Canadiens 6 Rangers 3
The Ranger season is turning into “Groundhog Day.” Last night, the part of Bill Murray was played by Mike Richter.
On Sunday afternoon at the Garden, the goaltender surrendered three goals on 12 shots in the first 14:36 against the Red Wings before being pulled, down 3-0, in favor of Dan Cloutier. Last night, Richter yielded three goals on nine shots in the first 5:32 against the Canadiens before being pulled again, down 3-0, in favor of Cloutier.
“If that’s ever happened to me before in two straight games, I sure don’t remember it,” Richter said after the Rangers left the ice to derisive chants of, “Refund! Refund!” following the decisive 6-3 loss that left the team 1-7 in its last eight on Broadway.
“It’s embarrassing, it’s frustrating, it’s feeling pretty much every negative emotion that exists.
“But I’m certainly not as concerned with being pulled as I am with obviously not doing enough to put us in position to win. If I’m pulled, that’s a shame, but that’s certainly not the focus of what’s going on here.
“We cannot allow ourselves to feel sorry for ourselves as individuals, or as a team, for that matter. No matter how difficult it may be, we have to work as hard as possible to feel good about ourselves as a team. We have to take responsibility as a team.
“We’re the problem, so it’s our responsibility to find a way to become the solution.”
In other words, there’s no Andie McDowell on the horizon.
The problems are compounding themselves for the Rangers, who somehow were swept in the Montreal season series 4-0, outscored 20-5 by a team that is otherwise nine games under .500 against the rest of the NHL. Richter, who has started 31 of 35 games since Thanksgiving, is showing signs of fatigue after having carried the team most of the year. Same too for Brian Leetch, who finally buckled last night after months of outstanding work.
“Brian won’t admit to it, but he’s tired,” said John Muckler. “He’s played, out of necessity, a lot of hockey.”
All of the Ranger senior citizens have played, out of necessity, way too much hockey. The effect of all those minutes in all of those games in this marathon exercise is now obvious.
“There’s not much point in dwelling on the negative,” said Leetch, whose blunder behind the net helped put the Rangers into a 2-0 hole at 4:43, just 18 seconds after the Canadiens had grabbed the lead. “We just have to try to put this behind us and get ready for [Pittsburgh tomorrow].”
Playing last night without defensemen Peter Popovic (eye) and Jeff Beukeboom (post-concussion symptoms), the Rangers were helpless against the Canadiens’ up-tempo attack, repeatedly yielding the blue line while leaving huge gaps in the defense. Spending so much time in their own end, the makeshift defense that included Stan Neckar, Chris Tamer and Rich Brennan, was repeatedly beaten in the corners, behind the net and in the slot. Then, too, the Ranger forwards did little to help at either end of the ice.
“Our checking was just terrible,” Muckler said. “I don’t know if because of the fact we haven’t had any success at the Garden that we’re a little uptight, but we might be.
“I don’t think we expect to be down 3-0 in a game, but I don’t think that we’re positive thinkers at this point, either.”
Down 3-0 after a first period in which they yielded 21 shots on goal, the Rangers had a second period in which they had 11:30 of power play time in the first 17:18. They came out of the period trailing by 4-1, Mike Knuble getting the score.
“There was definitely negative thinking on the power play; you could see the hesitation,” said Muckler.
There was the insult of the game, and then there were additional injuries added to it. John MacLean went down 6:20 into the match with a neck stinger, and did not return. Todd Harvey pulled a hamstring late in the third period in which the Rangers rallied to within 5-3 at the 13:00 mark on goals from Knuble and Petr Nedved only to see the Canadiens pad the cushion with a shorthanded goal at 14:02.
“It’s like we got close and then they just slapped us down,” said Richter. “We got back into it-but did we really?
“At a point like this, in a spiral like this, we have to fight against negative energy. We have to keep working to keep our minds focused on the immediate, which is the next game. The hardest part is working the right way to change this around.”