Brutal. (Newsday)

Brutal. (Newsday)

The Rangers dropped the first game of their opening round matchup with the Penguins on Wednesday night, 5-2. Patrick Hornqvist lead the way for the Penguins, with a hat trick, and the Rangers lost Henrik Lundqvist to a scary eye injury. Marc Staal and Dan Girardi were basically traffic cones all evening and the Rangers were shut down by a third string goaltender. As you can imagine, I have some thoughts…

1. Where else to start but with Hank? Forget the fact that the Rangers realistic chances of winning this series were all but hinged on Hank playing at a Conn Smythe level. Let’s talk about the injury itself. I have had the misfortune of experiencing something fairly similar, so I feel I can lend some perspective. My experience involved the opposite end of the stick, but it still belonged to my defenseman and still slipped through the bars on the cat’s-eye. My defender backed into me and it seemed like slow motion that the butt-end of his stick just continued coming until I could feel it make contact with my eye.

Now, this happened at about 1/10 of the speed in which Marc Staal made contact with Hank’s mask. It wasn’t a back swing, but unfortunate stick placement while jockeying for position in front of the net. After the contact was made, my eye felt strange. It was raw and swollen. It itched and the cold air from the rink made it dry and painful. In response to this, my tear ducts kicked in and it became difficult to keep me eye open. The result of this was a scratched cornea and two weeks on the shelf. My eye still, to this day can get a little sore while on the ice.

This isn’t to say that what happened to Hank was the same thing that happened to me. He may have been fortunate that his eyeball was missed entirely. He may just have some swelling around his orbital bone, but his body language in the wake of that play indicated otherwise. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think you have that type of involuntary flailing unless something more serious happens. Forwards get dropped by high sticks and have cuts above their eyes fairly regularly and that is not their physiological response.

While we were watching the game, my wife, who had been at the game where I injured my cornea, said to me, “there’s no way Hank can finish this period, right?” When I saw him talking to Raanta, I assumed he was telling him to finish up the period and he would re-group and start the second. Having gone through something similar, I don’t think he should have gone back out there for those last 48 seconds.

At the time of this writing, Hank’s condition is being labeled as “nothing serious” and the club claims he is not out indefinitely. They do not know if he will be back in time for game 2, but they seem optimistic about his return. Maybe it’s my lack of faith that this group, as currently constructed can make a deep run, but I would hate to see the organization potentially sacrifice Lundqvist’s long-term health to rush him back this series. Let the man heal.

2. I wrote back in Becky’s prediction thread that I felt the Rangers’ chances of winning this series would come down to Alain Vigneault’s willingness to adjust. Well, here you go, AV. The ball is in your court. Your “shutdown” top defensive pair got absolutely torched for three even strength goals. Time to adjust.

3. The forwards need to be more aggressive in front of the net. Long gone are the days of Brooks Orpik on the Pittsburgh blue line. I don’t know if one of their defenders (save maybe Ben Lovejoy) really qualifies as “physical”. They don’t have many crease clearers. While it’s great that the team was peppering the untested Jeff Zatkoff from all over the ice, the time eventually came when he wasn’t going to let in off-angle goals due to nerves, so the shooters needed to get more clinical, or create more havoc in front of the net.

4. The Pens were blocking a ton of shots when the Rangers tried to get to the high-danger areas. If you aren’t getting those shots through, you have to re-enforce down low. Look for almost quasi-passing shots that can find a leg pad and create rebounds and opportunities for scrambles in front. Not only does this tire out defenders and goaltenders immensely, it vastly increases the odds that a bounce goes your way.

5. Rick Nash got some pretty decent looks on several shifts, culminating in the assist on Stepan’s first goal. Once he realizes that he can physically have his way with the Pittsburgh blue line, I expect Nash to start doing some damage.

6. I agree with Dave wholeheartedly when he pointed out that the “good process” the Rangers showed in game 1 was incomplete. I loved what they were doing in possession and controlling the play, but you have to limit the major gaffes in the playoffs. Teams will absolutely burn you if you give them those opportunities, and they won’t give the same opportunities back.

7. I think Antti Raanta is up for this task. He is certainly not going to steal a series for you, but if the team adjusts defensively understanding that Hank isn’t back there, I don’t think a series loss will fall on Raanta’s shoulders.

8. I know everything is all doom and gloom, but the Rangers create an environment in which they could have won that game. They just need to adjust. If they can take game 2, they go back to New York with home ice advantage. I think this game is as close to a make or break as you are going to get. I wouldn’t have high hopes of erasing a multi-game deficit without Hank. Time to go to work.

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