PITTSBURGH – The penalty call on Martin Straka for interfering with Sidney Crosby that gave the Penguins the power play on which Evgeni Malkin got the game-winner with 1:41 to play in the third period may be debatable, but this much cannot be disputed:
The Rangers were dreadful last night, simply dreadful, and are fortunate they didn’t get blown right out of the Igloo.
The 5-4 score by which they lost Game 1 of their Eastern semifinal series flattered the team to no end. Had they played like this against New Jersey, they wouldn’t be here.
The Rangers turned over the puck repeatedly in all three zones, failed to support one another in defensive coverage and were never able to contain the Penguins.
They were as disciplined as a class of fourth-graders with a substitute teacher. If not for the brilliance of Henrik Lundqvist in goal, they’d have been down by three goals within the first 20 minutes.
“I don’t want to think about it,” said Lundqvist, who yielded as many as five goals for the first time since the infamous Feb. 19, 6-5 shootout loss in Montreal. “We just have to move on.”
Plain and simple, this was an embarrassing display of playoff hockey, even more mortifying given that the Rangers somehow managed to construct a 3-0 lead by the 3:37 mark of the second on goals by Straka, Chris Drury and Sean Avery.
The lead meant nothing. The Rangers couldn’t focus or execute. The defense made terrible decisions. The forwards were not only no better in their puck management, they constantly arrived too late.
The Penguins scored twice with 14 seconds at 8:13 and 8:27 of the second. Panic, anyone?
“With that kind of hockey, you’re never safe,” said Jaromir Jagr, who had more good moments than bad. “You have to play 60 minutes and not look at the score.”
The Penguins took a 4-3 lead in third by scoring twice within 20 seconds this time, at 4:40 and 5:00, but Scott Gomez got it back at 10:04. And so it was 4-4 when Straka was called for impeding Crosby in the neutral zone at 16:40 as No. 87 tried to join Marian Hossa on a rush following a blocked Gomez drive from the left point.
The morning press briefing was dominated by questions about Crosby’s alleged penchant for diving and embellishing and about Ranger coach Tom Renney’s “innuendo” of such chicanery. Crosby was angered by the charge, insisting he only goes down if forced down. Apparently, then, he was forced down by Straka.
“What did I think of the call on Straka?” Renney said, repeating a question posed after Crosby’s drive from the right wing glanced in off Evgeni Malkin for the winner. “I just answered.”
Asked a second time, the head coach said, “Did you see it? Draw your own conclusion.”
Straka, who got a game misconduct after the final horn, snapped, “I don’t want to talk about it,” when asked for his take.
Crosby, who also drew a questionable penalty against Brandon Dubinsky by going down in the second period, said, “I don’t know what I tripped over, whether it was [Straka’s] stick or his skate. He was trying to get back.”
Now the Rangers have to find the way to get back. They will need far more from Christian Backman, who was jittery throughout. They need much, much better from the Fedor Tyutin-Dan Girardi pair. They need way more from Brendan Shanahan, MIA.
They need to play playoff hockey is what they need, because they sure didn’t show much of anything like that here last night, debatable penalty call or not.