The Ottawa Senators kept their playoff hopes alive, at least temporarily, by shutting out the Rangers at MSG 3-0 last night. The Rangers didn’t just sit back and let Ottawa win, they actually played a good game. Ottawa just had that desperation that the Rangers simply don’t have. It is what it is, and while this game wasn’t painful to watch, it certainly was a bit boring.

I was most intrigued by Ryan Bourque this game, who made his Rangers debut. Bourque showed that he certainly has the skating ability to play in the NHL. He played some sheltered minutes, but I thought he was solidly unspectacular. He may not get his real break with the Rangers, but he should certainly get an opportunity somewhere. There are a lot of teams that could use a player like him.

On to the goals:

Sens 1, Rangers 0

Mark Stone is pretty good at this hockey thing. He moved around Ryan McDonagh before sliding a perfect pass under Dan Girardi to Clarke MacArthur, who roofed it over Henrik Lundqvist.

Sens 2, Rangers 0

There’s nothing really wrong with this goal. It was a double deflection by MacArthur and Kyle Turris on the original Eric Gryba shot. Hockey happens.

Senators 3, Rangers 0

Jean-Gabriel Pageau empty netter.

Can’t really go through a meaningless game without an unnecessary scare though, so here’s the GIF of Mika Zibenejad falling on Henrik Lundqvist:

Oy.

USAT/Fenwick Chart:

rangers senators 2015

Courtesy of war-on-ice

This was a pretty close game throughout, even if it was pretty low event hockey until the third period. The Sens sat on their lead a bit, but they didn’t go full-turtle like the Rangers sometimes do.

Scoring Chances:

rangers senators 2015

Courtesy of war-on-ice

The Rangers flatlined on scoring chances for about 30 minutes this game, which is pretty terrible. The game wasn’t poorly played, it was just a good defensive effort by both teams. When you see less than 20 scoring chances per team, it was a solid defensive effort on both sides.

Individual SAT/Corsi:

rangers senators 2015

Courtesy of war-on-ice

I love that Bourque was on the positive side of things here. But take this in context: Carl Hagelin is one of the best puck possession players on the team (and on the planet). Single game samples like this need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Shot Locations:

rangers senators 2015

Courtesy of war-on-ice

The Rangers really limited the Sens to the outside for most of the game. This is the kind of defense you want to see from the Rangers headed to the playoffs.

Shift Chart:

rangers senators 2015

Courtesy of war-on-ice

Typical Alain Vigneault shift chart here. I’m most intrigued by the Bourque matchups here, as it looks like he got Ottawa’s bottom pairing (Wiercioch, Ceci) when possible. AV tried to shelter him in his first game, which is tough to argue against. I hope he gets another game on Saturday.

I’m not going to get overly emotional over this loss. It happens. And it makes the last game of the season that more fun to watch, since there were at least three teams hoping the Sens would lose.

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