Rangers suffer letdown vs. Avs
THE RANGERS must miss Brooklyn already.
Thursday night’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at the Garden was a flop that lacked any electricity, an enormous drop-off from the sizzle and energy of a much better Blueshirts performance in Wednesday night’s invigorating 2-1 shootout loss to the Islanders at Barclays Center.
Not that the inevitable letdown in a strangely scheduled game against a non-descript Western Conference opponent — the day after the Rangers’ emotional first-ever trip to the Isles’ new arena — was the reason for this defeat.
“I don’t think you can use that as an excuse,” said defenseman Keith Yandle, who was excellent in Brooklyn but less consistent against the Avs. “The first 10 minutes I don’t think we were at our best. I thought we got our legs under us and played fairly well but we weren’t able to find the bounces we needed.”
Predictably, most of Thursday night’s Garden fans were infinitely less engaged and supportive than the die-hards who made the trip across the bridges to thunder away during Wednesday night’s rivalry. Scattered boos echoed despite rookie Oscar Lindberg’s 10th goal of the year with 49.5 seconds remaining to halve Colorado’s lead with goalie Antti Raanta (16 saves) pulled for the extra attacker.
Raanta lost his second straight start to drop to 4-2-0 in six starts this season. Alain Vigneault’s team fell to 1-4-1 in its last six games (177-3, 37 points overall), failing ultimately to build on the encouraging signs of Wednesday’s performance against the Isles. That prompted Vigneault, after his team’s sixth game in nine days, to reflect on how advanced statistics and possession measures haven’t reflected their results accurately this season.
“When you analyze the way some guys are analyzing games right now with the stats, you’ll probably see that other than faceoffs most of the stats are on our side,” Vigneault said. “But at the end of the game the most important stat is the two points. Our inability to maybe capitalize early tonight was a factor, as well as getting the jump and having legs.”
As captain Ryan McDonagh said, though, the Rangers “certainly would have liked to have a couple plays back on our end.”
McDonagh had a puck chipped past him in the neutral zone prior to Chris Wagner’s goal at 13:21 of the second period, with Dan Boyle across ice and Mats Zuccarello unable to cover. Then at 17:37 of the second, a turnover by inexplicably ineffective center Kevin Hayes at the offensive blue line went the other way for surging Avalanche center Matt Duchene’s 13th goal in his last 12 games.
Lindberg’s goal off assists from Derick Brassard and Rick Nash past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov (24 saves) marked one of the few times all night the Rangers broke through what they called a “frustrating” Avalanche shell in not only the defensive zone but especially the neutral zone.
Vigneault fielded the same lineup of 18 skaters he’d used in Brooklyn, including veteran wing Tanner Glass in a second straight appearance since his AHL call-up. Glass even dropped the gloves with Cody McLeod. But the Rangers and Avs combined for seven shots in a dull first period, and the Blueshirts never really found life.
“There’s not one team in the NHL that goes through an 82-game season without facing some tough stretches,” Brassard said. “We have a good group here. I think (Wednesday’s) game was a statement for our team, but it was pretty hard to come back in our building and try to make plays because there was no space out there.”