‘Fire Cappy’ as ’Ning sting Islanders
How the Rangers play at the start of spring and beyond will determine what they can make out of this campaign, not their performance just three weeks into the season. But it’s hard not to wonder: Are these Rangers for real?
They inevitably will have a slump at some point with 72 games remaining, but based on their balance, furious tempo and improved special teams, they have the look of a team that’s going to be tough to beat on any given night.
On Tuesday, the Rangers handed out their second consecutive drubbing of a conference finalist from last season, this one a 5-0 win over the Blues at the Garden as Henrik
The Islanders stewed all summer about their five-game playoff elimination at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring.
The first of three meetings this season, however, was disastrous from the start.
The Isles allowed three goals in each of the first two periods of a dreadful 6-1 loss to the Lightning at Barclays Center that featured the first “Fire Cappy” chants of the season directed at coach Jack Capuano.
“Well, it’s not the first time it’s happened, right? Are those all your relatives up there,” Capuano replied to the reporter who asked about the chants. “Listen, at the end of the day, I have a singular focus, just like I tell the players. I don’t concentrate on that. Lundqvist made a season-high 35 saves for his first shutout of the season and 60th of his career. This was two days after a 6-1 win against the Lightning.
“I think we all knew we had some talent in the locker room,” said rookie Jimmy Vesey, the free agent out of Har- vard who continued his torrid start with a power-play goal and two assists. “Four lines that can play and a veteran D-corp, and obviously one of the best goalies in the league. Sometimes teams don’t click right away, but it seems that we’re really going right now and I think we’re excited about going forward.”
The Rangers (7-3) continue to get contributions across the board; eleven different Blueshirts had at least one point Tuesday.
“I know what we’ve done the last three years here. I know the points we had. I know what our record is. I know what our coaching staff can do. So that has no effect on me, nor on the team.”
Thomas Greiss was the Isles’ starting goalie in last season’s first-round playoff win over Flor- ida − the franchise’s first since 1993 − and the second-round playoff loss to Tampa, with Jaroslav Halak missing the entire postseason with a groin injury.
Greiss’ fifth start in the last six games on Tuesday night didn’t last long, as he was replaced by Halak after giving up three goals on 11 shots in the first 13:34.
“Just wasn’t good enough,” Greiss said. “Starts with me, and goes through the whole Chris Kreider, who returned after missing four games with neck spasms, recorded two assists and has nine points in six games.
Dominant transition play and improvements on special teams and in the defensive zone somewhat masked what was an unKing-like start for Lundqvist, who had a .901 save percentage in his first seven starts. But Lundqvist made several impressive stops on Tuesday, a pair on breakaways. He’s the 10th goalie in NHL history with at least 350 career wins and at least 60 shutouts.
“This was his best game so far this year, there’s no doubt,” Alain Vigneault said. “Hank was able to find his rhythm. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that he was gonna find it.”
The Rangers have scored 40 goals in their team.”
Of course, Halak’s agent Allan Walsh had publicly expressed displeasure over the weekend with the Isles carrying three goalies on their 23-man roster this season. The trio includes two of Walsh’s clients: Halak and third-stringer J-F Berube, who hasn’t appeared in any of the Isles’ disappointing first 10 games (4-60). One day after Greiss had made 33 saves in the Isles’ 5-1 win against Toronto on Sunday, Halak told reporters he hasn’t “asked about a trade yet, so far.”
The Isles were shorthanded right away, after defenseman Calvin de Haan leveled Jonathan Drouin with a high hit along the boards just inside the defensive zone at 1:42. Former Rangers captain Ryan Callahan jumped in GETTY first 10 games, the first time they’ve done so since the 1992-93 season. Their plus-18 goal differential is their best mark through 10 games in franchise history.
They will compete with anyone if they play the way they’ve played so far this year, although sustaining this scoring spree is unrealistic. “To assume that five goals is gonna be a standard might be pushing it,” Vigneault said.
Dan Girardi, Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes scored the other Ranger goals. Ryan McDonagh extended his assist streak to eight games, and Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller each notched his seventh assist. “There’s still a lot of season left here,” Girardi said, “and we’ve got to make sure we’re playing this way night in and night out and not take any nights off.” to fight de Haan, who was assessed a fiveminute major for interference and another for fighting Callahan, who also received a minor and a10-minute misconduct.
Nikita Kucherov scored twice before Steven Stamkos’ redirection score at 13:34 prompted Capuano to pull Greiss. Stamkos had another potential goal disallowed by video review during the de Haan majors because the play previously was ruled offside.
But the Lightning netted three more goals against Halak in the middle session, prompting a few scattered “fire Cappy” chants to break out around the otherwise quieted arena.
“I think it’s one game to throw away,” Capuano said. Dennis Seidenberg’s shutoutsnapper gave the Isles at least one score from a defenseman in six straight games.