It seems to happen every 33 years in the NHL. 1942, Leafs. 1975, Islanders.
A back-from-the-dead comeback from 0-and-3.
Just can't see it here.
The Penguins, confident and rolling, have beaten the Rangers three times in three different ways.
The Rangers will play for pride in a throw-caution-to-the-wind Game 4 tomorrow night in possibly the last dance in Rangers colors for Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka and Brendan Shanahan, and to possibly avoid the ignominity of the handshake line on Garden ice.
But taking four straight against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin & Co.---who I picked to win in seven games at the start of this series in Newsday's matchups---seems near-impossible.
Blame Ryan Hollweg for the criticial penalty, blame Henrik Lundqvist for not stealing a game, blame the 1-for-14 power play, but credit the deep Penguins, who arguably will win the East and possibly the Cup.
While the Rangers declined to fork over prospects and draft choice at the trade deadline, Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero---knowing that the Pens would have a dozen or more free agents this summer---went all in, and went all in wisely. Marian Hossa, with three playoff goals, was the sniper that every team could have used. Pascal Dupuis brought zest to Crosby's line. Hulking D Hal Gill bolstered the backline, and with Dupuis, added depth to the power play.
The Rangers front office brought in Christian Backman and Fred Sjostrom, nice players, good guys, but not the PP quarterback, crease-clearing defenseman or the power winger that the New Yorkers needed.
However this series shakes out, these teams will sport far different looks next season, You know about the Rangers vets and free agents such as Sean Avery, Michal Rozsival, Marek Malik and Paul Mara. The Pens need to re-sign Fleury and will probably lose a handful of players, including Hossa and perhaps one of the quality, tough young guys such as Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik.
The difference is, the Penguins could have a Cup to sweeten the transition.
On their side, the Rangers have youth---they need size---and will be retooling for another run in the the Wild, Wild East, where Pittsburgh, Montreal, Washington, Philadelphia will be even more formidable and others will improve.
But that's longer-range thinking. Musings for the summer.
A morning skate looms. The Rangers will put up a brave front. But for these playoffs, after a 97-point regular season, the seventh-best in franchise history, the script seems written. Thirty-three years or not.
Comments (21)
Steve,
Is game 4 going to be Jagr's last game? The way he is playing and listening to him last night I would say it is.
Therien has out coached Renney all series. How the power play can't score on 5-3 is beyond me. The defensemen for the Rangers are soft. All year when they play against a physical team the defensemen wimp out. But what has Tytuin done all playoffs? He got his money and he is invisible. Backman is weak.Avery has gone AWOL. Shanahan can pack it in.
You are right Sather should have gotten Hal Gill to get some beef back there instead of a soft European player.
When you try up the score 3-3 why does a idiot coach put out a 4th line player for? You put the pedal down and get your best players on the ice. Hollweg has no business being in the game when it is 3-3 and a must win. 4th line players would never see the ice.
Next year if Jagr is gone and Straka also the Rangers need to find new scoring wingers. I don't see any talented wingers in the system.
Henrik was off last night, the complete opposite of Jagr. Jagr played inspired and determined, but hardly anyone followed. Damn Stratka had more chances in the 1st 5 minutes of the 1st period to score that he has all year! Him and Shanny have disappeared.
How do you tie it at 3, 8 minutes left in period, and surrender another goal? That was the back breaker- going into 3rd period down a goal when you just came back to tie it 8 minutes prior.
I dont blame Hollweg necessarily, but moreso Renny. Granted, Betts and Dru were hurt and off the bench, but throw in Dawes or Callahan - double shift the young guys. Why, why throw out Hollweg? Hollweg serves one purpose, to take cheap shots in blowout games. Renny said all along he is a 4 line coach - which is fine, but not tied / down one goal in playoffs down in series 2-0.
The young "d" looked off all night. Staal had a tough time, as did Girardi, but they are young.
What killed me was not scoring on 2 5 on 3's, what a dismal PP. In contrast, Malkin sits on top of the point on their PP, slowly moves to middle of blue line,c reeps down to top of circles, and fires a shot past Lunqvist. And during the Rangers 5-3, a pass was made to Dru, hits his skate and he goes to the bench. Granted he was hurting, but at least push it deep or move it to the corner!
Rangers have opportunites, but dont capitalize. At all. That can't happen in playoffs.
Steve - your part of the media get Jags to stay, hes awesome and showing what a true captain is all about..Do not want to see Jags end his career this way..He played awesome last night just awesome
Jags STAY!! 1 MORE YEAR!
It only took Jagr 90 games to finaly play like a man. Pathetic!
Steve
Why is it everyone see`s what Renny cant. Did Vancouver know all too well that he is a good minor leauge coach at best. The powerplay has been horrible all year and does Pearn fix it YEA RIGHT The defense has been suspect all year playing above what they should have did Polino and Pearn do anything YEA RIGHT and lets not stop here Sather brings in Backman PLEEEEEZE Pock and Huttchinson are in the AHL REALLY DUH Its a shame to waste Shanny and Jags kinda reminds me of the post cup Rangers
Rangers fans... I hope the team doesn't throw in the towel as quickly as the media and the fans. There's still at least 60 minutes of hockey to be played. It would be a shame if we were robbed of another great playoff game because the Rangers throw in the towel.
Rangers are history...again. LET'S GO METS!!
What makes it all sting the most is really that the Rangers, in the two seasons prior to this since the lockout, were far greater than the sum of their parts. And somehow this year they always seemed the complete opposite, less than the sum of their parts.
We have been shown our weakness by the Pens and Renny.
Sadly Renny never saw it coming.
All this talk about players leaving, what about Tom Renney? Sure he's the reason we have some of our younger players. Sure he's done a good job with making them into NHL players. But do we want him to do the same to Staal, Dawes, Callahan, Dubinsky and Moore that he did to Prucha.
History repeats itself right? Well if Renney stays does that mean Dubinsky moves to the 4th line, works under 10 minutes a game and eventually is a scratch every night. Wouldn't it be safe to say that his abiltiy to de-value young talent is noteworthy at the least?
We're going to lose 4 top line players that are not replaceable by the farm system. (assuming Avery tests the market)
We're also going to be sending 3 of 6 defensemen into the UFA market. They'll need to replace these vet d-men with (hopefully) better quality blueliners.
We're now talking 7 players to replace. There's just no chance that these 7 will be top talent qaulity swept up from the FA market in July.
So let's be fair and say they land 2 in July. Does that mean we're looking at yet another season of 5 or more rookies? I'm all for the youth, and all about Sather's plan, but how can this team stay in contention every season with a revamped roster every single season?
Sometimes I wish we would have traded away these UFA at the deadline (like I suggested then) and spent the rest of this season doing what we're now going to be doing next season... teaching young players to be NHLers.
Good Luck on Thursday boys cause your gonna need MSG to be full of it.
Slick Willy writes: "Good Luck on Thursday boys cause your gonna need MSG to be full of it."
MSG is always "Full of it". :-)
everyone needs to realize there is not "one" person to blame for the loss last night,
Rangers PP: sucked on those 5-on-3s, and pretty much all night but when you have 5 vets out there for the 5-on-3, who all know how to work the PP, i dont see how that is the fault of the coach, when they all know what makes a good PP in that situation work, and he has been trying to jam it into their heads to make quick passes, take hard/quick shots and crash the net, etc.
Hollweg: best way to kill momentum is to take a dumb penalty
PK: short shifts and clearing the puck didnt happen after that hollweg penalty, but the pens did have something to do with that. plus losing drury and betts didnt help
rangers D: it seemed like they did not know what positions to take all night, backman on the 5th goal just standing there, the whole D leaving laraque open in front of the net etc. constantly screening Henrik without clearing them from his vision etc.
Shot Totals: it seemed like the pens had amazing chances all night, so there 17 shots may be "low" but the quality of them was astounding, and it coulda been worse if malkin didn't miss the open net and when someone on the pens basically had the puck in front of henrik and just messed it up.
notice how a lot of goals are scored with shots from the point with proper screens and deflections, and finding the open man in front of the net. the pens did that way better than we did. the three we scored were due to getting shots from up close and not from the blue line. when our guys took shots from the point they were slow to fire them, which led to Fleury seeing the shot better, the pens d blocking everything, etc.
pens forwards: hurts me to say but they have more consistent play from their forwards the whole series, yea we do a good job on crosby but malkin and malone etc. are great as well. our guys have a lot of talent and in the next few seasons will seem them really grow (matching dawes speed and quick shot with gomez pass ability is something i wanna see again)
I really havent liked renney this yr and if we dont win this series, I dont think he should be back.
I rarely (if ever?) post on this board, but I'm compelled to weigh in.
I think you're all over-reacting about your team. First, you've just got to realize that the Pens have 2 "generational" players (Crosby and Malkin), added Hossa to Crosby's line and Gill to the back line. This is a VERY TOUGH TEAM.
Second, your team completely outplayed the Pens last night - except for your goaltender. And MAF stood on his head. In other words, the Pens stole one. That's all. Yes, you should've scored 5 on 3, but it's not like you didn't have some absolutely amazing chances. Remember, this game is often decided by no more than a millimeter.
Now, let me end by saying something that you might not want to hear. You goaltender plays with a flawed style. He's big, plays a great butterfly style and can stop anything in close and especially on breakaways... but he's entirely consistentaly beatable on shots from the mid-slot or longer. He plays too far back in his net when it's not appropriate to do so. And teams have started to figure him out. That's why he's vulnerable to the deflected shots and screen shots. Everyone always cites his supposed weak glove side, but I think his real weakness is much more troubling for your chances at a cup.
Anyway... I'm obviously an Islander fan and I'm glad as hell the Rangers are down in this series... but your team isn't as bad as your all saying.
Terrible line up choices by the coach, he blew it, Holly in the line up Freddy on the 2nd line, you are supposed to play your best line up, it's like sending out a line change only for the players to find out when they get onto the ice that their sticks are already broken.
Can someone please explain what exactly Hollweg brings to the table that causes Renney to play him every night?
Hollweg has been consistently taking that some boarding penalty since he became a Ranger. Typically, like last night, he takes it at the worst possible time.
dfdfd
stats are very deceiving. 97 pts when teams get extra points for shootout and overtime and the season is longer than days of old does not translate to 7th best season. we were slightly better than 500 take away the Bettman point and we would have in mid 80's.
re Hollweg. I was against him even early last season when people thought him and some peoples future captain Jed Ortmeyer were Gods. glad to see many now realize that Hollweg is a stiff. his lack of points is the least of it. has no hockey IQ and is very selfish with those hits from behind that are his speciality. and the stiff has 1 more year to go on his contract.
for thoes of you that dont know Avery went to the hospital for a lacerated spleen. hes out for the year. in ICU players are visiting him today
Sure, blame Hollweg - the easy thing to do. How about blaming management for retaining Hollweg, who is arguably the WORST and most useless player in the National Hockey League, all year, and then playing him ahead of Prucha, in the post-season? That would be more critically honest.
Tom Renney insisted that management was going all year with the players who made the team in training camp, and the fact that several stiffs, starting with Hollweg, dragged this team down like the "Titanic," did not deter Renney or Sather's idiot resolve, in that respect.
Shanahan, Jagr, Straka gone after this year? What does it matter if Sather and Renney return next season? Shouldn't there at least be a coaching change, in light of TWO sweeps suffered in three seasons?
So looks like Avery is in the hospital because he is to big of a wuss to play hockey. Honestly I'm glad hes there, I guess Karma does exist, because all the cheap shots hes taken over the years have come back to haunt him. Its even more gratifying that he injured himself during a game against the pens, on what was more than likely a clean hit. Let's hear you babies complain about all the refs now considering last night they were doing their best to give the game to the Rangers. Also, I don't wanna hear it from your fans about my comment about Avery being hurt because I've heard numerous Ranger fans say outright that they were hoping Avery would intentionally hurt Crosby. I guess in this case Crosby must of dove so hard that he ruptured Avery's spleen hahahaha. Good luck in game 4, its pretty obvious you need it.
yeah, ok, Avery is a wuss
He played 2 periods with a lacerated spleen
He is probably the toughest guy in North America today