RALEIGH – The schedule commands the Rangers to go to Philadelphia for their next game tomorrow night, but it sure seems as if the Blueshirts are going nowhere on the road to the oblivion.
For after a strong opening period here last night against the Hurricanes in which they responded to physical challenges from their opponents and amusing officiating from the referees, the Rangers suffered a relapse that lasted for the final 40 minutes.
They gave the puck away. They were unable to mount a forecheck game. They lost coverage and surrendered odd-man rushes to a quick counter-attack team. They were beaten in the battles in which they were able to engage. They made life easy for Carolina.
As such, they every bit earned a 3-1 defeat that negates the positive vibes they carried into the All-Star break following two straight victories at home last week against Atlanta.
But in addition to all their other issues, the Rangers have become a dreadful road team. They’re 0-4-2 in their last six away from the Garden, 1-5-4 in their last 10, 7-11-6 overall.
Know this: 17 of the ninth-place team’s final 30 will be played on the road, including tomorrow night’s match, Friday night’s game in New Jersey and Sunday afternoon’s contest in Montreal.
Road to oblivion, indeed.
“We had that letdown in the second again; maybe we tighten up,” said Scott Gomez. “The older guys on the team, and me personally, can’t let that happen.”
It shouldn’t have happened at all last night. But the Rangers were simply unable to maintain their poise into the second. They were unwilling to play patient hockey in order to protect the 1-0 lead they’d gained on Brendan Shanahan’s 4-on-3 PPG at 1:02 of the match.
“Maybe we need to be more aware of who we’re playing,” said Henrik Lundqvist. “Carolina is very fast. They’re a team you can’t give those kind of counter-attacks.”
The Rangers played a strong opening period during which the Hurricanes sought physical vengeance for the incident in New York on Dec. 26 in which Matt Cullen suffered facial injuries and a concussion in a collision with Colton Orr.
Sean Avery tussled with Scott Walker at the faceoff circle even before the opening draw. Orr fought Wade Brookbank twice. Avery jumped and fought Walker again after the Carolina winger slammed Gomez into the boards from behind early in the period but somehow escaped without a penalty call from referees Mike Hasenfratz and Wes McCauley.
The Hurricanes tied the game on Sergei Samsonov’s two-on-one conversion at 6:07 of the second after Fedor Tyutin’s right-circle blast went wide and he and the entire Shanahan-Brandon Dubinsky-Nigel Dawes unit was caught up ice.
It took only another 1:17 for Carolina to assume the lead when Rod Brind’Amour walked in on a two-on-one after Martin Straka’s attempted back pass to Paul Mara just inside the zone went awry.
The clincher came at 3:19 of the third when Trevor Letowski scored from in front after Dan Girardi was caught trying to make a play at the other end.
Hurricanes 3 Rangers 1