer to a second playoff berth with a 4-0 shutout of the Islanders. They lead the Devils by three. New Jersey hosts Calgary tonight. They must continue to win and get help. With Toronto in full free fall, they also have 84 points but only three games left. With only 29 ROW, basically they need a miracle. Run the table and pray for help. A Devil loss to the Flames would allow the Rangers to clinch. They need one point to wrap up an eighth playoff berth in nine seasons.

Clinch this. Apparently, that was the message Ottawa delivered to the Rangers who suffered a disappointing 3-2 loss at MSG. Their second consecutive defeat prevented them from wrapping up a playoff berth.

Needing just a point, they didn’t play well enough collectively. Despite outshooting the Senators 43-34, the Rangers made too many mistakes and were unable to recover. Maybe it was the fact they faced a club that allowed seven unanswered goals against the Canadiens. But they weren’t ready from the get go. They played a sloppy first and fell behind 2-0 against a team playing for nothing but pride.

Henrik Lundqvist bailed them out early with some key saves. But poor coverage led directly to Mark Stone pinching in on a three on two and firing a wrist shot top shelf from 15 feet. The Senators rushed up ice with Chris Phillips and Clark MacArthur combining to set up an unchecked Stone for his third. That kind of lackadaisical play was indicative of an uneven game from the Blueshirts. Offensively speaking, they created plenty of chances but weren’t able to beat Robin Lehner early. He stopped all 16 shots including a sprawling stop to deny Rick Nash on a break in. Marty St. Louis continued to fire blanks.

If there’s an area of concern, it’s their propensity for not winning face-offs. A clean loss from Derick Brassard on a defensive draw allowed Mike Zibanejad to roam free in the slot and pick high glove on Lundqvist. Mats Zuccarello lost his check allowing Zibanejad to have all day to fire home his 16th that increased Ottawa’s lead to 2-0 at 17:23. You cannot lose a draw that cleanly and let a player get such an easy opportunity. In the playoffs, such plays are magnified. Given how their top three centers are all under 50 percent in the dot, it’s troubling. Especially when your best two are fourth line checkers Brian Boyle and Dominic Moore.

Such ineptitude along with poor execution saw the MSG hosts earn jeers when the horn sounded. I’m not one who boos but even I understood why. I could care less if Ryan McDonaugh didn’t play. They were downright awful and lethargic. There were way too many giveaways. It was inexcusable.

After an average start to the second, they finally picked it up. Zuccarello atoned for his earlier miscue by redirecting a John Moore point blast for his 18th which cut the deficit to 2-1 at 5:25. This time, Brassard won a draw and Moore’s one-timer was double deflected by Benoit Pouliot and a flying Zuccarello in front. That finally awoken a dead crowd. And by dead, I mean silent. At one point, I tried starting a “Let’s Go Rangers” chant twice in Section 419 and got crickets. Thank God for meeting three Twitter friends and then for drinks at The Flying Puck afterwards. It helped blow off steam.

When you’re having a bad game, you don’t always carry momentum forward. In this one, let’s just say our heroes were not mentally into it. They fought hard but had too many brain cramps. One of those allowed the Senators to retake a two-goal lead 3:02 following Zuccarello’s first of two. More porous play allowed Erik Karlsson to set up Jason Spezza for a wrister which Lundqvist accidentally put in with his own stick. Don’t ask. He had Spezza’s shot and then bam. It squeaked through. The defense was horrid. But definitely not one you expect from him. To be honest, he should’ve had Zibanejad’s too.

To their credit, the Rangers responded quickly with Zuccarello redirecting a Marc Staal shot from the right point for his second of the game. His 19th came from Staal and Brassard. More often than not, that line with Pouliot comes through. They’re easily the most cohesive and best on the fore-check. They’re also more dangerous on the power play than the frustrating top unit that rarely gets any shots even with St. Louis. Speaking of which, he better be saving it for the next couple of weeks. Right now, he’s snake bit.

Trailing by a goal, I kept waiting for them to tie it. It just never came. They got plenty of shots on Lehner, who finished with 41 saves to earn the victory. Not to discredit him. But he’s a backup and allowed enough rebounds. The Rangers had their chances with the best coming on a three on two with Brassard all set up. But he fanned on it. The puck was bouncing a lot throughout for both sides. Probably due to high school basketball earlier in the day. It still didn’t explain at least getting it tied and earning that point.

Most frustrating was they failed to capitalize on another Flyers loss. The Rangers have just three left while Philly has five. They remain four up for second in the division. There’s no reason they shouldn’t get four points against Carolina and Buffalo. But if Alain Vigneault wants to play Boyle out of position on just a dreadful line with St. Louis and Brad Richards, so be it. Why he didn’t replace Boyle with a better skilled player trailing by a goal late in regulation is mystifying. Would it have killed him to double shift Nash or Zuccarello? The same coach who all but buried J.T. Miller really isn’t much different from previous coaches.

Of course, everyone’s talking about Chris Neil’s hit on Staal that came with 2:47 remaining. I’ve had my issues with him in the past but it was a good hit. Yes, it came a split second late. But watch the replays and you’ll agree that it wasn’t dirty despite Lundqvist and Zuccarello’s protests. What I failed to understand is how Staal wound up with an extra minor handing Ottawa a power play which all but sealed it. Good for Staal standing up for himself. The last thing you want to see is Neil on top of him this late in the season. Zuccarello has balls and Pouliot mixed it up. But let’s face it. This team has zero toughness.

Wait till the Flyers get a hold of them. It’s why you have to cringe if that’s indeed a first round match-up. We don’t know the extent of McDonaugh’s injury. I just hope he comes back before the playoffs. The Rangers are definitely lacking in physicality and creativity. This game showed how badly they miss Chris Kreider. His size, speed and strength are huge assets. Without him, Vigneault is playing four fourth liners with one out of position. Speaking of which, why didn’t he send Daniel Carcillo and Derek Dorsett out?

The end left me with a bitter taste. You have to be a little concerned. The Rangers have the goaltending. However, the defense really struggled without McDonaugh. It was really noticeable. You know what the Flyers strategy will be. Pound away. I like our team. They have good character and are never out of a game. But in a seven-game series, it’s a different animal. Hopefully, they’ll be ready.