The New York Rangers’ head coach, David Quinn, will make some sort of excuse.
Who cares, really.
Trailing the Boston Bruins by six points and hosting a team that is nipping at your proverbial heels, the Rangers managed a 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
“I don’t think tonight was our best effort,” Rangers’ Ryan Strome said. “Obviously, it’s disappointing. I think we’ve done a lot of good things. We haven’t quit when we’ve been down this year. We’ve had a lot of opportunities. There’s been a lot of stuff around this team and there’s been a lot of chances for our group to quit, and we haven’t.
“There’s nine games left and that’s going to be the message going forward. I think we have to finish strong here and see what happens. Our team has the ability to win games and go on a run like we’ve seen. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t our best. At this point in the season these games are huge, and obviously with the scoreboard watching that hurts a little bit more too.”
Brendan Smith gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the first period.
And in typical Quinn-coached Rangers style, they yacked up three straight goals, including two power play markers from James van Riemsdyk and a goal from Jacob Voracek.
“It more shocked me than anything,” van Riemsdyk said. “Obviously, when you get hit like that, especially when you are not really expecting that when it’s a deflected puck, it catches you off guard a little bit. Just happy that it’s all good and I was able to come back and try to help the team.”
Brian Elliott made 33 saves in the win.
“We want to keep pushing here,” Elliott said. “There is no give-up from our group.”
The infuriating lack of urgency in a young team cannot be borne of the roster’s youth. This has to come from the coaching staff.
“Ultimately, that’s part of the job description for me,” van Riemsdyk said. “As far as being in front of the net, lots of chaos there and stuff like that. Ultimately, you want to try and get out there and help the team and do what you can.”
The Rangers have a quick turnaround with the Flyers on Friday and another chance to disappoint.
“The penalties really changed the flow of the game,” Rangers head coach David Quinn said. “I thought they gained an awful lot of momentum from the penalties we took in the second period, and obviously they get the four-minute power play in the third and just took advantage of it.
“We’ve been a resilient group all year and we certainly weren’t tonight.”
Artemi Panarin put lipstick on the ugly pig with a late third period goal.
Igor Shesterkin made 33 saves in the loss.
“I think the game was up for grabs and it went the other way,” Strome said. “There’s a lot of moments in a game you can look back on, shoulda, woulda, coulda, but at the end of the day they got it done and we didn’t.”
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