For a team with so many veterans, the Rangers aren’t especially mature in their approach to the game.
You’d think that by this point in the season, with points so precious, and still on the outside looking in on a playoff berth; you’d think by now the Rangerswould come prepared on a consistent basis to play 60 minutes of hockey.
You’d think that, but you’d be wrong.
Because last night, and for the second time within three days, the Rangers skated onto the Garden ice unprepared for the task at hand. On Wednesday, they had yielded a goal at the 21-second mark to the Islanders before persevering for a 4-3 overtime victory. Last night, they weren’t so fortunate.
Last night, the Rangers gave one up at the 1:10 mark to the horrid Blackhawks, a team whose offensive ineptness is surpassed only by Tampa Bay, and though they came back to tie, never could get the lead. Couldn’t get the lead; couldn’t get the win.
And worse. Because the Rangers couldn’t even get the tie, not after Mike Maneluk scored on a bizarre two-on-none at 4:48 of third, not after Tony Amonte put one into an empty net with a couple of ticks remaining on the clock.
Final score, then, on Broadway: 26th-overall Blackhawks 3, Rangers 1.
Jocelyn Thibault played a tidy game in nets, coming with a couple of impressive saves on Wayne Gretzky and Adam Graves late in the third with the Rangers down by a goal. But it wasn’t Thibault who beat the Rangers; that they did to themselves.
Other than spurts in the second period when they were awarded three power plays within 6:26, the Rangers never established a down low game. They rarely came through the neutral zone with speed. Rarely were able to break out in stride. Barely, if ever, appeared the better team.
Never appeared the hungrier team.
“Was this a satisfactory effort? No, it wasn’t,” Mike Richter admitted after the loss that dropped the Rangers a game under .500 heading into Montreal for tonight’s match with the suddenly impressive Canadiens. “We have to find ways of winning every game, whether it’s by playing really well, or by squeaking it out.
“But as important as getting wins is laying the foundation for how we should play, every shift of every period of every game. Because when you lay the foundation for how you should play and then adhere to it as well as you can, you’re going to have success.”
All that escaped the Rangers last night, who coincidentally or not slid to 2-6-1 without Todd Harvey, out for at least a month with a sprained left knee. When last night’s match had ended, John Muckler was asked about such cause and effect. The coach bristled.
“You guys are overplaying that Todd Harvey thing, though I guess I’m somewhat to blame because I called him, ‘The heartbeat of the Rangers,'” Muckler said. “Look, we miss Todd, don’t get me wrong, but we have enough talent to compensate for his loss.”
Actually, last night the Rangers did not have enough talent. Absent Harvey, Muckler opened the game by using recently promoted Derek Armstrong with Marc Savard while John MacLean moved up to Gretzky’s right side. But it became obvious quickly that Armstrong was overmatched. And so after three brief shifts in the first period and one in the second, the 25-year-old sat. In the third, Muckler used center Manny Malhotra on the wing.
Neither Armstrong nor Harvey was responsible for last night’s defeat. Not when Doug Gilmour was permitted to redirect a right wing feed past Richter at 1:10, not when the Rangers were able to muster just three shots on net in the first 16 minutes.
“We talk about being prepared from the start all the time,” said Adam Graves. “Why we’re not, I have no explanation.”
Gretzky, lacking speed on the wing to create a gap in the defense – this is a recording – had an average night. So did Graves. MacLean was less than that. Petr Nedved was ordinary. Most of the Ranger forwards were.
Gilmour’s goal stood until Savard, who had only four even-strength shifts through the first 40 minutes, swept in to deposit a rebound into an empty net at 10:21 of the second. The score came just as the Rangers’ third power play of the night ended.
But 1-1 into the third, the Rangers created little. And then got caught for the winner. Jeff Beukeboom was interfered with in front of the Chicago bench in an attempt to get back for a change. With Beukeboom still on the ice, Ulf Samuelsson couldn’t jump on. And then, when Graves made an incorrect read at his own line, the Hawks had their two-on-oh. And consequently their 2-1 lead when Maneluk scored. Then, ultimately, their 3-1 win.
“We didn’t come out prepared to play the way we should have,” said Beukeboom. “We have to be ready from the beginning of the game.”
Now 42 games into the season, that might be a good idea.