Rangers can’t solve Price, drop second in a row

Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP

The New York Rangers simply could not solve Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price tonight, dropping their second in a row by a score of 3-0. The game was a lot closer than the 3-0 score, as both goalies needed to make great saves throughout. This was a true goaltender duel, similar to that 1-0 Henrik Lundqvist/Martin Brodeur duel way back when. Lots of action, lots of scoring chances, just great saves.

Price made 25 saves, and while he made a lot look easy, they were not. Lundqvist made 30 saves, equally difficult. The Rangers actually dominated the first two periods, getting the majority of the shots and scoring chances. Problem is they had a rough third period, and it doomed them. There were long periods where they couldn’t get out of their own way.

As always, you can view the full videos on our video page here. All GIFs are on nyrgifs.com, filtered under yesterday’s date. On to the goals:

Habs 1, Rangers 0

The initial shot by David Desharnais hit Ryan McDonagh, and it went right to Tomas Fleishmann, who quickly put it past the still moving Henrik Lundqvist. Not much that can be done here.

Habs 2, Rangers 0

This was just a bad shift for the first line and the Dan Boyle-Keith Yandle combo. The Habs third line kept them pinned and running around. Eventually Dale Weise was open at the top of the circle with room, moved in, and slid one through Hanks.

Habs 3, Rangers 0

Tomas Plekanec empty netter.

Score Adjusted Corsi Chart

Courtesy of hockeystats.ca

The Rangers controlled the play for the first two periods, but that third period was a disaster. They allowed the Habs to gain momentum with a lead, thus killing all chances they had of getting one past price.

Scoring Chances

Courtesy of war-on-ice

Not as dominant through the first two periods for the Rangers, but look at how bad that third period was. The Rangers basically forgot how to play defense in that third period. Almost every shot the Habs took was a scoring chance. That’s not good.

Individual Corsi

Courtesy of war-on-ice

Not the defense’s finest game. Saw it on the ice, and it shows here. The blue line needs to take a step back and figure out what’s going wrong. Only Keith Yandle and Kevin Klein have been playing consistently well this season.

Shift Chart

Courtesy of war-on-ice

Alain Vigneault shook up the pairings and lines as the game progressed, trying to get something going. Emerson Etem and Jesper Fast barely played in the third period.

Shot Locations

Courtesy of war-on-ice

A lot of high quality chances for both teams. Hank was beat twice, Price stood tall. That was the difference.

The Rangers have now lost two in a row, but it’s early. The defense was pretty terrible in this one, as it has been throughout the first five games. There are kinks to work out, and there are teammates that need to find chemistry with one another. Montreal is good. Losses happen. I’m more concerned about the collective play of the blue line than I am about a loss to Montreal.