“Our execution was non-existent . . . non-existent,” said coach Alain Vigneault, who acknowledged that his team was not prepared for an opponent the Rangers had seen four days earlier. “The first couple of shifts of the game I liked, and in the third, when the game was on the line. And there was a four-minute stretch in the second that I liked. Everything in between . . . because there are some kids in the room, I’m not going to tell you what I really think.”
“We were all pretty frustrated,” Ryan McDonagh said. “There’s nobody to blame but ourselves. We didn’t put enough pucks on their goalie. We weren’t moving our feet or thinking fast, anticipating our next play, and certainly Henrik kept us in there. We got to moving our feet, got to battling for pucks, a little more engaged, and quite simply, put pucks on the net.”
"There was a big difference in our game, more energy, more speed to our game,” Henrik Lundqvist said of the Rangers’ play in the final period compared to the first two. “It felt like they wanted it a little bit more for two periods, but I think in this league a lot of times games are decided in the third. Teams try to stay close and then in the third you try to make that final push to make the difference.”
Those three quotes tell you basically all you need to know about Saturday's 4-2 win over the Hurricanes. New York was outshot 15-3 in the first period and 25-11 through two periods, continuing their troubling pattern of late. Hemmed in, trapped through the neutral zone and failing to generate any semblance of consistent attack was what we saw the first 40 minutes. The switch flipped in the third, when New York outshot the 'Canes 12-3, generating rather serving as the recipient of the attack.
The Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello showed chemistry, with Stepan scoring the first goal and adding two assists, Zuccarello added a pair of assists while Kreider tallied the last two goals of the game in a 4:46 span to give New York the win. Each player came into the contest struggling. Stepan had just five points his previous 12 games, Zuccarello had no goals and two assists in his prior eight contests while Kreider had no goals his past six games and just one in 16 games since October 19. If there is one positive to take out of the win, it's that what we saw on the ice from that trio can be carried forward into Tuesday against the now hot Islanders and beyond.
Lundqvist stopped 21 shots to bounce back from a shaky outing at Buffalo two nights earlier and pick up his 11th win of the season, though as good as he was at times, there still are issues that needed to be resolved, as you will see below. With the win, New York is also now 8-0-1 after a loss this season, and has not lost consecutive games in regulation. Two other positives from the win, despite the unevenness and concerns that we all had, especially the first 40 minutes, is that first, the penalty kill went 3-for-3 Saturday and have not surrendered a power-play goal in 11 of the last 15 games. Shorthanded situations were a nightmare for New York last year. This season, despite the sagging back at times in the zone, allowing too many point shots, they have been markedly better. Last year, New York was 26th in the league ay 78.1 %; this year, they are eighth at 85.1%.
Second, Kevin Klein, who was benched against Buffalo on Thursday, with coach Alain Vigneault saying he needed to play with more jam and urgency, led all skaters with five blocked shots. He recorded four hits and was a plus-2 in 16:47. It's great had a good game, but I need to see more than one before getting convinced that he is back to where he was last year and especially the year before. The defense overall was meh yesterday, especially the first 40 minutes. Dan Girardi, who blocked four shots, was taken to task for the Viktor Stalberg goal, when he actually did a good job of preventing the pass, forcing the shot, which went off of Lundqvist's goal. But that play started on a bad McDonagh turnover ay center ice, possibly caused by him having to do too much.
Two pet peeves of mine lately. First, if you don't have a clear path to block the shot, especially from the point, get out of the damn way. Victor Rask's goal looked like it tip off of Kreider's skate, changing direction to beat Lundqvist glove side. Unfortunately, we have seen several goals like this lately. Don't go halfway to block the shot and don't block Lundqvist's view of it when he has clear sight of it. Second, the breakouts, especially on the power play, have been non-existent. Can we stop the drop pass back? it's not working and the opponents are stacking the line preventing any break in. Either dump the puck in or go quickly side to side, overloading an area to create room elsewhere and then set up. Because right now, the zone entries are ugly.
Larry Brooks had an interesting take on Lundqvist today:
"Here we are, almost one-third into 2016-17 and the King’s game hasn’t quite been where it is needed for his team to make noise come spring...Not with a .918 five-on-five save percentage that is not only 15th in the NHL and markedly below last season’s .934 (that was recorded in the face of perpetually criminally negligent defensive zone work) but well below the composite .931 he has posted since 2009-10, which is the best in the league among goaltenders who have played at least 350 games...And yes, it is true the Rangers allow the second-most five-on-five shots in the league per game (24.5), but that doesn’t quite explain the ones that are getting away … or getting through.
This is reminiscent of 2013-14, Alain Vigneault’s first season behind the New York bench, in which Lundqvist struggled through the first three months of the year. Through Jan. 6 — and when he was just 31, by the way — the King recorded a positively plebeian .906 save percentage and a 2.78 goals-against average while going 12-16-3. Indeed, for the first and only time of his career, Lundqvist was a healthy backup for three straight games (to Cam Talbot) late that December.
But thereafter … well, Lundqvist kicked it into gear the rest of the way, going .934, 1.96 and 21-8-2, beginning with a sterling third-period performance that Jan. 8 in Chicago. And with the goaltender on top of his game, the Rangers went to the Cup final. But, with two-thirds of a season to go, it of course still remains to be seen if Lundqvist will repeat his track record of building his game out of the gate and peaking over seasons’ second halves and in the playoffs?" Included in that is seeing if last year poor performance against Pittsburgh was a notable exception to the rule or a portend of this to come.
When asked how his difficulties at times year, Lundqvist had a one word response: "Focus,” is what he said. “Focus.”
“That’s everything for me,” Lundqvist told The Post. “My game is all about focus. If I were a goalie who went down to my knees and used my size, it would be more about technique. But for me, it’s much more about my reads and my decisions.
“When I make a misread, I’m in trouble. It’s tricky with your mind not to be ahead of the play and to stay in the moment, but that’s the key for me.
“I do feel confident. There are a lot of parts of my game that I’m really happy with. It’s just that focus, I talked about. It’s difficult to explain how I get it, but I know how. I’ve done it before.”
Rangers' fans are waiting to see him do it now. At times, he has been unbelievable, just like in the past. But too often that's been offset by weak goals that in the past would be gobbled up by him. It's those bobbles or miscues that have started the questions as to whether what we saw in the postseason last year and so far at times this season is an indication that the decline in his game has begin. In addition, calls for Antti Raanta, who has been very good this year, to play more have started. It's similar to when Talbot was rolling and Hank was struggling, but now a few years later, those calls are getting louder and more frequent. The defense hasn't helped, especially lately, but if New York is to go anywhere, it's Lundqvist that will need to excel. It would be great if that focus kicked in sooner rather than later, but for me, give me that focus in March-June and it would the difficulties now easier to take.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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