In an expected effort Sunday night, New York Rangers lost their eighth consecutive Game 2 in a playoff series as they were blanked 3-0 by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Blueshirts continued beautifully playing the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as they looked flat for the full 60 minutes after a thrilling overtime win in Game 1. For some reason that seemingly cannot be explained, the Rangers cannot put up a full effort in consecutive games in a series, let alone come out on top.
In Game 1, the Rangers got out to an early 2-0 lead and fell flat on their face in the second period and the lead vanished (eventually winning in OT), which is exactly how they've gone about holding their leads in a series. The Rangers have now played nine postseason games and have given up a lead in the series four times.
Just like in the previous series against the Flyers, the Rangers can't put their foot on the throat of the opponent and take control. They had three power plays in the first 10 minutes and couldn't capitalize on any of them. They've now had more consecutive scoreless power plays than the New York Yankees have World Series championships, so just don't bother counting anymore.
It's getting way too predictable with this team: get a big win in a playoff series, give a lame duck effort in the next game, lather, rinse, repeat. No message is getting through to these skaters. Henrik Lundqvist played outstanding, stopping 32 of 34 shots, but had nothing to show for it. He had a highlight reel of his own in this game but the offense couldn't generate any goal support.
Marc-Andre Fleury was barely tested the whole night. The Rangers put 22 shots on goal but maybe one or two of them were quality shots.
Also, Derek Dorsett took a terrible, terrible boarding penalty with under five minutes to go, in a one-goal game, which led to Pittsburgh's second goal and put the game away. Dorsett better not see the ice in Game 3. If Dan Carcillo is in the lineup, there is no reason to dress Dorsett. Give J.T. Miller a shot....he made his presence felt in Game 5 against Philadelphia.
Rangers come right back Monday night with Game 3 at The Garden at 7:30 and if things go the way they have been, and there's no reason to believe they won't, they'll win it and most likely relinquish control of the series in Game 4. LGR.
No comments:
Post a Comment