The Rangers blew leads early and late Saturday in falling 5-4 to Toronto. I tweeted last night that the Rangers were "defensively irresponsible" and the quotes below seem to bolster that fact. New York played fire wagon hockey against a Maple Leafs team that is not great defensively and better suited to that style of play and got burned.
Coach Alain Vigneault: "A lot of (our defensive errors) starts w/ our forwards getting available a little bit better and on the right side of the play....On their winning goal, if you look at the final picture, they almost got a 4-on-0 on our goaltender."
"We caused our own problems tonight. We put ourselves in tough spots managing the puck and the game.” - Derek Stepan
You would have thought four goals should be enough to win, especially since the Rangers had won 69 straight games and gotten a point in 91 games when doing so, but on a night where New York made a myriad of mistakes, it wasn't sufficient. The first goal came about after a pair of questionable penalty calls that took the momentum New York had built and shifted it to Toronto. Conor Allen got a roughing call that even if the official did warn him is a ticky-tacky call. While shorthanded, Carl Hagelin received a penalty that in today's game is called and Phil Kessel capitalized.
The second goal was a bad pass by Mats Zuccarello, which hit off of Leo Komarov, was magnified when Matt Hunwick, instead of trying to go up the boards, put it back towards Zucc in the middle of the ice and the pass was blocked and stolen by Komarov. He gathered the puck and went down the wing, holding off Zucc and Hunwick. Komarov fed Peter Holland, who was wide open because Anthony Duclair was nonchalant in his back check and it was 2-1.
The third goal occurred with three Rangers falling to block off Richard Panik in the slot and he beat Cam Talbot. That goal is largely on Michael Kostka and Derick Brassard, neither of whom used the body on Panik allowing him to gather the puck and shoot. The Kostka-Allen duo were on the ice for the fourth goal, which occurred not long after the Rangers had rallied to take a 4-3 lead on a goal by Rick Nash. Kostka was beaten behind the net for the puck, Allen did a snow angel while the forward failed to pick up the points and Roman Polak scored aided by a David Clarkson screen in front of Talbot.
The fifth goal came as a result of a confluence of errors. Hunwick tried to get the puck to the line, but his attempt was a soft one off the boards allowing Komarov to steal the puck. It was a great read by Komarov, however, he was aided by Carl Hagelin leaving the Rangers end early and Lee Stempniak waiting in the neutral zone, which gave Hunwick no outlet. After Komarov stole the puck, Dan Girardi - as written by Carp - did a snow angel, taking himself out of the play, while Hunwick, instead of going to the slot, trailed and slashed Komarov, which would have been a penalty if Toronto hadn't scored.
The one bit of good news from the loss was that offense looked fairly good, though part of that might have been due to their opponent. Chris Kreider had a strong game, while Stepan was able to start getting his feet under him. That duo did not look out of place with Zuccarello, who had a goal and an assist. The top trio was okay, as Rick Nash with his marker was the only one who I thought was real good, including his mugging late by Dion Phaneuf that was uncalled and he still was able to make a pass, as Derick Brassard did not have one of his better games, including failing to shoot late when the Rangers tried to tie it.
The bottom-six was average at best with Kevin Hayes and Tanner Glass seeing less than 10 minutes of action and Duclair slightly above that due to his PP TOI. I would expect some changes in the groupings there, possibly as early as tonight with Dominic Moore sliding down to play with Glass and Stempniak and Hayes possibly with Duclair and Hagelin. In addition, if Hayes struggles the next few games, another change at center could occur, possibly J.T. Miller or Oscar Lindberg getting a chance. I would love someone who could win a draw, but let's not get crazy.
I am not ready to bail on Hunwick based on one bad game seeing how well he has played to date. However, Allen will need a good rebound game tonight with John Moore's suspension up following the contest against the Oilers on Sunday, so he could play Tuesday against Pittsburgh. In addition, Dan Boyle should be back sometime this week, creating logjam on defense. When everyone other than Ryan McDonagh is back, I would go with Hunwick-Girardi, Staal-Boyle and Moore-Klein.
Henrik Lundqvist, who was given the day off Saturday, will be back between the pipes Sunday. Talbot wasn't horrible though he didn't steal the game for New York or make the big saves he did last season. Before Saturday, Talbot had been very good against Toronto, but that was not the case yesterday. New York should be much better defensively tonight, rebidding from yesterday's poor effort and bolstered by Hank back between the pipes.
I will touch on what Larry Brooks wrote today about the cap not rising during the week, as that's a major topic and needs a separate blog to itself. I will say that if it does happen, it has a huge impact on this team's construction moving forward.
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