If this was the night the Rangers were supposed to start being a better team, a team with an honest chance to at least compete for tops in the Eastern Conference, well, they surely didn’t look it.
Hours after trading for reigning Art Ross Trophy winner Martin St. Louis, the future Hall of Famer was in the lineup yet unable to completely enliven the Rangers in a 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of the visiting Maple Leafs — a distinctly melancholy way for St. Louis to begin his Blueshirts career.
“Every point is important now, but it’s annoying the way it ends,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who surrendered the game-winner to Tyler Bozak 1:51 into the extra period after Phil Kessel made a great pass from behind the net. “I just felt like we definitely had a chance to get the two points.”
The loss was the third in a row for the Rangers (33-26-4), who remained in third place behind the Flyers and Penguins in the Metropolitan Division with 19 games remaining.
In a game that lacked any real flow, the Rangers found themselves often controlling the possession game but getting little reward — nothing new for the Maple Leafs (33-23-8), who have made a season out of getting outshot and finding ways to win. By early in the third, Nazem Kadri took advantage of the Rangers scrambled defensive zone coverage and banged in a rebound to give the Leafs a 2-0 lead, adding to Bozak’s second-period penalty-shot goal.
Yet 5:18 into the third, Brad Richards took a tripping penalty and the Rangers managed to score consecutive shorthanded goals, the first from Ryan McDonagh and the second from Dominic Moore, tying it up 2-2 and eventually sending it to overtime.
“Five-on-five, I don’t think we were as good as we have been in the past,” was how coach Alain Vigneault described it.
Vigneault and general manager Glen Sather hoped the swap of their own captain, Ryan Callahan, for the Lightning’s captain in St. Louis would be the missing piece to their competitive puzzle. After making his Rangers debut, the 38-year-old agreed.
“I like what they have here,” said St. Louis, who orchestrated his own trade by forcing his way out of Tampa Bay and exclusively to New York. “I was happy to come here and just break the ice, I guess. I was able to fly in a get that first game over with.”