CHICAGO NOPE
CHICAGO — The Rangers authored a six-minute horror show Wednesday night that bridged an intermission, a gruesome scene that struck at the heart of some dire reality concerning the natural condition of their intrinsically flawed team.
So it was that with a dramatic 6-3 loss to the Blackhawks at United Center, the Blueshirts’ six-game winning streak came to an inevitable conclusion. A hat trick from former Ranger Artem Anisimov headlined a night on which goalie Henrik Lundqvist was the recipient of a mercy pulling, coach Alain Vigneault yanking his franchise backbone from the crease 6:32 into the third period after his team had surrendered four goals in a matter of 6:08 between the second and third periods.
“To be honest, the way we started the third, it was not a fun feeling to be out there,” Lundqvist said after giving up four goals on 34 shots, even though he stopped all 24 he faced in the opening 39:08. A soft goal Lundqvist allowed to Alex DeBrincat with 52 seconds left in the second period started it all, tying the score 1-1 before the Blackhawks scored three more in the opening 5:14 of the third to open a 4-1 lead.
“The thing we did so well for two periods was definitely not there in the first 10 of the third,” Lundqvist said. “They made up their mindset, it felt like in the third, and went out and we’re not really ready for it.”
Vigneault said he did not pull Lundqvist as a result of how he had played, though there were quite a few rebounds throughout that had been swept away by a formerly attentive defensive group. To try to recharge them, Vigneault made a drastic change and inserted backup Ondrej Pavelec, who most recently played on Oct. 28 in Montreal.
“We weren’t defending at all,” Vigneault said. “I wanted to throw Pavs in there to see if it wouldn’t change something.”
It did seem to wake the Rangers (9-8-2) up a little bit, as Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash scored in a matter of 4:48 to cut the Chicago lead to 4-3. But Anisimov ended his hat trick with a deft redirection that beat Pavelec at 16:12 of the third to make it 5-3, and Jonathan Toews ended it for the Blackhawks (9-8-2), scoring into the empty net with 1:30 remaining.
“We got what we deserved,” Vigneault said. “We didn’t deserve to win and we didn’t.”
Now the Rangers have to deal with the fallout from this loss. It has to open up the memories of their histori- cally bad 1-5-2 getaway, which was defined by lapses in games when any good work being done was undercut by monumental mistakes.
Lundqvist’s miscue was the first Wednesday. He said he was caught moving on the DeBrincat shot, which snuck under his arm and just trickled across the goal line.
“It was not a great feeling,” he said. “I was just hoping for a whistle. When I didn’t hear the whistle, I knew I was in trouble.”
Trouble really came when Animisov scored his first goal at 1:07 of the third, followed by John Hayden 46 seconds later to open a 3-1 lead. It went to 4-1 when the lack of focus infiltrated the Rangers’ previously terrific penalty kill, allowing Anisimov three hacks from in front before scoring his second of the game to make it 4-1.
“Momentum swing in games, that’s when we have to play smarter,” said Mats Zuccarello. “We didn’t.”
And then there was this sober reminder from Lundqvist, the most affected by this drama, which continues Friday at Columbus.
“We’re not in a great spot, we’re not in playoff position even,” Lundqvist said. “Obviously you gain confidence from winning, no question about that. But you should have the same mindset if you’re [winning] six in a row — or now 0-1.”