That old bugaboo, the power play did the Rangers in, again, last night with an 0-4 performance that hiked their futility to 3-37 in these playoffs. This is the seventh straight game without a power play goal and the current streak is 0-26. It's about as ugly as it can get and it no longer is a joke, it's life or death.
Last night's malady affected the entire game. The Rangers were 'awarded' three power plays in the opening 9:04 and came up empty. Nash, Richards, Stepan, St. Louis, Zuccarello, Brassard and Pouliot all were futile. Dominic Moore, Boyle and Dorsett got all of 8 seconds of power play time. The coach, AV, said he is responsible for the power play and he will fix it. Coach, you can't fix it by rounding up the usual suspects and sending them out on the ice. Nash was particularly bad with a minus one, 3 shots, no hits and got 4:36 of power play time. He has scored one goal in 21 Ranger playoff games. Meanwhile some guy named Marian Gaborik is on a one man tear and mission in LA, tying the game late and winning it in OT. Sure could use a 40 goal scorer like that. But Nash wasn't the only culprit. Six Rangers got no shots on goal. The inept power play buoyed the Pens and flattened the Rangers for the rest of the game.
Thank God for Henrik Lundqvist. He made 32 saves and kept us in the game. Dan Carcillo also continued his gutsy play. In 11:54 of ice time he had two shots and dished out five hits. Pouliot also dished out five hits, but got zero shots on goal. The Pens out hit the Rangers 35-32. Fleury got a shutout with 22 saves, but I'm stressed to think of one good Ranger attempt or shot that was difficult. In fact I don't remember a Ranger crowding the goalies space at all.
The Ranger offense to be honest was offensive. Thank God there is a game tonight. Last night was one to forget. BTW. This is the Rangers 13th straight loss when they are up by one game in a playoff. Someone asked the coach if he thought the Rangers were tired with all these games being one right after the other. His response was, "If Lundqvist isn't tired no one else should be." Good shot coach. Now fix the power play and the offense before it's too late.
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Mike, weren't you upset with the Pens coming out of the gate with dirty shots? Hitting Hank in the 1st minute, Malkin on Girardi hard from behind, swiping little St. Louis and more. I thought it was disgusting and maybe was instructed by their coach because our PP is so bad. Maybe it intimidated the Rangers and their spirit dropped. Maybe we should have dropped our gloves and hit them back legally to stand up.
It reminded me of old Flyers BS. Thanks for hearing me out.
To Scott's point, this team doesn't have a real enforcer, no one other than Dorsett (10 fighting majors) has more than 2 fights this year. 25 total for the team. Dorsett listed at 5'11" and 175 is not going to scare anyone. Perhaps AV is a new age coach, who doesn't see the need for the tough guys, but I think old school hockey toughness still counts for something. And the Pens may have found one of our weak spots along with that stink'n power pay