After Alain Vigneault said Game 4 was going to be 'as close to a must game' for Blueshirts, they played their worst game of the postseason at the Garden on Wednesday.
By Filip Bondy
May 8, 2014
Raphael Diaz #4 of the New York Rangers battles for position in front of Henrik Lundqvist #30 against Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Four of the Second Round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 07, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)
The word “must” is a sticky one, not easily shed once it is employed by a coach. Alain Vigneault isn’t allowed to withdraw it now, just because the Rangers didn’t heed his warning. The Rangers, according to Vigneault’s own quote, are a dead team skating — and it’s hard to argue with him.
“Tonight’s game, for us, is as close to a must game in my estimation,” Vigneault had said, not mincing or hedging words before the Rangers lost Game 4 to the Penguins, 4-2. “We’re down two to one here. We need to win tonight.”
Instead, they played their worst game of the postseason at the Garden on Wednesday. They committed a parade of mistakes, their stars again didn’t put on their “big-boy pants” and the Rangers were defeated for a third straight time, this time decisively. They turned the puck over 25 times and managed only four of their 15 shots in the third.
The Penguins now need only to win one of the next three games, and two are scheduled for Pittsburgh. The Pens aren’t just in the driver’s seat, they are pulling into the driveway, parking the car.
“It couldn’t have gone worse,” Brad Richards said. “But you can’t just go out and score goals because someone says you have to, or the fans say you have to, or the media says you have to.”
Pittsburgh clearly is the better team and has two guys, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, who are playing on a different level than everyone else. Meanwhile, the Rangers’ stars — Rick Nash, Martin St. Louis and Ryan McDonagh — are playing some of their career-worst hockey.
Nash, booed whenever he touched the puck, called this the most frustrating period of his professional life, “by far, for sure.” Fairly or not, he has become the crowd’s chief target.
“Ultimately, the fans can do what they want,” Vigneault said. “I’d prefer if they were supportive. We might not show it, but we’re trying our guts out. Obviously (Nash) feels a lot of pressure right now. Maybe we can rally around that, have a good game in Pittsburgh.”
Didn’t happen at the Garden. Just over two minutes into the game, when the crowd was still settling into its seats and finding its voice, Anton Stralman turned the puck over in the neutral zone to, of all people, Crosby. The Penguins star bounced a pass off the skate of Marc Staal to the other Penguins star, Malkin, who has been flying all over the ice. Malkin scored on a sweeping backhander past Henrik Lundqvist.
Then in the second period, when the game was tied and still winnable, Nash’s bungled power-play pass to Derek Stepan turned into a breakaway for Brian Gibbons, who left the puck in the crease for Brandon Sutter, who scored the shorthanded goal at 16:27. McDonagh was late coming back on the play.
The final blow arrived when Jussi Jokinen’s deep angled shot at 7:02 of the third deflected off Staal’s skate past Lundqvist.
There went all the best-laid plans. The Rangers were scrambling again. They lost most of the faceoffs. They did the little things wrong.
The Rangers have been busy this spring compiling some of the worst-ever postseason statistics: They went 145:30 over three games without a goal, before Carl Hagelin scored in the second period.
They are now zero for their last 36 on the power play. Not only that, they gave up a shorthanded goal on Wednesday, so they are losing 1-0 over a span of more than one full regulation game with the man advantage.
Nash has zero goals in 11 playoff games.
They’ve dropped 13 straight playoff games when leading a series. Because they couldn’t close out the Flyers in more economic fashion, the Rangers were forced to play five playoff games in seven days. Maybe that’s as good an alibi as any for the horrible performance on Wednesday.
“We didn’t pick a good night to manage the puck the way we did,” Vigneault said. “I don’t want to take any credit away from Pittsburgh, they forced the play. But our puck management and our execution weren’t very good and ultimately cost us the game.
“I can’t explain it. Nothing we can do about it. We’ve got to go to Pittsburgh and win the next game.”
And the game after that, and the game after that. Not going to happen.
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