The Rangers dropped to 5-3-0 on the season behind a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. For a box score, click here.
Can’t win a game against the Hurricanes if you don’t find yourself in a 2-3 goal deficit to start.
Not sure what’s worse right now. Dominating possession against a good possession team in their home opener, or the Hurricanes controlling the puck within the final three minutes of the game, effectively denying the Rangers any chance of a comeback.
This game was decided in the dying moments of the second period on what was effectively Jeff Skinner’s third goal of the night. I’ll get to Holden in a moment, but his “shot block” attempt or lack thereof stood out.
The Rangers didn’t have much of an answer for Skinner all night. Klein, Staal and the rest of the line got caught puck watching when Skinner tied it. Then on the other side of the intermission, Skinner got loose on Klein, sending a backhander past Lundqvist to take the 2-1 lead.
Holden has to be in possession of some private photos of the coach because I’m still waiting to see what he contributes to the lineup. He isn’t in the offensive zone for any extensive length of time to start racking up assists. His defensive zone coverage is well documented by now. Same argument that I’ve had with McIlrath; with the way Holden is playing at the moment, it can’t possibly get any worse with Clendening in the lineup.
And the most stunning thing about tonight? Complaining about the defense and not mentioning Girardi once. You won’t hear a peep from me about him. Actually, I thought he played well back with McDonagh.
Speaking of McDonagh, there’s another reason to play Clendening. The power play isn’t McDonagh’s strong suit. That’s why the Rangers brought along Yandle and Boyle here.
A lot of great chances for the Rangers offensively, just no finish. Vesey, Nash, Zibanejad, Miller. Somehow couldn’t find the back of the net.
Big night from Zuccarello, who had a lot of ice to work with tonight and it showed. McDonagh’s home run pass to Zucc tied the game at two and his wrister over a down and out Cam Ward opened the scoring. Credit to Buchnevich for tying up Ward, but also getting the sequence started by winning a puck battle in the corner getting the puck back to Zibanejad, which began the craziness in the Hurricanes’ crease.
Lastly, I saw some Lundqvist bashing on twitter tonight. We should be used to slow October starts from him. Remember, it was so bad a few years ago, he was benched multiple games for Cam Talbot. Again, it’s October. And it doesn’t help the situation when the defense in front of him is poor. He’ll steal games coming up.
The Rangers head back to New York tonight and prepare to face the Tampa Bay Lightning, who’ll visit MSG on Sunday.
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