The New York Rangers were laughed off MSG ice Wednesday night by the Pittsburgh Penguins by score of 6-1. For a box score, click here.
The Rangers were so bad against the Penguins on Wednesday, this will be a split recap of the game.
Neill:
It’s hard to put into words exactly how bad the Rangers played. It was literally as though the Rangers had walked into the ‘Upside Down’ in the first intermission. Except there was no coming back from under a tree stump and no Christmas lights to guide them back onto the ice for the second.
The game on Monday and the one Wednesday were odd mirror versions of each other. The Rangers no showed for the final two periods in the second game after not bothering to play in the first on Monday. So the Rangers played 60 minute hockey. Over two games.
As I mentioned in the comments section, the call on the Crosby/McDonagh exchange was a joke. Personally, I thought that McDonagh’s hit on Sheary was clean. I wouldn’t have minded a two minute boarding call if that’s the way the ref saw it. But Crosby getting away with just two minutes for himself after dropping his gloves and rag-dolling an unsuspecting McDonagh was pathetic. As we’ve seen before, anyone else would’ve spent more time in the box. One set of rules for Crosby. One set for everyone else.
Lastly, I’m not going to fault Lundqvist for anything tonight. Not much you can do when you’re practically playing 5 on 0. And yes, Lundqvist should’ve played over Raanta despite some bloggers and beat writers saying otherwise.
Melissa:
Fine, leave me with the difficult part.
First, I’m going to have to disagree on the Crosby/McDonagh exchange. Should it have been a major? Not sure. But the referees saw something and thought it was. Personally, McDonagh saw numbers and still threw the (light) check so as long as it’s regularly called that way, I’m fine with it. That said, it is laughable that Crosby only got two minutes.
As for the rest of the game, I think the Rangers were trying to spite me. On Monday I wrote that the days of them not showing up for second periods were long gone…and then they did whatever that was Wednesday night. Even after the Penguins scored two early goals, I didn’t think it was over. Then the Rangers basically had a four minute power play and did nothing. The Penguins made it 3-1 right after that ended and the game was essentially over. The sad part is the Rangers acted that way even though they had half a game to play.
But just when we thought the second period was the worst period of the season, they decided to prove it could get worse. Down 5-1 on home ice, the Rangers got their first shot of the period with a little under four minutes remaining in the game. That’s over 16 minutes without a shot on net. I’m not even sure they had any attempted shots. There is only one word for that – embarrassing. The shots were 17-4 in the third period. You would think the Penguins were down when seeing that. But then you realize the Rangers had the same total of shots over 60 minutes that the visitors had in the final frame and you realize why the home team lost.
Honestly, there’s nothing more to say but throw out the tape. There are some losses you can learn from. There was nothing to take from this one. Toss the tape and move on to the next one…which happens to be a “Thanksgiving Showdown” in Philly on NBC Friday afternoon.
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