Ugly. That's the only was to describe yesterday. The Rangers almost found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday in a game that had no rights being that close. Throughout the contest they outplayed the Maple Leafs, yet miscues and turnovers resulted in a game that was tied at four with about six minutes to play. Fortunately a strong forecheck by Dominic Moore, backhand pass by Rick Nash and snipe by Matt Zuccarello rescued New York from what would've been a damaging defeat.
There are games you look back on after the season as gut check wins. Tuesday might be thought of as one of those, but during, directly after and the morning subsequent to the win, it sure doesn't feel that way. If the Rangers had lost this game after having 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 leads, the reaction would be even starker than it is this morning following the victory.
Coach Alain Vigneault shifted up the lines before the contest, restoring the Nash-Brassard-Zucc trio while placing Stepan back between Kreider and MSL. The first line did their job with Nash tallying three assists, Brassard two and Zucc scoring a pair including the game-winner. The second line was invisible, in fact, Kreider's misplay late almost cost the team the 5-4 lead.
The defense was abysmal. McDonagh and Girardi had poor games while John Moore was nothing special. Dan Boyle was fairly solid again, and that doesn't include the goal he scored, while Marc Staal might have been the best of what a below average bunch. With Henrik Lundqvist out, the strong D play we saw last week against Boston has dissipated the past few games, hitting a low yesterday.
Between the pipes, Cam Talbot was lousy, you can make a case that thee of the four goals he should have stopped. With Hank out, New York has to rely on Talbot, as MacKenzie Skapski isn't ready and thee is no veteran back up. When this stretch of games without Lundqvist first broke, we all were fairly confident that Talbot could hold the fort. That confidence - of us in him and likely him in his own play - has been shaken and not on solid ground.
The first goal by Morgan Rielly was another one that beat him high. It was a great shot, but we have seen that the league has a book on Talbot and following it to a T. The second, by Stephane Robidas, was a soft wrist shot from 59 feet out at 2:08 of the second period clearly should have been stopped. Joffrey Lupul had distracted Talbot by trying to deflect the puck, but Talbot has to maintain his focus and play the puck, then adjust for a deflection, not vice versa. The third, Rielly's second of the night to make it 4-3, was a 44-foot wrist shot 20 seconds into the third period that also possibly could have been saved despite going through Zucc's legs. The Maple Leafs' last goal occurred when Daniel Winnik’s pass deflected off Ryan McDonagh’s stick past Talbot at 6:46, so he is absolved for that one.
Talbot has to be better. The defense also has to be better. If one or both aren't, New York has little chance to maintain or advance their playoff spot until Lundqvist returns. Too many mistakes and too many errors that need to be cleaned up and quickly.
I have spoken a lot about how I feel Zuccarello needs to be re-signed. For all the talk that MSL needs to be brought, while St. Louis has more points, losing Zucc in my opinion would have a greater impact. Evidence supporting this can be found in the below comment from Brassard.
“For me it’s not the points, it’s not the assists, it’s not the goals; it’s the way he works,” Brassard said of Zuccarello. “And one thing he brings a lot for the team is passion. You need guys with passion like that. He shows emotion. We’ll leave it to (the Rangers and Zuccarello’s agent) to decide, I guess.”
Three games left in the road trip, New York needs to clean up their play to have a chance to win each of them.
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