I’m going to be very blunt and straightforward here, this was an absolutely pathetic effort from this Rangers hockey team. For a team whose mantra all season has been “No Quit In New York,” all they did was quit when it mattered most last night and what did they quit for? THEY HAD THE LEAD. Right off the bat their biggest issue was playing sloppy with the lead. As soon as Alexis Lafreniere scored to give the Rangers the lead they just stopped shooting the puck. YOU’RE GOING AGAINST AN AHL GOALIE, WHY AREN’T YOU SHOOTING. This is especially problematic for guys like Panarin, Zibanejad and Vatrano, all guys who can shoot the puck very well just continuously opting not to. You can’t play the game with a pass first mentality ESPECIALLY in the playoffs, ESPECIALLY against the PENGUINS and ESPECIALLY when you’re in the position they were in, down in the series GOING AGAINST AN AHL GOALIE.
Look, no disrespect to Louis Domingue. He stepped in for his team in an incredibly difficult situation and has played very well. However at the end of the day, the Rangers have to be better than him here, no matter how good he’s playing. Sure enough, we would have yet another controversial goal as it seems we can’t go a game without one. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even watch the review process because I knew no matter what the Penguins, especially considering the fact that Sid touched the puck, would get the call. Sure enough, I came back from the kitchen to a 1-1 hockey game. Disclosure; upon seeing that one picture/angle, the puck very clearly did go in the net. However, it is just SO INFURIATING that the Rangers have gone 0-3 on what have all essentially been 50/50 calls. You have to wonder, at least as a Rangers fan if that was a Rangers goal they wouldn’t have reviewed it that long.
Whatever, it didn’t matter because this team just absolutely buckled at the knees after Sid got that tying goal. Miraculously, the Rangers were able to take the tie into intermission after being out-shot 14-8 in through the first 20. For context, the Rangers had five shots on goal when Lafreniere scored. HOW CAN YOU FOLLOW THAT UP WITH THREE SHOTS?! PUT THE PUCK ON NET. The first period would end on a scary note, not just because the team sucked but Chris Kreider took a deflected shot straight to the throat, causing him to head straight to the Rangers locker room. Thankfully, he would be good to go for the second period but given how that period went, what was the point.
Three minutes in, Mike Matheson let a shot go from the point, 2-1. 24 seconds later, Jake Guentzel 3-1. Eight minutes later, Mark Friedman, WHO?! Exactly. Shot from the point, 4-1. Adam Fox would stop the bleeding three minutes after that just to stab themselves right back in the cut with two goals in the final minute of the period from Danton Heinen and Jeff Carter. 6-2 going into the third. This is just as big a gut check time as it gets. I don’t care what the score is, this team’s leadership group needed to go into that locker room and light a fire under this team's ass. You just let the Penguins put the best goalie in the league on the bench for the second game in a row, are you not the least bit embarrassed?? Go out there, PLAY DESPERATE, throw some hits, start a fight LITERALLY ANYTHING.
Nothing. Alexandar Georgiev would come in relief of Shesterkin and still, nothing from this team. For what it’s worth, Georgiev made some nice saves and aside from that one goal in game three, has looked solid but what good does that do? He’s most likely not going to be here next season and he’s not the answer to get this team going. The answer needs to come from the team's top players, the leaders and the vets. Speaking of the veterans on this team… Patrik Nemeth. Look, I know the guy has gone through some stuff this season and he alone isn’t the issue with this team but OH MY GOD. Do you have no control of your stick?! Do you just like spending time in the penalty box? I know the officiating has been questionable but when you are averaging a penalty a game, it’s clearly you doing something wrong here. That’s not even to mention the constant lack of responsibility in the defensive zone, his ONE JOB as a stay at home veteran defenseman is to get the puck and get it out. He can’t seem to do either and when he does, Icing!
Look, this series is far from over. It’s the Stanley Cup Playoffs, team’s have come back from being down 3-0, anything can happen. However, no matter what happens, this off-season, Mika Zibanejad, Filip Chytil, any other center or winger who might take face-offs needs to take 50-100 face-offs everyday they touch the ice. 39.6% in the face-off dot last night, that is unacceptable in the postseason. How are you going to win games if you can’t win a face-off? This is where the Rangers miss Barclay Goodrow the most as he’s without a doubt their strongest guy in that department. Additionally, any Rangers prospects who play center? Want to make a strong case for yourself in camp next season? Learn to be a face-off specialist.
Five shots. The Rangers had FIVE shots on goal in the third period of game four of a Stanley Cup Playoff game in which they were down in the series two games to one. WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? You should be angry, play with some frustration. As soon as you enter the zone, take a slap shot on net. I would rather this team take 20 god awful shots on goal then try making all these pretty plays, you never know what weird bounce you’re going to get, SHOOT THE PUCK. Look at half of Pittsburgh’s goals from this series alone, how many of them looked good? They’re all tips, deflections, weird bounces or of course controversial, JUST GET THE PUCK TO THE NET.
The only line that looked good for this team was the kid line, that’s literally the lone silver lining in this otherwise disgraceful excuse for a hockey game. The Rangers need to take a good long look in the mirror before they set foot in Madison Square Garden on Wednesday because if they play anything like they did last night, might as well not even show up. As far as Igor is concerned, we’re really splitting hairs, perhaps desperate for answers if we’re even considering pinning the blame on him. However, you do have to wonder if there’s something more to the story here. Did that collision with Jeff Carter affect him more than were being told? Is he battling an injury? Who knows. Frankly, if that was the case then maybe they should’ve started Georgiev from the jump yesterday, couldn’t have gone much worse.
Nevertheless, Igor will be back on Wednesday but this team needs to start stealing wins for him instead of relying on him to steal games for them. I don’t know what’s going on with this team but they're officially out of time to figure it out. It’s do or die from this point on and you have to hope that they choose to do going forward. After the season they’ve had it would be extremely disappointing to be a first round exit against a team you pretty much dominated all season. Hopefully Ryan Lindgren is able to go for game five but whatever the circumstances are, Patrik Nemeth should by no means be on that Garden ice as he has proven to be nothing but a liability in these first four games. Sort yourselves up and show up with some urgency, heart and desperation on Wednesday.
Chris Feldman
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