Rangers 7
Penguins 1
Tiki Barber, watching the Rangers’ 7-1 humiliation of the Penguins from the Garden stands, said after it was over that he thought Pittsburgh’s Michel Therrien had been outcoached.
Well, not really, but why not make that submission to keep in tune with the nationally televised, theatre-of-the-absurd performance by the Penguins in which they were outshot 51-14 (35-4 from the end of the first through the 15:50 mark of the third) and their alleged veteran leaders disgraced themselves by barely breaking a sweat?
The Rangers dominated, there’s no denying that, as they moved within three points of the division-leading Flyers, who come to the Garden tomorrow night off the 6-0 spanking from the Lightning they themselves took at home yesterday afternoon.
But it will take that showdown to determine whether there’s an carryover at all from the victory over a sorry club that’s 1-11-1 in its last 13 and has been outscored 50-21 in the 11 regulation losses.
“I don’t ever remember playing in a game where there was almost a 40-shot difference,” said Jaromir Jagr, who registered two goals and an assist while himself sending 11 shots on netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. “But I think there are some positive things we can learn from this game, even if it looked like it was easy.
“We didn’t change our game even when it was 1-1 after the first period. We kept working the same way all the way to the end.”
In the wake of Tuesday’s disappointing 2-1 loss to the Sabres, Tom Renney juggled his lines. The coach restored Michael Nylander to the top line between Jagr and Martin Straka, the combination that contributed so singularly to the club’s fast start, and it skated around and through yesterday’s paper-mache opposition at will.
Petr Sykora, meanwhile, centered Martin Rucinsky and Jason Ward, in what appeared to be a crazy-quilt collection of players that created two goals, while Steve Rucchin skated between Petr Prucha and Ville Niememen.
“I’ll review the game and then make the decision whether we’ll line up the same way against the Flyers,” said Renney. “I think we took advantage of things that were presented to us.”
Many of the presents came courtesy of Mark Recchi, who couldn’t be bothered to protect the puck when brushed or to take his man when that was required, and of Sergei Gonchar, who, in the first season of a five-year, $25M contract, is likely to be riding many busses in the AHL before the deal expires. And Fleury, who did make a handful of notable saves, played Santa on a hat tick of the goals.
“We want to have a killer instinct,” said Dominic Moore. “We want to re-establish the identity we had at the start of the season.”
At the start of the season, it was inconceivable that the Rangers would be challenging for first place in the Atlantic this deep into the year. Now, though, it barely seems improbable, what with combination of their work ethic and the level of goaltending they’ve received from Henrik Lundqvist, who could have read a Swedish cookbook in the crease yesterday without anyone noticing.
“We still have flaws in our game, but if a team is underestimated and maybe a little bit misunderstood, too, like our team was, you can use that as a motivational device,” Renney said. “But now, we have expectations. We have a level of performance we identify with.”