March 25, 2011, Ottawa Senators-New York Rangers NHL regular season game story for Metro NYC Newspaper
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The words that spilled out from various corners of the silent dressing room were variations of an identical premise.
This was a missed opportunity. The energy was lacking.
Simply, the players and coaches recognized what the 18,200 in the Garden grumbled about throughout the Rangers’ 2-1 shootout loss to the Senators Thursday night. Erik Karlsson was the lone scorer in the shootout. Ottawa’s second year defenseman used a forehand wrister to beat Henrik Lundqvist in the fifth round of the one-on-one. Ryan Shannon opened the scoring by one-timing a Bobby Butler off-the-board feed with 4:39 remaining in the second period. Brandon Prust tied the game 2:45 into the third by ripping a laser over Craig Anderson’s stick.
Despite the loss, the Rangers earned a point and are two behind sixth seed Montreal, who were decimated 7-0 by the Bruins in Boston. The Rangers lead Buffalo by four points (85-81) for the seventh seed. Carolina trails the Rangers by seven points but have two games in hand. Still it appears that they are batting with the Sabers for the eighth spot.
The Rangers next game is Saturday afternoon in Boston, and should they win and the Canadiens lose to the Capitals that night, the teams will be tied for the sixth spot.
“It is the only positive…that we got that one point,” Vinny Prospal said. “We battled back to tie the game and got that one point. That is the only good thing.”
Unlike Tuesday night in which the Rangers generated myriad chances and made plays in the offensive zone, last night’s match was devoid of sustained offense. The Rangers only had 14 shots on goal in the first 40 minutes. They finished with 30.
Equally alarming is that the Blueshirts have only scored two goals in the last 125 minutes after exploding for 33 goals in their previous seven matches.
“Our start wasn’t great. Our whole game wasn’t where it needed to be at this time of year. For whatever reason, I don’t know. But it has to be better,” analyzed Ryan Callahan. “It’s not a concern. It’s more…it just has to be there. We know the way we can play, the way we have to play. But it wasn’t there and it needs to be. We have seven games left and we’re pretty fortunate to get a point out of that one and move on.”
That the Rangers earned the losers’ point had everything to do with Lundqvist. The Vezina candidate finished with 30 saves and kept the Rangers in a game that they did not deserve to be in, including stopping Chris Neil on a semi-breakaway in overtime.
“It looked pretty dead in the first two periods. Then we played a lot better in the third; we started skating more, hitting and got more chances. At least a point. I think everybody (felt) like we should have played better and got the two tonight,” Lundqvist said. “We had so many good games lately that you can’t get stuck with one bad one. It’s going to come sooner or later. We got a point and just have to move on from it.
“You could tell. The games where we play well, we get good starts and get going. We feed from that; get energy and confidence. Today we were waiting a little bit. I don’t know. But we were right there. We could have easily gotten the two points.”
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/813458--rangers-winning-streak-ends-in-shootout
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 2:23 PM
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