Holden held up as Vigneault makes changes
Alain Vigneault finally saw fit to scratch the struggling Nick Holden, although with such a lackluster team performance in Sunday’s 3-1, Game 3 loss to Montreal it didn’t matter all too much.
Holden, who played 80 regular-season games after coming over in an offseason trade from Colorado, sat while healthy for the first time as a Ranger. Kevin Klein entered the lineup on a pair with Brady Skjei, though he displayed the same problems with the puck that plagued him during the season, officially charged with four giveaways.
“I thought righthander, left-hander might make it easier for us as far as moving the puck,” Vigneault said of the decision, Klein being the righty and Holden the lefty who usually plays his off side.
“We didn’t start with the puck very much in the first two periods and we had a lot of turnovers. You’ve got to manage the puck well against a team like this, and we’re not doing it well enough right now.”
Brendan Smith played with Marc Staal while the Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi pair remained intact. more from the left wing.
Only now the Rangers need more from essentially everyone other than Henrik Lundqvist.
Vigneault deceived everyone by showing juggled lines in warmups, only to use the same combinations he deployed during the first two games of the series.
Listless offensive play then led to line changes in the third.Mika Zibanejad being dropped to the fourth line after another rough game. Jesper Fast played with Kreider and Derek Stepan in the third, Rick Nash with Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello, and J.T. Miller with Oscar Lindberg and Jimmy Vesey.
All that led to was three 5-on-5 shots on goal and six 5-on5 shot attempts in the third period before Lundqvist was pulled for an extra attacker down 3-0 with roughly four minutes left.
Vigneault said it was “too early” to think about possibly inserting rookie Pavel Buchnevich for Game 4.