Rangers Home Opener Spoiled by the Leafs

October 28, 2011 | Posted by Leslie Treff

After a very long season-opening road trip, the Rangers came home last night to a partially renovated Madison Square Garden and a very excited fan base. By the time the players were introduced, John Amirante sang the national anthems, and the puck was dropped, everything was at a fevered pitch. But by the third period, MSG was pretty quiet (except for the calls for the return of Sean Avery), as the Rangers were felled by the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 4-2.

Avery would not have helped last night though. True, the Leafs are no longer the pushovers that they had been for the past few years. But the Rangers had their chances, and Toronto’s number one netminder, James Reimer, was not playing. The Rangers had been able to get to the less steady backup (Jonas Gustavsson) last season, and got to him early last night. But the Rangers only really were in the game for 20 minutes last night, and, by early in the second period, it was clear that Henrik Lundqvist was not going to be making acrobatic saves on this night.

Uncharacteristically, Lundqvist let in two softies last night–the first on Matthew Lombardi’s early second period shot from outside, which was not an easy shot but Lundqvist makes the save 95 out of 100 times, and then in the third period, when Mike Brown put the puck past the Rangers’ netminder when it looked like he was not ready.

Frankly, Lundqvist can’t be keeping New York in the game every night. Occasionally, the skaters have to help him out. But last night, they left him flat, not being able to offensively produce when he needed them. During the first period, they took everything to the net, which caused the first goal, and had two others called off (Ryan Callahan was all over Gustavsson both times). Gustavsson looked rattled but the Rangers were never able to take advantage of it.

The Rangers coach talked after the game about the team being lethargic, but if I dare, I will disagree. What happened last night was that Toronto changed their play after the first period to stand the Rangers up through the middle of the ice. But the Rangers did not adjust. They never changed their strategy to match the Leafs’, and therefore when they tried what worked in the first period, they just kept turning the puck over.

After hearing the coach’s remarks, I thought I missed something, so I watched the replay video. Maybe I am the only one, but lethargy is not what I saw. What I saw was a team that did not respond to a change in strategy of their opponent and just kept trying the same thing over and over. In essence, the Rangers could not win the game. While this sounds like a simplistic explanation, try watching the replay yourself and watch the changes in the way Leafs’ played after the first period. Tell me what you see, and, if you see what I see, then tell me who is to blame for it.

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