They coughed, sputtered and wheezed their way through five more power plays and yet another empty third period, and when it had ended yesterday afternoon, the Rangers had been beaten 3-1 by the Islanders in a thoroughly disappointing Broadway performance.
The energy gauge for the first meeting this year between the league’s two New Yorks – and the first ever with Bryan Trottier representing the Rangers, sacre bleu(shirt) – seemed stuck on neutral for most of the match. The expectant air that had been obvious in the building early just kind of dissipated.
The team that wanted the game more took it and earned it. It was that simple and that encouraging for the Islanders, who, on the verge of implosion nine days ago, have gone 3-0-1 in their last four (all on the road) and have boosted themselves into the land of the eighth-place contenders; that simple and that discouraging for the Rangers, who also live in that land, but just don’t seem to be meshing.
It was 1-0 Rangers entering the third, and it was 3-1 Islanders just 10:43 later after an early power-play goal and a couple at even-strength scored from right out in front on Dan Blackburn after Darius Kasparaitis twice was caught on pinches without a forward offering high support. The Rangers rarely threatened a sharp Chris Osgood the remainder of the way but then this is pretty much standard operating procedure from this team.
Get this: In their last dozen games, the Rangers have been outscored by an aggregate 16-2 in the third period, a dubious achievement worthy of notice. They’ve lost six potential points in the third period in that span, with two intermission leads becoming losses, one lead becoming a tie, and one tie becoming a defeat.
Meanwhile, the power play, which managed four shots in 8:38 of man advantage time yesterday, is 0-for-16 in the last five games, 2-for-36 in the last eight, 4-for-62 in the last 13, and 13-for-111 overall, their 11.7 percent leading only Buffalo (11.2) and Calgary (10.6). The Rangers have failed to score a PPG in 11 of their last 13 matches.
“We’re not doing the job,” Eric Lindros, nary a factor again, said. “It’s one element of the game we don’t have on our team right now.”
Of the Rangers’ 13 goals on the PP, two came on a five-on-three and another on a penalty shot. Of the remaining 10, none has come from a shot originating at the point. Both of the primary point men, Brian Leetch and Tom Poti, have one PPG, both scored from inside the hash marks. Neither shoots as a first option.
Poti, a left-handed shot who plays the off side, invariably walks the puck to the middle, a move that makes it almost impossible for him to send the puck back across his body to Pavel Bure, who’s invariably alone in the right circle readying a one-timer that almost never presents itself. This hardly absolves The Russian Rocket of his responsibility to find a way to score goals at any manpower situation, but it’s obviously an issue. If personnel isn’t the problem, maybe second effort – or the lack thereof – is.
“You have to find another level of energy and hustle on the power play,” Trottier said. “You have to find another level so that you’re outworking [the penalty-killers.]”
The Rangers didn’t outwork the penalty-killers, and they didn’t outwork the Islanders, either. The visitors owned the third, battle by battle by battle. Lindros, who mysteriously can’t seem to receive a pass cleanly or keep the puck either out of his feet or on his stick when carrying, was again no factor. Neither again was Bure, who isn’t creating open ice for himself and isn’t receiving the puck in advantageous situations.
And, finally, the Rangers themselves weren’t a factor in the third period, again.