HOUSE OF BLUES
King’s heroic effort not enough, as improbable goal sneaks in
OTTAWA — Walking in the locker room, the look on Henrik Lundqvist’s face said it all
here he was with his pads still on, look-T ing exasperated, worn out, just utterly disappointed. His mouth agape, his eyes upward, his hat even partially askew.
Not an easy one to swallow, that’s for sure, as fellow Swede Erik Karlsson had beat Lundqvist on the most improbable of shots with just 4:11 remaining in regulation, a hopeful toss from the goal line that deflected off Rangers forward Derek Stepan in front, then off the top of Lundqvist’s back and in.
It would give the Senators a 2-1 win in Game 1 of this second-round series on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, and started this best-of-seven contest off on a sour note for the Blueshirts, suddenly saddled with the role of favorite after a regular season and six-game first-round victory over the Canadiens that was defined by their surprising rise.
“I assumed with that many guys right in line with the puck, it would not end up right in front of me, but it did,” Lundqvist said. “It’s a tough one. It comes down to one play where maybe you were guessing a little bit. Didn’t see it, I was waiting for the puck to come out. Yeah, it sucks.”
This type of indignity was made even more difficult because Lundqvist had been the sole reason his Rangers were even in the game. He had stopped all 21 shots he faced in the first period — some of them spectacular — as his team took three penalties. He then stopped another 12 in the second period, the only hiccup being a power-play goal to Ryan Dzingel with 1:21 remaining in the second.
That had negated Ryan McDonagh’s own power-play goal just 11 minutes earlier, the game knotted at 1-1 going into the third period. And those final 20 minutes — well, 15:49 before Karlsson pulled the rabbit out of his hat — were a continuation of the grinding style employed by coach Guy Boucher and his Senators.
That is, until one freak play made all the difference.
“That’s the life of the goalie,” Lundqvist said. “Play my game, doing the right thing,
then it comes down to one play where you don’t see the puck and you kind of wait for it instead of being a little bit more active. And that’s the one play you get questions for. That’s just how it goes.”
The fact is that the Rangers could not adequately deal with the Senators’ neutralzone trap, and they couldn’t develop the high-tempo game they need to put teams on their heels. It seemed every time they dumped it in, it was soon coming right back at them. The forecheck was hardly forceful — forget trying to wear down Karlsson — and any opportunities they got on goalie Craig Anderson came off quick lead-pass breakaways, either botched or shot at Anderson’s pads.
Even the 6-on-4 man-advantage for the final 39 seconds of regulation, with Lundqvist on the bench for the extra attacker, generated very little pressure.
“It’s a tight game,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “A game of a bounce here, a chance there.”
Coach Alain Vigneault tried to quell any panic, saying, “For the most part, I thought our five-on-five play was good.” Vigneault was also insistent that the Senators should have been called for an icing just before the game-winner.
But there’s nothing to do about it now, with Game 2 beckoning back in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon and a 2-0 deficit looming.
“I think we just have to forget about this,” said Mika Zibanejad, hardly shying away from the spotlight in his subplot matchup with trade-mate Derick Brassard. “We were down in the Montreal series, as well, 2-1. It’s 1-0. A lot of hockey left to play.”
Yet without a better effort in front of Lundqvist, and the amount of hockey left might dwindle faster than expected.
“Just have to regroup here,” Zibanejad said. “We’re ready for a long series.”