Vigneault: “Can’t win without our A-game”

Per Katie Strang, Alain Vigneault challenged the Rangers after their performance on Wednesday night:

“One thing that’s real evident to me, and it should be to our whole group, is we’re not going to beat this team if we do not all bring our A-game. It is that strong of an opponent that we’re playing against.”

This is something we knew from the get-go, that the Rangers would need to play near perfect hockey to beat the Kings in an extended series. The first period –minus the Derek Stepan turnover– was almost perfect hockey, and the type of game the Rangers will need to play for a full 60 minutes to beat the Kings. Naturally, they got away from that in the second/third periods, and lost the game in overtime.