OTTA - WHAA?
Rangers punched in the mouth by lowly Senators
This was a rude awakening. Emphasis on rude.
The Rangers thought they were better than this, thought they were above the fray, thought that after two big wins that they could come out and overpower a lesser opponent without having to get too dirty. They were wrong. Instead, the Rangers played 11 good minutes and then got sucked into an ugly, scrappy brawl with the Senators. The result was the Blueshirts losing a 6-2 game on Monday night at the Garden that ended their brief two-game winning streak with a thunderous thud.
“It’s hard when you’re two different teams in a season,” alternate captain Jesper Fast said. “We’re a team that’s playing hard and physical, and helping each other. Then we’re a team that thinks hockey is an easy game. We don’t battle hard enough and we don’t help each other. That’s not the way to play.”
This bipolar existence exacerbates the growing pains for these young Rangers (5-6-1), who can’t seem to find their footing for very long. They know what good looks like, including the first 11 minutes of this game when they peppered the basement-dwelling Senators (4-8-1) with all of the first 10 shots of the game and a 1-0 lead on Kaapo Kakko’s third goal of the season.
But, to the Rangers’ surprise, games aren’t handed over in the first 11 minutes. Instead, Ottawa clawed, led by the agitating hand and the villainous smirk of Brady Tkachuk. The only answer from the Blueshirts was frustration.
“I was actually a little concerned as the first 10 minutes were unfolding because I know what can happen; I know human nature can kick in,” coach David Quinn said. “I know when you have youth, you think things might be easy. Give Ottawa a lot of credit, they upped the ante. And it was almost like we were surprised that they started competing and skating.
“For 49 minutes, we didn’t handle it well at all.”
So forget the big win over the visiting Lightning on Tuesday, or the march into Nashville and a gutsy victory over the Predators on Saturday. Forget stepping up for top-line center Mika Zibanejad, who missed his third straight with an upper-body injury. Forget the boost from goalie Alexandar Georgiev, who gave up six goals on 30 shots in what Quinn called “not his best night.”
What was easy to remember instead was the five losses in the six games that preceded that little two-win respite, when this type of lackluster competitiveness was the overarching theme and concern to start the season.
“We talk about how there are no quitters on this team, but today, we didn’t find any energy, we didn’t find that spark to get us going,” Fast said. “I don’t know the reason for that, but we have to be
a lot better than this.”
It started when Rangers-killer Jean-Gabriel Pageau got his first of two on the night by batting one home from in front at 14:56 of the first, making it 1-1. From there, the Rangers started their parade to the penalty box, showing their frustration with Tkachuk and Co. by eventually taking six penalties — and giving up two power-play goals, the first to Tyler Ennis at 18:31 of the first to make it 2-1.
Ron Hainsey scored one second after another Ottawa power-play ended at 4:12 of the second period to make it 3-1, and then Pageau and Tkachuk piled on to make it 5-1 with just over five minutes left in the second period. But after Artemi Panarin got a power-play goal for the Rangers and former Blueshirt Vladislav Namestnikov got his fifth with his new team on a man-advantage early in the third, it was 6-2 and the collapse was pretty well settled.
But Brendan Lemieux kept trying to engage Tkachuk, and the final attempt got Lemieux tossed from the game with 6:56 left, throwing his helmet down the hallway in a representation of a team-wide disappointment.
“[The Senators] were competing and battling, and it looked like as the game went on, we were getting upset that they were actually doing that,” Quinn said. “We have to learn to handle these things.”