Just about the last thing anyone needed to see at the Garden on Saturday was Marc Staal putting himself in harm’s way by flying in to challenge Chris Neil when the Rangers’ long-time antagonist grabbed a hold of Mats Zuccarello in a late third-period scrum with who-knows-what kind of mischief on his mind.
But there came the Blueshirts’ alternate captain into the fray to mix it up with the Ottawa pugilist, the risk/reward equation no factor at all in Staal’s decision to stand up for a teammate just seconds after the defenseman himself appeared a victim of a late hit into the wall from the blindside by Neil after dumping the puck deep into the zone.
“I think it’s a dirty hit,” Zuccarello said of the check delivered against Staal that was more than one-one thousandth late. “It was a blind-side hit. Our players reacted.”
So at least there was that in and from the Rangers in their disappointing 3-2 defeat on Saturday, this four nights after they took no action in Vancouver on Tuesday when Ryan McDonagh was clocked in the final minute by Alexandre Burrows. The Blueshirts’ most important player other than Henrik Lundqvist has been sidelined since with a shoulder injury.
The Rangers don’t want to be dragged into the mud. They are not built for that kind of a game. But on a night that they failed to nail down a playoff spot and extend their lead for second place and first-round home ice, the Blueshirts did get angry and they did respond when the situation called for it.
Plenty of situations are going to call for a response once the playoffs begin. The Rangers need one point in their final three games to clinch. They would also clinch the moment the Devils lose a game, their next match coming on Monday at home against the Flames.
So although everyone knows what happens when one assumes, I’m kind of assuming, even if the players themselves sure don’t have that luxury.
The absence of McDonagh on the back end has prompted Alain Vigneault to juggle his defense tandems, sometimes from shift to shift, in the way the coach has juggled his forward combinations from game-to-game in the absence of Chris Kreider.
The Rangers are robbing Peter to pay Paul — or, as it applied at the Garden on Saturday, they robbed Dom (Moore) to pay Brad (Richards), by moving Brian Boyle off the fourth unit with Moore and Derek Dorsett and onto the line with Richards and Martin St. Louis.
Vigneault at times minimizes the fourth line’s importance in noting its comparatively limited ice time while generally matched against the opposition’s fourth line and third defense pair. But the Boyle-Moore-Dorsett line had been humming (the Boyle-Moore combo was excellent with Dan Carcillo as the third member, as well) in establishing a down-low and forecheck presence.
The Dorsett-Moore-Carcillo line that skated last night created minimal impact. The Rangers for the most part lacked a forecheck game. And Boyle was unable to trigger production from Richards and St. Louis, who continue to struggle both individually and as pair.
This is a concern. Richards has five points (2-3) in his last 17 games, all since the trade deadline. St. Louis has one goal in 17 games as a Ranger and that one coming shorthanded. More troubling, the winger has scored in just three of his last 32 games overall.
St. Louis twice appeared to have time and space, away from the field with the puck on his stick against the Senators. The first time, in the second period, he was denied a clean shot after being caught by Erik Karlsson. The second time, with 10 minutes to play in the third, the winger appeared to double-clutch and did not get the shot away.
The Rangers for the most part lack a physical element. But Saturday, they did get physical after Neil got physical with them. On a bad night, this was a good sign.