Rangers Vs. Stars: Rangers Fall 1-0
For nearly 60 minutes Henrik Lundqvist was perfect. But it was the one mistake he did make that would end up being decisive.
The New York Rangers' offense, which had been so dominant coming into the game, couldn't muster a single goal as the Rangers lost 1-0 Tuesday night.
Trevor Daley converted off a pretty feed from Mike Ribiero after a Jeff Woywitka turnover and the rest was history as the Rangers lost their seventh game of the season.
Losses like this are tough, especially because one would have to assume the Rangers could have done much more in the offensive zone. The Rangers' power play was completely ineffective, and even had a chance with just under five minutes to play int he third, but the unit barley got a shot on goal.
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It's also unfortunate that Lundqvist needs to take the loss after a brilliant 27-save performance. Sure, Lundqvist needs to take some blame for not doing more on the goal, but he bailed the Rangers out on multiple occasions and should have gotten some help from his offense.
Brad Richards, who was going up against his former team for the first time this season, had a game-high five shots, but couldn't find the back of the net. Richards was one of the few players who created anything on the power play, but he's guilty of over-passing with the man advantage as well.
This is just a game New York needs to forget. These types of losses happen. Suit up, and move on, that's the best way to go.
Empty Netters:
- Before we get into it (because I saw some of this on Twitter), the Rangers would not have won this game if Sean Avery played. I understand the support for Avery, but let's not get carried away.
- John Tortorella needs to take a long, hard look at the power play. Even though the Rangers have been scoring in previous games with the man advantage, they could be doing a lot more. Every now and then the unit looks lethal, but for the most part the unit has issues.
- I thought Derek Stepan and Artem Anisimov did a good job creating some offense tonight, but neither of them were able to find the back of the net either. Still, they looked dangerous in spurts and had pretty solid games overall.
- This is another one of those games where I walked away saying "things might have been different if Marc Staal played." John Tortorella needed to trust both Woywitka and Anton Stralman with 12 and 17 minutes respectively, something that wouldn't need to happen if the Rangers had their No. 1 defenseman back.
Well, like I said above, it's time for the Rangers to move on. Thoughts guys?