MIND OVER MATS-ER
Zuccarello’s play has Rangers thinking big despite losing
PITTSBURGH — From that close, of course it’s hard for Mats Zuccarello to see it. All he saw after the 6-5 loss to the Penguins on Sunday afternoon was another defeat, another decent performance undercut by a loose couple of minutes.
But in reality, this was a terrific audition for Zuccarello, who was a force all game and scored twice in front of a nationally televised audience, also giving an up-close look for Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, who could be interested in renting the diminutive Norwegian sometime before the Feb. 25 trade deadline.
Zuccarello netted his 10th and 11th goals and is now with multipoint games in three of the past four contests, at least one point in 13 of the past 14 games he has played and 27 points over his previous 27 games.
“When you lose hockey games, you don’t really care how you do,” Zuccarello said. “I think everyone has the feeling when you lose [that] you didn’t do enough to win the game. That’s the feeling.
“Obviously you want to help the team score and win games, but when you don’t win, you’re disappointed.”
The other major trade chip the Rangers (25-25-8) have in play is Kevin Hayes, who scored his 14th goal of the season at 14:14 of the third period, cutting his team’s deficit to 6-4. Hayes was then denied by goalie Casey DeSmith on another great chance with about two minutes left, which loomed large after Mika Zibanejad got one with the extra attacker on and 18 seconds remaining to make it 6-5.
But what gave the Penguins (3121-7) most of the momentum was killing off 3:48 of a double-minor high-sticking to Sidney Crosby at the start of the third period. After that, Kris Letang got his second of the game and Evgeni Malkin scored twice in a span of 2:31, the second a highlight-reel backhand that beat Alexandar Georgiev up high at 9:55 to make it 6-3.
“He just knows where to shoot it,” said Georgiev, who got his third start in the past four games, keeping starter Henrik Lundqvist’s personal eight-game losing streak against the Penguins — now going on three years — untouched. “Got to give him credit to being skillful to shoot that.”
Skill and depth are paramount for teams as they grind their way up to and into the postseason, which is why Zuccarello and Hayes are coveted. The Rangers’ top line, with Zuccarello alongside Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, was their best group again, combining for six points. Since Zuccarello had a talk with management around the new year, he has been the team’s best forward almost every night, and his value continues to rise — both externally and internally, as discussions between his agent and general manager Jeff Gorton remain fluid.
“It’s good to see because he’s played really hard, he’s played well, that line has been good, ob- viously,” coach David Quinn said. “It helps us win hockey games, that’s why it’s really good.”
But the team as a whole wasn’t good enough to win this one. After alternating own-goals in the first period — the first for Letang, deflected off Kevin Shattenkirk; the second for Zuccarello, deflected off Teddy Blueger — the second period was a disjointed mess due to the horrid officiating led by Francois St. Laurent. Eventually, Marcus Pettersson scored a power-play goal at 11:41, and Brian Dumoulin scored at 14:09 to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead.
The Rangers pushed back with Zucarello’s second of the game at 14:35, and Ryan Strome tying it with 2:15 left in the second to take a 3-3 tie into the third.
But after the failed four-minute power play, they got sloppy and it cost them. And still, another strong performance from Zuccarello resulted in a more impactful outcome — the rising cost of his trade return or on his new contract.
“I don’t like to take anything from losses,” said Zuccarello, whose team will surely take the way he is playing.