PHILADELPHIA — The Rangers had a chance to gain a measure of separation in the playoff race that they hadn’t been able to, even by going 13-4-1 before Saturday’s match against the Flyers.
But the Blueshirts did not do enough to achieve that separation, just as they did not do enough to win a hockey game, losing 4-2 in a contest in which discipline and effort were a wee bit lacking.
“They’d had a tough game at home against San Jose on Thursday, we knew they’d come out hard and playing physical, but we weren’t able to match their intensity or hitting at the start,” said Dan Girardi, referring to the Flyers’ 7-3 defeat to the Sharks. “We were able to get back into it, but weren’t able to overcome it.”
The Flyers scored twice within a 1:06 stretch early in the first period for a 2-0 lead, the Rangers were able to rally to tie midway through the second, but faltered immediately thereafter, taking the final three penalties the rest of the way.
Philadelphia capitalized on the first of those power plays just 1:41 after the Blueshirts had tied the match, with Wayne Simmonds beating Carl Hagelin to a rebound in the right circle before blowing one by Henrik Lundqvist for the 3-2 lead and winner at 13:23 of the second.
“When you take penalties every three or four minutes, you’re not going to be able to do too much,” Brad Richards said. “When you’re giving them power plays the way we did, it’s tough to get back in the game.”
Derek Dorsett, in his first game since sustaining a broken leg blocking a shot in Pittsburgh on Jan. 3, was nailed for high-sticking Vincent Lecavalier to give the Flyers the power play on which they scored the winner. Derick Brassard took the final two penalties, both times getting called for apparent retaliatory fouls against Claude Giroux.
“I didn’t mind parts of our game,” said coach Alain Vigneault, hardly an endorsement to shout from the roof tops. “I thought our five-on-five was all right.”
The result of one game on the first day of March will not determine any single team’s fate, but the combination of the Rangers’ loss with victories by the Devils and Capitals created a quagmire. The Blueshirts still are in second place in the Metro, but only one point up on the Flyers for the third divisional playoff spot and just two points ahead of Washington and four points ahead of the Devils.
“We’ve been winning, but the other teams around us have been winning also,” said Lundqvist, who allowed as many as four goals for the first time in 14 starts, since Jan. 3 — the same day Brassard broke his leg against the Penguins. “We know we face a challenge and need to be at our best.”
Few Blueshirts were. Brassard did get one on the power play to tie the match in the second, but the Rangers coughed away a couple of man-advantages over the match’s first 4:05 that cost the club a chance to dictate the tone of the match.
Instead, there seemed a fair amount of reaching for pucks and hoping for pucks. The forecheck was a rumor, speed on the rush through the neutral zone almost nonexistent. The work ethic did not appear extraordinary. A glide seemed to have crept into the mix, something that must be addressed prior to Sunday night’s match at the Garden against the Bruins.
“There were spurts, but it wasn’t consistent enough,” Ryan Callahan said. “There wasn’t enough over 60 minutes.”
There wasn’t enough to win the game, wasn’t enough to break the logjam. Twenty-one games to go.