Postgame: Rangers Fall Short of Red Wings in 3-1 Loss

They had the opportunities but were not able to convert. That was pretty much the story of the night for the New York Rangers in their 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden. The Blueshirts were given three powerplays in the third period, but the Wings defense came through and kept New York off the board in the stanza. Callahan was stopped on the penalty shot, Kotalik misses the half-open net, and Avery shanks the puck on an open net tap-in. So it is plays like that which cost the Rangers in the end, and plays like that which throw all of your hard work out the window and ends up as a 3-1 defeat. It is extremely frustrating to say the least, as indicated by the Captain slamming and breaking his steak into several pieces over the bench after the tilt concluded.

Despite being outplayed in the first period, but were able to find the back of the net when Chris Higgins sent the puck through slot and Brian Boyle deflected it top shelf. Kudos to Boyle for crashing the net and also to Higgins for getting it to him. The Blueshirts need more plays like this if they want to score more goals, but they continue to be a rare occurrence.

New York then tightened up a bit in the second period after being outshot 14-6 in the first, but Pavel Datsyuk snuck one through the legs of Henrik Lundqvist to tie the game at one. There was a scramble in front of the net, but the actual shot was moving at such a slow pace and did not change direction, therefore leaving me to believe that Lundqvist should have had it. The same goes for the game winner, when Dan Cleary scored from the side of the net. Clearly slides the puck to the crease and Lundqvist kicks it in with his own skate. You could just tell Hank is getting frustrated with all of these fluky goals that have been getting past him, but I think that the frustration is mounting and affecting him mentally. He is making the tough saves, he is keeping the team in the game, but these innocent plays continue to end up in his net. Other than the two goals, Lundqvist had himself another solid performance.

For the second straight night, Marian Gaborik was shut-down, plain and simple. The Red Wings blueline, especially Nik Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, were all over Gabs when he touched the puck. The result was the Slovakian Star not registering a single shot on goal in the game, the first time that has happened all year long. I mean, there are not many better defensemen than Nik Lidstrom, and you must give him credit for what he was able to accomplish tonight, but as we have said many times, shutting down Gaborik means shutting down the Rangers.

The best offensive line tonight, I thought, was the second trio consisting of Chris Higgins, Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan. You must give credit to Captain Chris Drury. The guy played his heart out tonight, and pretty much created every opportunity the Rangers had on the powerplay in the third period. I can fully understand why he broke his stick at the conclusion of the contest. You give that much effort and you want the win badly, but then a series of unfortunate events buries you and you drop yet another. Anyway, Drury has been playing some solid hockey lately and he needs to continue this and the goals will start to come.

Even though he missed the empty net, Avery was phenomenal yet again. He was involved every time he was on the ice, he created chances, and scored a phantom goal which really was lying on the side of the net and had us all fooled. Avery was rewarded by Tortorella by being upgraded to the first line with Vinny Prospal and Marian Gaborik.

There are, however, some good signs being shown from the defensive end of things. Coming into the weekend, the Rangers were struggling most on the back-end, but starting last night in Buffalo, they have begun to turn their game around, only allowing four (really three without the empty netter) goals in the last two. So now there are no excuses for Lundqvist, because the D is there, and now it is his turn to step up and play better.

The Rangers will be back at it on Wednesday night when they visit the high-flying Blackhawks in Chicago at 8:30 pm. The Hawks are not necessarily the team you want to be facing in the midst of a struggle, especially with Hossa now being in the lineup, but that is the way it is and the Blueshirts will have to battle through it and try to collect a needed two points in the standings.
(Photos courtesy of Getty Images)