New York Rangers

The Rangers, off their 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Bruins on Thursday night, held an optional practice this afternoon at TD Garden. Among players who actually played in Game 1, only Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider were on the ice. But so was D Marc Staal, joining the optional skate late, when most observers had tired of watching Micheal Haley, Roman Hamrlik and Kris Newbury practice. Staal, out with blurred vision since being hit near the right eye by a puck on March 5, returned to the Rangers’ lineup for just Game 3 against the Capitals in the first round before taking himself back out of the lineup as he was not comfortable playing with his altered depth perception and sight in general. The Rangers had no update on Staal’s status. He did not travel with the Rangers to Boston on Wednesday, instead joining the team on his own. Also, RW Darroll Powe, who has been out since suffering a possible concussion in Game 3 against the Capitals, worked out off ice, riding a stationary bike. The Rangers will have a full practice Saturday at TD Garden at 1:30 as they prepare for Game 2, Sunday at 3 p.m. Meanwhile, read below to see what the two coaches had to say today… ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

May 16, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) makes a glove save during the second period in game one of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports The Rangers will win this series against Boston.  I know a lot of you are thinking I am nuts for saying this after that performance on Thursday night.  That is exactly why I am saying the Rangers will come out on top. The Rangers played one of their worst games this post season. Lundqvist did not look like the best goalie in the league giving up 2 soft goals.  The fore check was still in Washington after its flight was cancelled.  With all of the problems the Rangers had, the game still was 2 – 2 and into OT in Boston.  Yes the Rangers still lost, I get that.  But lets look at the positives.  If the Rangers can hold on to a game like that and take it into OT, what will happen when the Rangers are playing to their ability.  What happens when Lundqvist brings his “A” game?  Does the Chara shot go in? Does the Bruins hit 3 posts and put our hearts in our throats? I see a bounce back game in Game 2 and the Rangers take a 1 – 1 series back to MSG.  The Rangers are very capable of making this series 3 – 1 going back to Boston. I hope I am right. Remember to follow me on Twitter @JohnBLStation You can send me  an Email JohnBLStation@gmail.com

Kathy Willens/AP “The Rangers play boring hockey. They sit on leads, they block shots, and the don’t even attempt to score once they have the lead.” I’m sure you’ve heard this before. Almost every media outlet says this about the Rangers during the postseason. The logic here is that the Rangers block a lot of shots, thus are a passive team and are content sitting on one-goal leads. The logic is flawed, as blocking shots has nothing to do with the aggressiveness of a team once they obtain a lead. Blocking shots is how a team plays in their own zone. There are two other zones in hockey with completely different systems, as we’ve noted on this site many times. Aside from the Caps series, where the Rangers were completely manhandled in terms of Corsi (not a single player had a positive Corsi), the Rangers as a whole are not a team that sits back on leads. Even in the Caps series the Rangers were still generating offense, but the Caps had an overwhelming puck possession advantage that it marred their attempts. This is something we’ve detailed with chalk talks and systems before, but now we have some data to match the eye test. This brings us to situational team Corsi. I will touch more in-depth tomorrow, but situational team Corsi is exactly that: The Corsi of a team based on the current situation (note: Score) of the game. Since Corsi is a puck possession metric that measures the +/- of shot attempts (on net, missed, blocked), situational Corsi just breaks this down into the Corsi of a team at any particular score (up 1, down 1, tied, etc). Looking at the table below, you can really see how the Rangers are not a team that sits on leads. I am using CF% (Corsi For Percent, which measures the percentage of shot attempts on the ice, more on this tomorrow) and FF% (same thing, but for Fenwick, which does not include blocked shots in the equation, also more on that tomorrow). Situation CF% League Rank FF% League Rank Tied 51.0% 12th 51.2% 12th Up 1 54.0% 4th 51.6% 5th Up 2+ 44.4% 14th 46.3% 11th The table itself is pretty interesting (using the regular season numbers from this year), as the Rangers actually begin to generate more offense when already up a goal. Their CF% and FF% go up, and their league rankings jump to the top-five in the league. When tied, the Rangers are about league average in puck possession. When up two or more, they tend to lose some steam, which probably has more to do with energy than tactics.  That said, they are still in the upper half of the league when it comes to puck possession and shot generation in those situations. We’ve said this about a billion times on this blog, but the Rangers are not a passive team, even with a lead. This is a team that is among the best in the league at maintaining puck possession with a lead, especially when holding a fragile one-goal lead. This is something we should look for the Rangers to continue with as they get deeper in their series with the Bruins. I would like to thank Corey Sznajder (Shut Down Line) for pointing me to the resource for this post. Tweet

If the New York Rangers plan on advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals they better find a way to do within the framework of 60 minutes because their track record in overtime is becoming quite disconcerting. In dropping Game 1 to the Boston Bruins, the Rangers last three playoff losses have all come in overtime. Conversely, the Bruins last three playoff wins have come via overtime. The Rangers were steamrolled in overtime. I don’t know if it was Johnny Boychuk’s shot that rang off the post as the buzzer sounded at the end of the third period, Derek Dorsett’s interference penalty in the opening minutes, or a combination of both, but the Blueshirts were not a step slow – they were a couple of steps behind the play in overtime. Coach John Tortorella pointed to Dorsett’s penalty was the key factor to the overtime domination. “We never regrouped,” Tortorella admitted to Brett Cyrgalis of the NY Post. “It was a surge. We couldn’t stop it.” Leave it to Torts to sum up the game as succinctly as possible. ‘‘I thought it was pretty even going into the overtime,’’ he said. ‘‘But we got spanked in the overtime.’’ The Bruins outshot the Rangers 16-5 in overtime and that didn’t even factor in the posts that Boychuk and Jaromir Jagr hit. Eight of those shots came on the Bruins power play – a man advantage that seemed to last the entire overtime. When you factor in the Rangers and Bruins streaks along with Henrik Lundqvist’s 3-11 record in playoff overtimes, the Blueshirts need to get the job done during regulation. Lundqvist’s overtime record in the playoffs is misleading because he can only control the defensive end of the ice; he has no way to control his teammates’ inability to score in overtime – and in regulation and especially on the power play for that matter. Ah yes there it is again, the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The Rangers power(less) play has reached new heights in dragging the team down. The Blueshirts can survive without production from their power(less)play as long as their penalty killers keep their opponents off the board. Once they allow a PPG, all bets are off. Quite frankly, I am sure you guys are as tired reading about it as I am writing about it, but when they do the postmortem on the Rangers playoff run it will be front and center. Right now the Rangers need their opponents to screw up in order to score a power play goal. Looking ahead to next year, by hook or by crook, President/GM Glen Sather has got to get the power play unit either someone with a booming shot (like a Chara or Mike Green) or someone who can move the puck with a purpose (like UFA Mark Streit). In six of the eight games the Rangers have played in the playoffs the team that won the game scored a power play goal. The only two times that was not the case was Games 6 and 7. In going 0-for-3 in Game, the Rangers power(less) play hasn’t scored in its last 14 attempts and is a moribund 2-for-31 in the playoffs. Quite honestly, I can find five guys from a Men’s Rec league to produce those kinds of numbers. As bad as the power(less) play was – and it was bad – there was enough blame to go around. “We need to get good chances and create momentum,” Dan Girardi admitted to Dan Rosen of nhl.com. “We’ve got to get a goal on the power play. It’s a difference maker. We don’t get one and we lose the game. We definitely have to figure out something with that.” Perhaps the Rangers might want to follow the advice Krug offered up when discussing Boston’s strategy with the man advantage. ‘‘The key to every power play is to get pucks to the net,’’ Krug told Howards Ulman of the AP. As great as Lundqvist has been in the playoffs – including standing on his head in overtime – The King was a mere commoner on Boston’s first two goals. It is rare that one puck gets through Lundqvist in one game, never mind two. While he has to stop Torey Krug’s shot on the power play, you could see trouble developing as th

For the third time in these playoffs the Rangers have played and lost an OT game, this one to the Bruins 3-2. Also, the Rangers lost the special teams battle, again, going 0-3 on the power play while the Bruins were 1-4. The one being Torey Krug's which tied the game at two in the third period. The Rangers are now 2-31 on the PP in this tournament as the regular season's woes continue into the

- First of all, huge apology to all of you who are fighting through these server issues SB Nation is currently going through. We're expecting there to be a fix soon and things should be completely normal (and even better) by the time the Rangers take on the Bruins for Game 2. You've probably seen stories not getting posted on time and some lacking updates. We're having issues with this, too, but for the most part the major things seem to be fixed. I always say that Vox has the best support people in the business and they've legitimately been working 24 hours a day to fix these issues. So thanks for the patience there. - Back to the hockey game. After every single loss in Washington I was furious after the game was over because I felt that had the Rangers played even a solid hockey game they would have won. Yes, that overtime loss to give the Bruins a 1-0 series lead was close, and I thought both teams were completely even though the first 60 minutes. But the Bruins won (and deserved to win) that game in the extra frame. They were quicker on the puck, had possession and completely dominated. Some of that might have been nerves for the Rangers, but most of it - I think at least - came from the Derek Dorsett penalty (he was good otherwise) that gave the Bruins eight shots and completely tilted the ice in their direction. - And how many games are the Rangers going to lose in overtime during the playoffs? Seriously. Henrik Lundqvist - who was all kinds of brilliant - is 3-11 in the playoffs in his career. That's not a typo. At first glance you might think that's on Hank, but when you take into consideration that three of those losses came this year, and that Lundqvist has given up three goals COMBINED in regulation in those three losses, it really makes you realize the Rangers simply can't score in overtime. You can see how much these overtime losses wear on him, too. It has to be tough. - Another tilting point in the loss? The Rangers power play. 0-for-3. The Rangers truly only had two full power plays, but they were futile enough to count for a thousand. Brad Richards doesn't belong on the power play anywhere. Not right now. Not playing like this. Start giving John Moore some more minutes. Keep Michael Del Zotto out there as long as he played like he did last night. Give Ryan McDonagh some minutes if you have to. Maybe start running with five forwards. Maybe move Rick Nash to the front of the net. Maybe move ANYONE to the front of the net. - The ideas above might not be good. I'm just spewing thoughts after another crushing playoff loss. But the Rangers have to do something. It's the same exact thing every single time. And it doesn't work. The Rangers are 2-for-30 on the power play in the playoffs. I don't even have a joke or a statement for that. It's too alarming. I actually need to wash my hands before I keep writing these notes because I feel dirty. - Moore should have played more in overtime. I don't know if John Tortorella was being cautious after he was hit with the puck (he probably was) but Moore can skate around pretty much any pair of Bruins defenders. I know he's a defenseman, but when you need a goal and the other team is dominating you have to take chances. He looked fine to me. - So did Chris Kreider, who was making things happen and wasn't a liability in his own end. But Kreider only played 11 minutes, so. - Del Zotto was awesome. Hit a crossbar, played almost 30 minutes, had two hits, three blocks and four shots. He's picked it up since Game 6 of the First Round. - Derick Brassard was really good (he grabbed an assist on the McDonagh goal) but the pass/turnover in overtime caused the Bruins 2-on-1. That was followed up with Mats Zuccarello not staying with his man which was followed up by Anton Stralman not sliding to block the pass which was followed up with the overtime goal. Some pretty big mistakes there starting with Brassard. Otherwise? He was still making things happen. - Another good game for Nas

Well, I think we’ve witnessed the advantage of earning home ice in the playoffs, wouldn’t you say?  After falling into an 0-2 hole against Washington in the first round, the Rangers dropped the first game of their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the Bruins in overtime.  After a lengthy feeling out period, the play opened up late in the second and into the third frame.  The teams were relatively even until overtime, when the Bruins got chance after chance until Brad Marchand finally notched the game-winner at 15:40.  Some positives and negatives from Game One: Positives - As we noted in the keys to the series, Boston was the league’s best faceoff team in the regular season for the second year in a row, but New York did a good job of keeping things relatively even in Game One.  Derek Stepan had a miserable night on draws, going 5-14, but the rest of the Rangers were a combined 25-23.  Not terrible, and the Rangers did get a few scoring opportunities off faceoff wins. - Perhaps whatever issues were plaguing Rick Nash in the first round are now behind him?  This was easily Nash’s best performance since Game One against Washington.  The Rangers’ offensive leader set up Ryan McDonagh’s goal, drew a penalty on Zdeno Chara and generally skated much better and seemed to have a bit more mustard on his shot.  We expected him to have a tough time with Chara in this series, but Nash did very well in Game One. - Claude Julien happily rolls four lines, so it is critical that John Tortorella be able to do the same.  Luckily, Tortorella found some balanced line combinations late in the first round that give him the flexibility to spread ice-time evenly.  The Rangers have received scoring from unusual sources throughout the playoffs and though none of the bottom-six got on the board last night, they were very involved in the game. - Before his overtime heroics, I considered putting Henrik Lundqvist in the “negatives” category.  There simply won’t be much margin for error in this series for either team and the first goal Lundqvist allowed to Chara was brutal.  It would be nice if the Rangers’ offense could help Lundqvist out a little more often, but that just isn’t the case with this team.  It will be very difficult for New York to score against a team as defensively sound as Boston, so Lundqvist has to make every routine save, every difficult save and a bunch ridiculous saves for the Blueshirts to have a chance.  The Rangers bailed him out in regulation and then Lundqvist, with a little help from the posts, stood on his head to extend the game far deeper into overtime than it probably should have been. Negatives - Unfortunately, the Rangers were unable to take advantage of injuries that kept three key Boston blueliners out of the lineup.  It’s unlikely the Rangers will get so lucky again during this series, but to be fair, Boston’s replacements were terrific.  Torey Krug notched Boston’s second goal and was outstanding all night, Dougie Hamilton thwarted Nash a couple of times and was effective alongside Chara and Mark Bartkowski played a simple, physical game that didn’t look out of place.  Still, if the Blueshirts had that much trouble with non-regulars, then how will New York generate any offense if/when Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference return to Boston’s lineup? - So much for that notion that Boston’s power play might be as bad as New York’s.  The Bruins cashed in on one of their four man advantages, while the Rangers looked as anemic as ever with the extra skater.  New York had a chance to steal the game late in regulation after Selke nominee Patrice Bergeron took an uncharacteristic hooking penalty, but instead the Blueshirts generated nothing and handed the Bruins a power play of their own.  What else is there to say about the Rangers’ pathetic PP at this point? - The Blueshirts were outshot 16-5 in overtime

The Memorial Cup (CHL) The 2013 Memorial Cup gets underway Friday evening in Saskatoon when the host Saskatoon Blades take on the OHL champion London Knights. It will be the battle of New York Ranger prospects as the Rangers will be represented by Shane McColgan (2011 5th) and Josh Nicholls (UFA) of the host Saskatoon Blades and Tommy Hughes (UFA) of the London Knights. Wish I could say you can catch it live in the USA but for some reason the "home of hockey", the NHL Network won't be showing the games live this year (but they will offer next day replays). This year's 4 team round robin tournament this year will feature 7 prospects expected to go in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Seth Jones (Portland Winterhawks), Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Druin and Zach Fucale (Halifax Mooseheads), Max Domi, Nikita Zadorov,and Bo-Horvat (London Knights) all represent a wealth talent that have turned this year's event into a wide open affair. The matchup on Saturday night between the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL and the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL should be the best matchup of the opening round with the 4 expected first round draft picks facing each other. Don't be surprised if 17 year old goalie Zach Fucale of Halifax steals the show as he has gone an impressive 16-1 2.02 GAA and a 0.918 save percentage during the QMJHL playoffs. I am going to send folks to the good folks of the Buzzing The Net blog for previews of each team with Portland, Halifax,London, and the hosts the Saskatoon Blades. Ranger Thoughts Yes the Rangers lost game one to the Bruins 1-0 in overtime but why are people acting like this was the end of the series? Really the Bruins won on a mistake by the Rangers not that they were able to score on Henrik Lundqvist during the previous 75:40 that was played. Take away that mistake and the Rangers are still in the game. Sure it would have been nice to steal game one but the pressure is more on Boston who werethisclose to losing their opening round series with Toronto. The Rangers are playing with house money right now so I still think that this series is more than winnable thanks to Henrik's track record against the Bruins. All it takes is winning one game in Boston to steal the home ice advantage away from the Bruins so let the team go for it on Sunday after getting some badly needed rest.

Game 1 wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I expected it to be a little meaner, and I though the Bruins would have more surges, and I expected the Rangers to play more along the walls. Actually, I thought, the Rangers moved the puck pretty freely, didn’t forecheck nearly as much as expected, and that the Bruins’ surges – other than when the fourth lines were on the ice – were limited until overtime. Thoughts: 1) The last play was coming for a long time, but it happened because of colossal mental breaks. Ryan McDonagh goes in deep. That’s fine. But Derick Brassard has to recognize that and make sure the puck doesn’t go backwards. He didn’t. Then on the 2-on-1, Mats Zuccarello is right with Brad Marchand, stops skating momentarily, gives him a little hook and lets him go. Anton Stralman fails to stop the pass across. Game over. 2) The Bruins power play stands around just like the Rangers’ power play does, but the Bruins have some shooters. Still, that eight-shot PP was ridiculous, and that wasn’t even the one that scored. Rangers have to be better on the kill. 3) And, obviously, better on the PP. I don’t get how a power play can struggle all season long because the players refuse to move to open ice, refuse to move at all, and still not move at this stage of the playoffs. What does it take? Coach? 4) Rick Nash still doesn’t look near 100 percent, but he had some good shifts, and he was largely responsible for the 1-1 goal with 1.3 seconds left in the second, first with a good wrap-around, then his hustle to track the puck and prevent Tyler Seguin from clearing it. So Ryan McDonagh kept it in and shot – Nash had to jump over the shot – and scored. Took a couple of wristers, finally. But it’s not the same Rick Nash. 5) McDonagh=Monster. He was the Rangers best player even before the goal he scored. 6) Best part of not being at the game: Hearing John Tortorella’s bench interviews with Pierre McGuire. (second best part: Fore!). 7) That Taylor Pyatt penalty. I have a a few problems with that. A) That’s not nearly as dangerous as the Jason Chimera hit on Ryane Clowe or the Alex Ovechkin hit on McDonagh. Not close. B) I don’t think it’s a dangerous hit when the player is right up against the boards, as opposed to being two or three feet away. C) The referees were not calling that a penalty until Boychuk stayed down. That’s embarrassing officiating. D) Boychuk turned before he was hit. That should negate the penalty every time, IMO. 8) Anyway, it’s funny that people still don’t think Pyatt hits people. Guy’s been good for eight games now. 9) Troubling part for the Rangers is that Zdeno Chara was out mostly against Nash, and that the Derek Stepan line was completely blanketed nonetheless until the opening seconds of the third period. 10) Then Dan Girardi, who I didn’t think was great minus McDonagh (though he had the huge block late in the third, back with McDonagh), made that great play to start the transition play for the 2-1 goal, Carl Hagelin to Stepan. And I know I’ve said it before, but Stepan shoots the puck so well  … he just needs to shoot it more. 11) Another troubling part, maybe worse, I thought Ryan Callahan had an awful game. He had one early in the Washington series, too. Then was terrific by the end. 12) I fully expect this series to be ugly and low scoring and loaded with icings (did Boston set a Stanley Cup playoffs record for them?) and even at times boring and dull and hard to watch. But those first two periods even exceeded those expectations. Much worse than I hoped. 13) Zuccarello in the Battle of the Z’s with Chara. Slight mismatch. LMAO. 14) Brian Boyle=Faceoff/shot-blocking beast. Draws # 15) The Bruins’ two callup defensemen? Played much better than you could possibly imagine Andrew Ference and Wade Redden

Sometimes you can debate turning points in a game. This one was indisputable. The Bruins went on the power play at 2:20 of overtime after Derek Dorsett interfered with Rich Peverley and, from there, the Rangers never had a chance. The Bruins had six shots on the power play, plus Jaromir Jagr hit the crossbar, and Zdeno Chara’s tip started a three-on-two break that culminated with Patrice Bergeron’s cross-ice feed to the crease for Brad Marchand’s winner at 15:40 of the extra period. That dropped Henrik Lundqvist’s record in overtimes to 3-11, which really doesn’t seem right. “I thought it was pretty even going into the overtime,” coach John Tortorella said. “But we got spanked in the overtime.” Here’s the game story from The Record and http://www.northjersey.com.sports. “There was a two-on-one, I guess and I thought I made a bad decision,” Lundqvist said of the winner. “I mean, it’s a tough play but I could play it better. That was a tough overtime for us. We didn’t really get going and they came out with a lot of energy and created a lot of chances. I thought we played a pretty good game. We did, but special teams were the difference (the Rangers were 0 for 3 on the power play, now 2 for 31 in the playoffs, while the Bruins, who came in 3 for 20 on the power play, were 1 for 4). The one at 1-0 and then, I mean, that’s going to be the case these playoffs. I talked about it in the first round and we’ve got to get it done. We didn’t.” If you’ve clicked on the link to the game story, Lundqvist, while accepting the blame for giving up the winner, isn’t necessarily ready to shoulder all the blame for his 3-11 OT record. “Have I played bad in overtime? No. Can I score? No.” ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports