King Henrik says No Mas to Canucks

November 20, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

No Mas: Henrik Lundqvist pulled himself during a disappointing loss to Roberto Luongo in a battle of elite goalies that never unfolded.

If this had been a prize fight, it would’ve got stopped after five rounds. Much like Roberto Duran did versus Sugar Ray Leonard in their infamous rematch, Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist said, “No Mas” to the Canucks.

With his team failing to show up, King Henrik couldn’t bail them out this time serving up two breakaway goals and three more in a 4:10 span early in the second in what was as uncompetitive a game by the first place Rangers all season. Instead, it was the Canucks getting superior goaltending from their star netminder with Roberto Luongo winning by TKO in the highly anticipated goalie match-up which never materialized as Vancouver got the first four scoring five of six in cruising to a 6-3 win at a disillusioned Garden last night ending the Rangers’ three-game win streak.

Lundqvist wasn’t solely at fault for the poor showing which saw a flat Ranger team finally get what was coming to them for once again failing to show early in a match falling behind 4:16 in when Mattias Ohlund found an open Kyle Wellwood, who got between the gap of the worst Ranger defense pair of Dmitri Kalinin and Michal Rozsival breaking in on the Ranger goalie and deking him to the forehand for his eighth.

The team didn’t come to life with instead an ugly epidemic rearing its ugly head again when not only did the Ranger power play fail but again saw its own shadow (Groundhog Day anyone???) yielding another crushing shorthanded goal thanks to a Wade Redden misplay leading directly to an Alex Burrows breakaway goal with him going stickside doubling the margin at 9:38. The league worst seventh SHG they’ve allowed which remarkably is the identical number they’ve given up while a man short. How’s this possible?

If that weren’t bad enough, a faster Vancouver team continued to attack getting glorious chances creating three-on-two’s down low but misfiring. Had they hit the net, there’s little doubt that it could’ve been four or five goals in the first for goal and point franchise leader Markus Naslund’s former team which didn’t sit well as the current Ranger alternate who was one of a handful to show ripped into his new teammates while heaping praise on his former friends.

It only got worse with the Canucks continuing to expose the Rangers who were deficient in every aspect giving pucks away, failing to backcheck and not finishing checks. Maybe it could’ve been different had Brandon Dubinsky shot instead of going around the net with Luongo down with a chance to tie. It was his hard pass which Redden mishandled before committing another blunder. Though the coach only chose to talk to his second-year pivot whose game is slipping.

That much continued to be evident when his sloppy giveaway led directly to Ryan Johnson’s first unassisted for a 3-0 Canuck lead. The follies continued on the next shift when Nigel Dawes blocked a shot breaking his stick and was replaced by Fredrik Sjostrom too late with the ‘Nucks taking complete advantage when Taylor Pyatt setup an uncovered Ryan Johnson for his first as a Canuck. You know things are going bad when a journeyman connects.

Down four, they finally cashed in on one of four Shane O’Brien minors when captain Chris Drury took a Redden pass and beat the Canucks down the ice going to the backhand for his club-leading eighth on the power play cutting the deficit to three 51 ticks later. The momentum proved shortlived due to an undisciplined Colton Orr offensive zone interference penalty getting him into the doghouse as he never saw the ice again.

A questionable crosscheck on Paul Mara handed Vancouver a 5-on-3 and they technically scored twice or so it appeared. First, a Sami Salo blast trickled past Lundqvist and seemed to cross the goalline. However, the officials never called it a goal with play continuing before going to video review. Somehow, they couldn’t overrule it. My guess is it must’ve been 99.9 percent over and they just couldn’t find the definitive angle to overturn it.

Either way, it became moot 20 seconds after a Rozsival crosscheck which kept the Canucks on the two-man advantage longer. Though his penalty didn’t get served until Pavol Demitra drove an unscreened shot off the right post and in, it just made life more difficult.

At that point, Lundqvist had had enough immediately skating to the bench pulling himself after allowing five goals on 17 shots. This wasn’t the first time either. It happened last season too. I’m all for a goalie feeling like he’s not giving the team a spark but shouldn’t the coach make the decision? Lundqvist’s not Martin Brodeur. He shouldn’t be making the call which was disturbing. Though the last goal he gave up was the only one he should’ve had which might explain the disappointed look on the bench after deciding Stephen Valiquette needed some work.

The Ranger backup who hadn’t played since that third period assault in Toronto at the beginning of the month was very sharp robbing Wellwood three times on the ensuing 5-on-3. He gave them a chance to comeback stopping all 15 shots he saw.

By that point, I’d already left the house needing to get some fresh air taking a ride to a couple of old spots while listening to the second and most of the third on the radio. If I may, how’s it possible that this team could be carried on ESPN1050? It’s just God awful! The station barely comes in and half the time, you get oldies music even though I’ll say most of the time, the selections are good. But come on!

No Ranger fan in their right mind wants to hear a mixture of oldies with the game almost unlistenable. This is a complete disgrace. ESPN will never ever get the respect that WFAN has unless it finds a better frequency. It’s gotten that bad. When it’s a much easier listen on secondary station AM770, there’s a big problem. And frankly, I know I’m far from alone here. I’m fed up!

Anyway, enough about that. I just needed to rant. Anyway, at the very least, I managed to pick up Aaron Voros’ seventh goal which came off a faceoff in which it sounded like he chipped it off Luongo and in cutting it to 5-2 with 11:28 still left in the second. Something Kenny Albert and Dave Maloney drove home because unlike the Senator game where nothing was happening, this game had lots of skating, scoring and chances.

The Rangers certainly had enough opportunities to get back in it. The difference was Luongo, who despite allowing three goals for the first time in seven starts. Last night was his 14th straight between the pipes finishing with a season high 39 saves.

That speaks to the weirdness of this Ranger club. They never start well and this game was inexcusable falling behind by four twice before finally playing. The one characteristic I like about this team is they never seem to give up. I could tell on the radio coming back that they were coming and if not for some timely stops by one of the league’s best, they actually might have come all the way back.

Luongo made two big saves on Mara with him setup on the doorstep down one in the first and another midway through the third with the score 5-3 after Ryan Callahan tallied his sixth- a PPG setup by Naslund and Drury with 12:15 left.

His biggest save came when he robbed Redden pointblank somehow getting across with the glove up to deny a backhand rebound late in the second. He scores there and it makes coming back a lot easier. The defenseman also had bad luck on another glorious chance hitting both posts during a power play in the first minute of the third.

So, they had their shots. Luongo was very good in this game because his team clearly sat back and relaxed when they built their lead. I get why. You’re up four against a team which hasn’t shown it can score. But the Rangers do seem to play better as games wear on and are resilient.

While it’s easy to credit them for not throwing in the towel, this was a very bad performance and they paid dearly hanging out their franchise goalie to dry in a big match which all of Canada saw. So, you know he was extremely disappointed.

The team failed on a late PP which could’ve made it even more entertaining. I might’ve pulled Valiquette for an extra attacker. What’s the harm? There were four and a half minutes left. If you don’t score during the first half, pull him with three and change to go. Just another example of our coach being too conservative.

Vancouver eventually hit the empty net with an Ohlund shot redirected by Daniel Sedin with less than three seconds left putting the stamp on it.

THREE STARS:

3rd Star-Mattias Ohlund, Van (3 assists, 2 SOG, plus-four in 21:13)

2nd Star-Roberto Luongo, Van (season best 39 saves incl. 16 of 17 in 3rd)

1st Star-Alex Burrows, Van (2 goals incl. SHG, 3 SOG, plus-one in 18:12)

Notes: Eleven difference Canucks registered a point with Pyatt and Jannik Hansen each tallying two assists. … In a losing cause, Drury finished with a goal and an assist along with a game high seven shots topping all forward in ice-time (23:59). … Against his ex-team, Naslund registered an assist finishing with three shots and an Even rating in 22:44. … Nikolai Zherdev was again quiet with only two SOG, minus-two in 20:03. … With a helper, Dawes has points in three of his last four. … The lone bright spot was the Ranger PP which went 2-for-6 though they didn’t capitalize when they really needed to. … Rangers (14-6-2, 30 Pts) get the next two days off to review what went wrong before visiting favorite antagonist Jarkko Ruutu and Ottawa Saturday afternoon at 3 ET.