February 6, 2013, New York Rangers-New Jersey Devils NHL regular season game story for Metro Newspaper in NYC
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ANDY MARLIN/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES
David Clarkson had two goals in the Devils' win over the Rangers.
The first chapter of the 2013 Hudson River Rumble picked up where
the last chapter of the rivalry ended: a loss to the Devils at the Prudential Center.
The Rangers fell to 4-5-0 this season after being outclassed by the reigning Eastern Conference champions, 3-1, Tuesday night.
“We have some guys who are really playing hard and we have some guys who look scared,” Rangers head coach John Tortorella
said. “I’ll tell you right now, I’m not waiting. We have some guys
right now who are very tentative, very careful. We don’t play careful
hockey.”
Adam Henrique and David Clarkson gave the Devils all the offense they
would need in a 14:07 span of the first period. Henrique opened the
scoring with an even-strength wrister from the slot
past Henrik Lundqvist (19 saves) five minutes into the game. Clarkson
scored the first of his two goals with 53 seconds left in the period.
“Two tough plays,” Lundqvist said of the first two goals. “[The Rangers]
have to focus on our starts. [That was] not the start we were looking
for. [The Rangers have to be] consistent. That’s what it’s all about.
That’s what we’re looking for.”
Clarkson’s second of the game — and team-leading seventh of the season — came on the power play 2:53 into the third.
The Devils have won consecutive games and are 5-1-3.
As has been the case throughout the abbreviated season, the Rangers
looked like a team still learning how to play with each other. More
troubling was that Chris Kreider — who played for the first time since
Jan. 23 — and AHL call-up J.T. Miller were the Rangers’ best players on
the ice.
“They’re probably going to take some jobs,” Tortorella said. “We’re very
happy with Kreider; I thought he played well. I thought Miller was hard
on the puck, did some really good things. We’ll see where we go with
the lineup.”
Only Kreider’s top shelf laser over Martin Brodeur (24 saves) 6:21
into the third kept the future Hall of Famer from notching his 121st
career shutout. Nine of Brodeur’s NHL-record 120 shutouts have come
against the Rangers.
Equally problematic has been the inability of the power play to provide
any scoring punch. The Rangers entered the game 3-for-30 with the man
advantage, and did not score on any of their five power plays Tuesday
night.
“There’s a number of things [with the power play],” Brad Richards said.
“[We are] out of sync [and] not reacting. Trying maybe to look for too
much instead of just keeping it simple and getting shots. There’s a lot
of different things when you’re not scoring on it.”
The Rangers only generated three shots on their power plays, with Marc
Staal’s snap shot at 15:38 of the first being the most dangerous.
However, Staal was not able to elevate the puck as it lay under Brodeur,
who promptly froze it.
“Special teams let us down,” Tortorella said. “You need a goal on [the]
power play at a certain time. It’s not so much percentages that you’re
looking at right now. It’s getting a goal at a key time.”
Dan Girardi was scratched with an undisclosed injury. An organizational
spokesperson wrote in a text message to Metro that Girardi was “just
banged up” and “day-to-day.” One half of the Rangers’ top pair defense
corps with Ryan McDonagh, Girardi had played in 82 games in four of his
last five full seasons. He missed two games in the 2010-11 season.
“We missed him for sure,” McDonagh said. “He plays a ton of minutes, all
the hard minutes. You can see from the goals they scored were ‘D’ zone
plays. With that being said, we all know how to play as a team. Injuries
are part of it, so we can’t use that as an excuse.”
Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1161275--devils-reprise-winning-role-over-rangers
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 6:27 PM
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