Loss to surging Canucks shows Rangers they have long way to go
In a rematch of the Stanley Cup Final from 28 years ago, only one team looked destined to perhaps get there again.
It was not the one that calls Madison Square Garden home.
The surging Vancouver Canucks kept rolling on Sunday night, dominating a very-good New York Rangers team in a 5-2 win that never particularly felt even that close; a late third period surge got the Blueshirts into a game they were seemingly never in until then, another tough result for a team that was one night removed from a tough, 1-0 loss in Pittsburgh.
On the flip side, it was more of the same for Bruce Boudreau’s Canucks, who are now 18-7-4 since the beloved bench boss took over the struggling team on December 6, a group that entered Monday night’s game in Newark against the New Jersey Devils now just three points out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the Pacific Division standings.
“We’re in a playoff chase, we have to be ready for every game,” Boudreau said. “To get a 4-0 lead on a team like this, it doesn’t happen very often. What are they, number two defensively in the league? We were very happy, and we tried to take the crowd and the emotion for them out of the game. Until they scored that first goal, we were doing pretty good at it.”
Alexis Lafreniere’s goal with 10:07 left in regulation broke Thatcher Demko’s shutout attempt, and Ryan Strome’s tally roughly four minutes later cut Vancouver’s lead to 4-2 before Elias Pettersson’s
17th of the season on an empty-netter sealed a critical two points for the Canucks.
Truthfully, the game was decided early in the second period; Vancouver had already established a 2-0 lead through the first
20 minutes of play, and managed to completely squelch any momentum the Rangers might have been able to gain on home ice by also controlling play entirely in the opening portion of the second period.
“I just thought they were emotionally spent from (Saturday’s) real important game, and we didn’t want to give them any reason to get emotionally charged about this game,” Boudreau said. “I think you could see they didn’t have a lot of jump. They made their great plays and they had their chances, but the Rangers, when I’m watching them on TV, when they come at you, they come at you in waves. Every time I see a team play the night before and they play a conference game or divisional game, it gets real emotional. The next night, it’s tough to get as up for that one, and I thought that was the case with those guys. I wanted to keep the pressure on, thinking we might be able to get a couple.”
Matthew Highmore, who scored the Canucks fourth goal on a power play deflection, echoed those sentiments.
“We know how good they are, and it was one of those things where we were up two, and we wanted to continue that,” he said. “The emphasis was there on just playing hard, playing the right way, making their D turn. I think we did a good job of that.”
It was, without question, a big two points for a team that desperately needs all of them they can get, still digging out from the hole they dug for themselves early in the season before the “Bruce, There It Is” movement took over Vancouver by storm.
“Wins are precious to us right now,” Demko said. “We know every game, we’ve got to come out and show up. Starting off the road trip is huge to get some momentum for these next three games. It a huge win, for sure.”