The Rangers haven’t put a puck past Marc-Andre Fleury and into the Penguins’ net in two full games. And one of the answers explaining why might have been volunteered to Rangers assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson by one of the greats of the game, a person who just happens to also be co-owner of the Penguins.
“Like Mario Lemieux told Ulfy yesterday: Anything Fleury can catch, he will catch,” Blueshirts’ head coach Alain Vigneault said on a conference call on Tuesday, having given his team off for the day after playing five games in seven nights and down in this best-of-seven, second-round playoff series, 2-1, as Game 4 approaches on Wednesday night at the Garden.
“So maybe if we stay away from that mitt a little bit,” Vigneault said, “the chances might become a little bit better.”
The Rangers peppered Fleury with 35 shots in Monday’s 2-0 shutout loss — some of them dramatic glove-saves — but they saw a big improvement in pressuring him from the first shutout, a 22-save performance from Fleury in a 3-0 Pittsburgh win on Sunday.
“I think, for the most part, it was a much better effort in terms of making life harder for him,” forward Brian Boyle said. “He answered, though.”
The Rangers power play still went 0-for-5, and is now scoreless in its past 34 attempts. Part of that had to do with Fleury on Monday, as he made plenty of stops while the Rangers were on the man-advantage.
“The power play did a much better job, they got some momentum for us,” Boyle said. “There were several close calls when we hit some posts. We got some traffic there, and we can do a better job of that.”
The Rangers significantly lost the faceoff battle on Monday, winning just 26 of 59 draws (44 percent). They have won 48 percent of faceoffs this series (93 of 192).
“It’s all these little things that add up, especially this time of year,” said fourth-line center Dom Moore, who went 4-for-8 on draws on Monday. “I think when you’re talking about sticking with the process, it’s about putting as many of those little things on your side as possible.”
Through the first three games of this series, the Rangers have been outscored 5-0 in the second period.
“In our first nine-plus periods against Pitt, there are seven-plus [periods] that I really liked,” Vigneault said. “We’re playing against such a good two-way team that it takes our best game. For seven and a half [periods] I thought we played some real strong hockey.”
Penguins top-four defenseman Brooks Orpik took part in the team’s optional skate at the Garden. He has missed the past five games with an undisclosed injury, and there was no update given on his status.