Ottawa beat the Rangers 2-1, in what was a sluggish game for both sides, in my opinion. The Blueshirt's performance on the ice was dull and bland last night. It was a disappointing showing, especially considering how dominant they seemed the night before, and in the last couple of weeks for that matter.
The Rangers got off to a nice start after Sen's goalie Alex Auld, whose never lost to the Rangers in regulation, misplayed a puck behind the net that resulted in a Brandon Dubinsky goal, his first in 24 games.
After taking the lead, the level of play gradually dwindled until the end of the first period, when the Rangers had registered an unimpressive 6 shots on goal. Although the Rangers were consistently winning face-offs (Drury didn't lose one), there were too many open-ice turnovers to build significant momentum.
The biggest turnover of all, was caused by an unlikely candidate in Scott Gomez, who tried dropping a pass off behind him that was picked off by Mike Fisher in the third period. Fisher took the puck down into the Rangers defensive zone where it wound up on Ryan Shannon's stick, and then over Henrik Lundqvist's shoulder to break the 1-1 tie only a couple of minutes into the period.
"I thought the game was sloppy, by both teams," Tortorella said. "It was one of those games where you're about to make a play, you can't get it done. You try to make a pass, it's picked off. You turn the puck over when you should be making an easy play. By both teams, I thought."
The Rangers dialed up the intensity on offense after going down 2-1, but were never able to find more then a couple of legitimate scoring opportunities. That part of their game just wasn't there last night.
Call it tired legs after playing the day before, call it unlucky, or call it Sean Avery having too much fun on a Saturday night in Manhattan, like Boomer Esiason did this morning on the FAN.
Regardless, the loss last night was a disappointment. Unfortunately, the Broadway Blues were unable to gain ground on the teams seeded in front of them, but the Rangers are still sitting nicely in seventh place of the post season race.
The team is 7-3 in their last 10 games, and still playing great hockey compared to what we saw a month ago. They will look to rebound from this defeat immediately tomorrow night against the Minnesota Wild.
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