Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

NHL

Rangers need more than just Henrik to bring ‘A’ game

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Three of the last five Stanley Cup champions trailed at some point in the final round, so let’s not become too overwrought over the implications of the Rangers’ 3-2 Game 1 overtime defeat to the Kings on Wednesday night.

The Blackhawks were down 2-1 to the Bruins last year before winning in six. The Bruins were down 2-0 and 3-2 in 2011 to Alain Vigneault’s Canucks before capturing the Cup with a Game 7 victory in Vancouver. In 2009, the Penguins dropped the first two in Detroit and then trailed 3-2 before taking the series in seven.

So the result of the first game is not necessarily determinative. But — and there’s the word: but — it’s not so much the result that is worrisome from the Rangers’ perspective, but the route that took them to their dead end.

Because the fact is, if the Rangers duplicate that Game 1 effort whether it’s in Game 2, Game 3 or Game 4, they will not only not win the game, they won’t come as close as they did in the opener, either. This was not good enough. The Rangers were not good enough to beat a team of the Kings’ caliber. They were not good enough to win a game in the Stanley Cup finals.

This is Cup-check time for the Rangers. This is not time to panic — it is never time to panic — but it is time to recognize the Blueshirts are in a crisis mode for Game 2 if they are serious about winning the Stanley Cup and not simply satisfied with five minutes of fame walking the red carpet.

Coach Alain Vigneault was brutally honest in his assessment of his team’s Game 1 effort in delivering a message in his morning meeting with the press Thursday he surely repeated in no uncertain terms when meeting later in the day with his team.

And the message was not that his team had an A-1 day on Wednesday.

“One thing that’s real evident to me, and it should be to our whole group, is we’re not going to beat this team if we do not all bring our ‘A’ game,” the coach said. “We had Henrik [Lundqvist] who brought his ‘A’ game. We had a couple of guys who I think brought their ‘A’ game [in Game 1], but our ‘B’ game won’t do it. We’re not going to win if we bring our ‘B’ game to the table.”

For the first 12 or 14 minutes, the Rangers were playing an ‘A’ game all right, and they looked terrific. But it evaporated with a succession of forced and unforced errors. The Blueshirts stopped making the simple plays. Ten-foot passes were eschewed in favor of cross-ice prayers. Chips off the wall became plays into the middle. Players in position to shoot didn’t. The Rangers stopped taking what was there and instead looked for what wasn’t.

Eventually that became the lead in the game, and eventually that cost the opportunity to take the lead in the series.

If Vigneault in fact is able to identify a couple of guys other than the goalie who played an ‘A’ game, then he’s probably an easy marker. Carl Hagelin would be one. The other escapes me, though Benoit Pouliot was pretty good, other than flying the zone before he was certain Dan Girardi had full control of the puck — that he did not — on the winning goal.

Rick Nash was off the ice so quickly — 8:33 on 16 shifts through two periods — he had no time to make an impact. Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello struggled throughout in trying to make everything too fine. Derek Stepan’s decision-making was faulty. The fourth line all but disappeared after the opening 12 minutes. Brad Richards was no factor. The Marc Staal-Anton Stralman tandem has had better nights, as in, almost every other night.

“When we played Game 6 against Montreal, each and every player brought his ‘A’ game,” Vigneault said. “It’s not an easy thing to do … but against this opponent, we’ve got to find the way to do it.”

The Kings are not the 2013-14 Canadiens. But the Kings are not the 1976-77 Canadiens, either. L.A. has lost three straight games twice during this tournament, first to the Sharks and then to the Ducks, and lost two in a row to the Blackhawks while a victory away from clinching. They are not unbeatable. And the Rangers are capable of beating them.

But not with a repeat of Game 1. There is no time to panic, but there is no time to waste, either. Corrections must be made immediately. The Rangers have stepped up in class. This is Cup-check time.