I go away for most the weekend and I come back to all this diving hoopla. Here I just thought the Rangers blew Game 1 by simply blowing a 3-0 lead and letting the Penguins score four EVEN-STRENGTHED unanswered goals.
Were there some questionable penalties? Yeah, I think so too. The Dubinsky tripping call was quite mysterious, since it didn't look like he touched anyone. Yet the Penguins did not score on that power play anyhow. Then there's the Straka interference call. Hey, we've seen the refs call this and not call this all season long. I agree with Shanahan when he called it a "weak call", and the timing was horrible for the Rangers. Was it really a Crosby factor that went into the call? Perhaps... But, the fact remains the Rangers should have never gotten themselves in that position in the first place.
Up 3-0 in the 2nd period, that was their game to win. If you are going to pride yourself on being a great defensive team, you need to hold on to a 3 goal lead in the playoffs. End of story.
The Rangers played well for the majority of the first half of Friday's game but two different complete and utter defensive lapses each resulted in disaster. The Penguins erupted with 2 goals in the span of 14 seconds in the second period to come back within one goal. Having revitalized the passionate Pittsburgh crowd, the Penguins came out in the third period dominating the puck. Barely 5 minutes into the third, another 2 goals in the span of 20 seconds completely stunned the Rangers who just watched a comfortable lead turn into them now trailing by a goal.
You cannot give this Penguins team an inch of room to make plays. Whether or not the goals are deflections or whatever, their offense will find ways to generate blistering passes and shots and the puck will end up in the net if Defenseman are not sitting on top of their assignments and missing plays.
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The Rangers need to make a statement in this afternoon's game. Forget all this Crosby cradled by the NHL nonsense, let the Penguins' coach Michel Therrien prattle on and on from his gamesmanship soapbox pulpit. Of course Crosby dives, and with the refs giving him the benefit of the doubt, if you were him, wouldn't you? I can respect a guy who will do what it takes for his team to win. It's the same argument I made for Avery with all the stick waving shenanigans in the last series. It's up for the refs and the league to crack down on him, and that is really outside the control of the Rangers. Someday that gravy train will come to a screeching halt for Crosby.
The Rangers can't let themselves be dragged into a side show circus of he said, she said. Let the Devils series be a guideline; the Devils let themselves get caught up in the "deck is stacked against us" rigmarole and it completely distracted them from the task at hand. The Rangers need to get back to business, and that's winning hockey games.
The good news from Game 1 is that the Rangers' offense is working well; they smashed Marc-Andre Fluery's post season 1.26 goals against avg. with 4 goals. Also, Henrik Lundqvist was still solid in net. 3 out of the 5 goals scored past him were deflections. If the Rangers can shake off the rust/lack of focus from the defensive core that oozed out in Game 1, I say they have a great chance of stealing this game and heading back to New York tied up.
Puck drops in just about 2 hours on NBC.
Notes:
Colton Orr did debut in Friday night's game but was pretty ineffective only getting credit for 2 hits in just over 5 minutes of ice time
The consensus is that Tom Renney will be going with Petr Prucha instead on the 4th line along with Betts & Sjostrom.
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