This was not a fair fight. It was not even a fight. The last Battle of New York at the Coliseum was the least measured in the building’s history. It had the atmosphere of a president, but marked the rivalry at once without controversy. It was bloodless. It was emotional.
So it was not particularly painful for the Blueshirts, whose sad numbers for playoff elimination have come to a point after a 3–0 defeat on Saturday night, with Simeon Varlamov outscoring the Rangers four times in a season at 67 Became the first goalkeeper. Since the Red Wings’ Terry Sauchuk in the year 1954-55.
It was not Thursday. This was not a repeat of the Rangers’ inept effort in a 4–0 defeat to these same pains at the Gardens. Instead, it was unavoidable.
It was a product of the Rangers with a defense dressing in which Libor Hezek was the third most experienced man on the blue line, behind Brendan Smith and Adam Fox, who needed to make their third straight trip with two points against a veteran veteran. For the postseason led by general manager Lou Lamoriello and head coach Barry Trotz.
It was a ceremony for the Rangers without Jacob Trowba and Ryan Lindgren, the only two people on the team who could inspire opponents to keep their heads up. Both defensemen were wounded against the islanders within the last 10 days.
Trussba is believed to have kept pace with a hit on Matt Martin on April 20. Lindgren can also be ignored when Cal Clutterbuck leaps into the curved glass adjoining the bench on Thursday. There is no reason to play either Troba or Lindgren and put them in the way of losses in these final four matches, including two against the Capitals at MSG and two at Boston. There is an expectation that management will view it in a similar way.
Well, at least Micah Ziebenzad was not injured when Martin fed him a smack in the face in the puck fight on the back boards behind the Rangers net in Saturday’s first shift. Perhaps this is progress.
While Zibanejad may have ripped his stick in Martin’s ankles, Martin may have been sent across the board with a well-timed cross check, but it is not on Sved’s repertoire. So instead, he went to the bench in pain at the conclusion of the innings, rubbing his face.
There was certainly no one else who was going to confront Martin. Who? Morgan Barone in his first NHL game? Tarmo Reunanen in his second? Vitaly Kravtsov or Colin Blackwell? Artemi Panarin or Ryan Strom? Capo Cacco or Alexis Lafreniere? Julian Gauthier
The Rangers talked to Martin when he was a free agent. The parties never came close to an agreement. Martin went back to the island on a four-year deal, resuming and wreaking havoc on his team identity line to the left of Casey Czicus and Clutterbuck.
Pointing a Rangers Identity Line at this point will only invite a collision. Critically, if Artemi Panarin is not dealing with a compromising physical problem, there is no explanation for the way she vanished through these two games. Panaine also did not shoot. In fact, he went goalless in four of the eight matches against the Islanders. This is not the way he played against them last year. Not at all.
There was nothing from Panirin and nothing from Ryan Strome, who appeared to make a coverage flaw on Anthony Bevillier’s game-opening goal at 4:39 of the first. Strowman had a great year. They have not had a good past few weeks, recording two of their last 14 matches without scoring any goals in the last seven games.
So if the Rangers got nothing from Panarin nor from Strom, what would you expect from them to meet the young Kravtsov, who joined the line for 9:22, while sitting for about 12 minutes during the second period The correct. Not too much. If they did not get anything from Ziebenzad and Buchaniewicz, what would you expect them from Alexis Lafrinier? Right, again.
Nothing on board again from the top people. There is not much magic from Fox, who has less to do with Hajak as her partner. The Trotz game-planned against Fote was the way the Fred Shero game was planned against Dennis Potvin from behind the Blueshirts bench in the 1979 Stanley Cup semi-finals.
By the way, Hezek was relegated when Hakka was moved to a matchup role on injury. But does it surprise anyone?
There was a sharp slap on the face on Thursday. It was Gentler. It was a mismatched game of personnel that was played as before. The Rangers did not have it in them to overturn the script. It was a cliché to do it all.
So it is now until the last week of the Meaningless Games after the last Coliseum installment of the New York War. The old barn was a better character.
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