RANGERS IN A FIGHT NOW
Lose to Lightning in Game 4, series tied as 2-time champs seize all momentum
Artemi Panarin needs to get going. The Rangers’ top forwards can’t disappear.
It’s not enough anymore to lean on the kids.
Tuesday night’s 4-1 Game 4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was disappointingly one-sided, evening this Eastern Conference Final at two games apiece.
And while the Rangers still own home ice advantage, starting with Game 5 Thursday night at the Garden, there is no advantage in allowing a series against a reigning two-time Stanley Cup championship team to drag on.
That’s especially true if the dynamic Panarin, top line center Mika Zibanejad, goal scorer Chris Kreider, and all of the Rangers’ leading men continue to get stuck in mud as they did in these past two losses at Tampa’s home ice inside Amalie Arena.
They’ve been better on their home ice, of course.
Similar to the second round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, it’s been harder for coach Gerard Gallant to get his horses going on the road, where Lightning coach Jon Cooper has the last change to match Anthony Cirelli’s unit against the Blueshirts’ A-listers.
The Rangers could be down two of their top three centers for Game 5, however.
‘Kid Line’ center extraordinaire Filip Chytil left the ice 13:42 into Tuesday’s second period, after a hit by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, and did not return with an upper-body injury.
Second-line center Ryan Strome also was an injured scratch for Game 4 despite testing out his injury in warmups.
Fourth-line center Barclay Goodrow was bumped up in between Panarin and Andrew Copp in Strome’s absence. Kevin Rooney dressed as the fourth-line center for the first time since Game 5 against the Hurricanes, a healthy scratch for the past five games.
The Rangers were so passive early on Tuesday that winger Frank Vatrano dropped the gloves with Lightning forward Brandon Hagel and took his first-ever fighting major in his 433rd career NHL game – regular season and playoffs – to try and light a spark.
But Nikita Kucherov beat Igor Shesterkin five-hole – again – less than two minutes later for a 2-0 lead, building on Pat Maroon’s first period rebound tally against Rooney’s fourth-line.
Then Steven Stamkos added a rebound tally in the third period for good measure.
Panarin hopefully can build on a power play goal 16:27 into Tuesday’s third period that ruined Andrei Vasilevskiy’s shutout off assists from Andrew Copp and Adam Fox.
Ondrej Palat’s empty net goal in the final seconds capped a disappointing night, though. And now the Rangers have to hope Chytil will be healthy enough to play on Thursday.
The Czech has five goals and six points in the last six games. It is not a stretch to say he is irreplaceable to the success of this team.
His line with Kaapo Kakko and
Alexis LaFreniere again was one of the lone bright spots when the Rangers surged only intermittently in Tuesday’s second period.
Gallant’s Rangers had only five scoring chances through two periods, and they were nearly shut out for the second time in 18 games this postseason.
They have not scored an even strength goal on Vasilevskiy in the last 138:39 of play, going back to Game 2 at the Garden. All three of their goals in Games 3 and 4 in Tampa came on the power play.
The Blueshirts’ only shutout defeat remains a 2-0 loss at Carolina in Game 2 of last series, before they made an improbable comeback and won four of the next five to advance.
After winning six of seven through Game 2 against Tampa, however, they have now lost two straight and are returning to New York shorthanded.
So it is now more than ever on the big guns, namely Mr. 96 Points Panarin himself, to surge and rise to Shesterkin’s level in net and provide the offense and pressure necessary to get this done.
It is on Zibanejad (81 points) and Kreider (52 goals, 77 points), too, even after they’ve done so much to get this team this far.
Panarin has a point in six of the last seven games. And he did make a beautiful give-and-go pass to LaFreniere late in the second period before Vasilevskiy made the right shoulder stop, in addition to his late goal.
But Gallant juggled his lines in the early second period and put Panarin on Zibanejad’s line in place of Kreider for a reason: it wasn’t working. The Lightning looked to have figured the Blueshirts out.
putback.
“I was just driving to the paint there, and found a way to get the rebound,” Maroon told ESPN. “We’re playing with a little more pace, taking the risk out of our game.”
After that first goal, the Lightning played an extremely disciplined, controlled game that effectively protected the lead and built on it. Nikita Kucherov scored his seventh playoff goal on a breakaway through Shesterkin’s five hole at 13:07 of the second period. Steven Stamkos’ sharp-angled rebound at 4:56 of the third period sealed the deal and inspired a chorus of sarcastic “Igor” chants.
Jon Cooper had talked about taking away the middle of the ice from the Rangers, and for the most part that strategy worked to perfection — starting with the traffic jams in the neutral zone.
So the Rangers’ two-game lead has evaporated, and the series heads back to New York on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Avalanche began yet another nice vacation after sweeping Edmonton. Colorado already had a week off after sweeping Nashville in May. The Avs, as they are affectionately known in Denver, may have off as many as 11 days this time.
They will be fresh as daisies when the Stanley Cup Finals open in Ball Arena, either on June 15 or 18. Or, perhaps, they will be rusty as an old gate, the way the Lightning looked back in Game 1 after that team’s long hiatus.
The East-West workload gap keeps growing. Colorado has required only 14 games to get this far, somehow avoiding the usual grind demanded of Stanley Cup champions. Remember Moses Malone, and his outrageous promise for the Sixers back in 1983? Fo’, fo’, fo’? Well, it hasn’t been quite that easy for Colorado, but the Avalanche has gone four, six, four, which is pretty darned close.
In the last overtime win over the Oilers, six different players scored for Colorado in a scary, balanced attack. Fans in Colorado are anxiously waiting for some opponent, a detestable foil. They are already fondly recalling 2001, when Joe Sakic, Ray Bourque and Patrick Roy toppled the Devils for the Cup.
The Rangers do not dare start drawing up matchups against the Avalanche, or change their approach to these playoffs. They have enough problems right now with a Lightning team that has suddenly figured out how to keep the Rangers’ scoring chances to a bare minimum. Any thoughts of Colorado will have to wait.
“We’re so focused on Tampa Bay,” Gerard Gallant said. “Everybody expected Colorado to get through to where they are today.”
Gallant may not be looking too far ahead at the playoff schedule, but the Garden must be ready for all permutations. Justin Bieber is set to perform his second show at MSG on June 14 – which would be Game 7 of this brutal series. If it comes to that, Bieber would be bumped one day to June 15 and concertgoers will just have to live with that.
That is only a minor inconvenience, compared to the long slog facing the Rangers. They maintain the home-ice advantage in this series, no small thing. But the Lightning may have finally found the formula for beating the Rangers, after five straight losses during the regular season and the playoffs. ill the Rangers be Confident, or Unstable? Those happen to be Bieber songs, and they may have to wait an extra day.