All the good will and good work in the world only gets you so far, and it might not get the Rangers past the second round.
The team and its coach, Alain Vigneault, seem to be carrying an overwhelmingly positive attitude going into Wednesday’s Game 4 of their second-round series against the Penguins at the Garden, despite trailing 2-1 in this best-of-seven contest and haven’t scored a single goal in two straight games.
Vigneault blasted how the league set up his team’s schedule after a disheartening 2-0 loss on Monday at the Garden, saying that playing five games in seven nights was “stupid.” But after giving his team Tuesday off to relax and recoup, he is reiterating the fact that the tough part is over.
“Obviously, we’ve been [through] the most challenging part of our schedule so far,” Vigneault said on a conference call. “I thought, like I said [Monday], I’m extremely proud of how they responded and how they played.”
In Game 3, the Rangers outshot the Penguins, 35-15, and out-attempted them, 69-38. Yet once again their power play was a killer, going 0-for-5 over 9:58, making them scoreless in the past 34 times they have had the man-advantage.
So hoping the medicine to turn things around was getting the team away from the rink, that’s what Dr. Vigneault prescribed, saying the day off was “to get away from the game a little bit, re-energize.
“Guys are going to come back,” he said, “and I know they’re looking forward to this next game.”
The fact is, if the Rangers lose Game 4, they will be in the direst of circumstances. They will have to go back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Friday, and will have to dig themselves out of a 3-1 hole that is close to insurmountable, especially with a possible Game 7 again back at the Consol Energy Center.
Yet with the way the Garden has been so often solemn during this postseason, and the fact this Rangers team won more games on the road than any in franchise history, who knows if home-ice even means anything.
What does matter is the Penguins, who seemingly have taken advantage of every small opportunity.
“We’re playing against such a good two-way team,” Vigneault said, “that it takes our best game.”
The Rangers have been through their fair share of struggles this season and have found a way to at least get to this point. If they respond well on Wednesday, the entire tenor of the series will change.
“People keep using the word battle-tested,” forward Brian Boyle said. “We’ve gone through some ups and downs and some transitions, moments when we were tested to keep our confidence and stay together. This is just a new challenge in the playoffs.”