ROYAL BLUES
King benched after five-goal first period in loss to Leafs
TORONTO — OK, so things are a little sloppy to start the season. But this sloppy, and this bad?
The Rangers suffered a second straight loss to start their season, a dramatic 8-5 defeat at the hands of the Maple Leafs on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre. There was such dramatic defensive lapses that Henrik Lundqvist was unable to bail them out, getting pulled after allowing five goals on 17 shots in the first period, his team dug into a 5-1 hole early.
“We played pond hockey in the first,” said coach Alain Vigneault, who replaced Lundqvist with Ondrej Pavelec to start the second period and watched as his team stormed back to tie it, 5-5, before falling apart again in the third period. “We got behind the eight ball.”
Vigneault was not making a reference to the eight goals the team let up, which was shockingly not a big enough indicator of how disjointed their play in front of the net was against such a talented Toronto team that can convert of the simplest of mistakes. Yet in the same breath, the Rangers showed their own flashes of talent and resolve, scoring three straight goals in the second period to take a tie score into the third period.
But that run didn’t eliminate the mistakes from reoccurring, and Tyler Bozak scored while wide open in front at 7:17 of the third — a play that Vigneault challenged for offside but lost, thus putting his team down, 6-5, and down a man, per the new rule that turns an unsuccessful challenge into a two-minute minor.
Of course, the Rangers compounded the mistake by Kevin Hayes taking a slashing penalty during that time, and eventually Leo Komarov scored the Leafs’ second power-play goal of the night to make it 7-5, with Nazem Kadri ending it with another goal on the manadvantage to take it to 8-5 with just under two minutes left.
“I don’t want to say we weren’t ready,” Marc Staal said. “We felt good in here coming out, but we lost every puck battle and every foot race. We were out-competed. That’s what it came down to. And they filled the net.”
It could have been expected that the Rangers — with so much turnover, especially on the backend — were going to take a while to jell. But it would have been hard to predict that it was going to be this bad to start, with the amount of chances surrendered.
“We gave up so many chances that I think it could have been worse,” said forward J.T. Miller, who scored in the first and was moved off the wing and back to center in Vigneault’s frantic lineup shuffle to start the second. “We kind of left Hanky out to dry there. [Pavelec] gave us a chance and we had a really good second period when we stuck to the game plan. But the game was too wide open. We’re not a chance-for-chance type of team.”
They are a team that is still predicated on good goaltending, and Lundqvist hasn’t exactly shined in his first two performances of the season. He called himself “all right” in the empty-net batted 4-2 loss in the season opener to the Avalanche on Thursday. But it was hard to come away with the same evaluation after this, one of the worst periods of his career.
“As a goalie, it’s definitely easier when you have structure in front,” Lundqvist said. “But when a period like this happens, you have to step up as a goalie and find a way. I was not able to do it.”
Pavelec did his best in making 19 saves, including all 11 shots he faced in the second period. That’s when the Rangers stormed back, goals from Mika Zibanejad, Staal and Zuccarello tying it, 5-5. Kevin Shattenkirk had also netted a powerplay goal near the end of the first period, his first goal as a Ranger.
But it wasn’t enough, and now the Blueshirts have to figure out how to tighten things up quickly with Sunday night’s Garden match against the Canadiens.
MAPLE LEAFS 8 RANGERS 5