ATLANTA – There was usually imperturbable Henrik Lundqvist smashing his stick over the crossbar, not once, not twice, but three times after the Thrashers scored a shorthanded goal at 10:33 of last night’s second period to gain a 3-0 lead in a game the Rangers would lose 5-3.
There, in other words, was the picture of Rangers’ frustration as their record was slipping to 2-4 (four losses in five games since the opener), losing to an Atlanta team that came in 0-6 and was playing its first match under GM and interim coach Don Waddell following the dismissal of Bob Hartley.
“Of course it was frustrating not to be able to make that save,” said Lundqvist, who indeed had made a brilliant stop on Todd White on a 2-on-0 before the Thrashers’ center slipped in the rebound. “If we were going to win the game, we needed to score that third goal, not give it up, and even more, not to give it up while we were on the power play.
“We just have to play better, there’s no other way to explain it. We can look at so many things, but we just have to play better and smarter.”
The Rangers struggled to score through their first five games, but otherwise played competently, if not quite well enough. Last night, however, they suffered breakdowns all over the ice, including glaring ones in the defensive zone, where Thomas Pock’s performance essentially guaranteed Marek Malik will return to the lineup tomorrow night in Boston after being scratched against the Thrashers.
Pock was not alone. Partner Michal Rozsival, suffering all season, had his worst game. Marc Staal repeatedly was beaten by outside speed. Calling Jason Strudwick, anyone? But then, none of the defensemen received much coverage help whatsoever from the forwards.
“We were disconnected as a unit of five,” Tom Renney said. “I thought that we didn’t show enough urgency coming back, and as a result, our defensemen were forced to ad-lib far too much.”
The Rangers were down 2-0 after one period and 4-0 early in the third before scoring three power-play goals in the final 10:23 to make the score respectable. The Blueshirts also sought to respond on behalf of Petr Prucha after the winger was leveled by a high neutral-zone hit by Garnet Exelby at 10:40 of the third, with, at different junctures, Colton Orr, Ryan Hollweg and Jaromir Jagr seeking to get the defenseman to man-up.
“I thought it was a fair hit,” Renney said. “I like the fact we rallied behind each other and stood up for one another, but you can’t camouflage this game with something like that.”
Lundqvist, who faced a steady procession of odd-man breaks and breakaways, said, “We have to look in the mirror and see what we can all do better, because we have to be better than we were in this game. Every game is going to be a battle, it’s going to be like this all year.
“We have to be better. We have to be smarter.”
Thrashers 5 Rangers 3