NYR/CAR 3/21 Review: Rangers Momentum Temporarily Stunted; Drop Last Game of the Final (And Successful) Homestand, Blueshirts Power Outage; Canes Surge Late, Sam “The Mush” Rosen; M$GN, Lindgren Returns, Big 29-Year Anniversary, “TURK TALKS” & More

Greetings and salutations everyone and welcome to another blog here on BlueCollarBlueShirts.com. Can’t win ’em all.

In what’s funny, sad, expected and crazy – and all at the same time – was that immediately following the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the first-place Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night – 99% of the stuff that I read from Blueshirt backers was negative, including the following words of wisdom that polluted my social media feeds:

— “K’ANDRE MILLER SUCKS!”

— “THE RANGERS BLOW!”

— “RYAN LINDGREN WASN’T READY!”

— “THIS TEAM WON’T WIN ONE PLAYOFF GAME!”

— “THREE-GORE IS BACK!”

— “PATRICK KANE DOESN’T CARE!”

— “THEY NEED KREIDER’S CONTRACT OFF OF THE BOOKS!”

— “THEY CAN ONLY BEAT THE BAD TEAMS!”

And of course, the same familiar tune of, “GERARD GALLENT DOZN’T NOSE WUT HE’Z DOING!”

Keep in mind, and prior to tonight, the Rangers were 8-2-1 in their past eleven games, had scored fifteen straight unanswered goals in their last three games, Miller set a franchise record for most points scored by a defenseman in a single period, and oh yeah – Gallant’s Gang are currently enduring their most busiest stretch of the schedule yet.

But yes – all it takes is a singular one-goal loss – and BOOM – the GLOOM & DOOM overreactions return quicker than acne on a teenager’s face after wolfing down a feedbag of Snicker bars and Skittles.

In a word, I thought tonight’s loss was “disappointing,” and for a second word, perhaps “frustrating” too.

However, to have a SKY IS FALLING reaction? Come on! Get your feet off of those ledges!

I know that blaming the schedule is somewhat of an excuse, but if you don’t think that all of these games bunched-up together doesn’t factor in – well, then you’re out to lunch.

And this is true too – teams always try to play their best at “The World’s Most Expensive Arena” – especially a team that entering this game, was 0-2 against the Rangers this season.

That’s kind of what Carolina did tonight – played at their best – although the Rangers somewhat made it easy on them, as their 0-3 power-play didn’t help matters. Neither did their lack of top-six production.

Had the Rangers struck on one of these man-advantages, where none of these three power-plays were particularly good – then it’s a whole different story and vibe right now.

While the Blueshirts’ offense was stagnant tonight, as a lone Tyler Motte goal, which was scored with just 3:00 remaining in the first period, was the only score of the contest as we approached ten minutes left in regulation; conversely, CZAR IGOR was incredible.

Then the final ten minutes happened, where CZAR IGOR was hit-up for three goals allowed, and where it is tough to really get on him for the trio of tallies.

After all, if it wasn’t for #31 – then this game would’ve been long over before the final frame even began.

There was also a missed slew-foot penalty committed on Ryan Lindgren that set up the Canes’ game-winner – but to blame the officials for the loss is an excuse – as prior to this no-call – they also allowed the Rangers to get away with a pair of infractions themselves.

If anything truly bothered me tonight, then it was once again the infuriating M$GN broadcast.

Not only was Sieve Vagistat brutal, but every single Sam Rosen & Joe Micheletti “REVERSE CURSE” hit tonight, including the following:

— Sam saying the word “shutout” no less than ten times tonight. Seriously, if he was in the booth during Don Larsen’s World Series Game 5 from 1956 – then after saying the words “perfect game” no less than one thousand times – the Brooklyn Dodgers would’ve then went on to spank the Yankees 10-0.

— Sam and Joe’s infatuation with Chris Drury’s nephew Jack, as the Rangers’ g.m. blood relative currently centers the Canes’ fourth line. After the bumbling duo in the booth performed several verbal fellatios on Jack Drury, he soon assisted on Carolina’s first tying goal – which broke up Shestyorkin’s shutout too.

— Micheletti going on-and-on about how Teuvo Teravainen will step up for the Canes with Andrei Svechnikov now done for the season. Double T then went on to score the game winner.

Fabulous.

Yes, I’m trying to be funny to cover up a blah loss – but man oh man – will Rosen ever shut up?

I wish the M$GN mics would “shut him out” whenever he dares to utter the “s-word!”

As far as the game itself, despite the Rangers looking flat (at least offensively) for most of the game; they did possess a one-goal lead with nearly ten minutes remaining.

Following Jalen Chatfield tying the game; just 31 seconds later, Kaapo Kakko, like a groundhog seeing its shadow, finally snapped his cold streak on the first day of Spring, and quickly regained the Rangers’ lead.

But in something that we saw a lot of from earlier this season – just eighteen seconds following Kakko’s go-ahead goal – Carolina scored again – as Stefan Noesen was left all alone in front of CZAR IGOR.

A back-breaking Burns-to-Teravainen gimmie goal, scored with just 2:33 remaining (and following the no-call slew-foot committed on Lindgren), sealed the deal.

For the Blueshirts, obviously, this loss isn’t what they wanted. A win tonight would’ve greatly increased their chances at first-place – and while that dream is still alive – this loss dampened those hopes.

Furthermore, a win tonight would’ve been the second time in franchise history where the club swept a homestand of five-games or more. That covers 97 years!

Following the loss, the 1939-40 Rangers (a pretty good season for the franchise) remain as the only team to have swept a homestand of five-games or more (December 19th-31st, 1939).

In the moment – the loss stinks – but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the Rangers, previous to this game, were 2-0 against these Candy Canes from Carolina.

With a rematch set to be played on Thursday night in Raleigh – the worst the Rangers could do is split the season-series.

However, and I think I speak for all – I’ll be much happier should the Rangers win the series 3-1!

At this time, let’s get into all of the pregame news & notes, follow that up with tonight’s GAME REVIEW, and then look forward to the fourth-and-final regular season meeting between these two warring teams of the Metropolitan Division.

Following their back-to-back shutout & blowout victories over the weekend; on Monday, the team had the day off.

A day later, Tuesday, the team reconvened for a morning skate at their practice facility in Tarrytown, NY.

The much awaited and expected news was confirmed during the practice – Ryan Lindgren would make his grand return to the line-up, after missing the previous eleven games, following the dirty hit suffered by the hands of Washington’s T.J. Oshie.

In other words, with Lindgren now back – tonight’s game against Carolina marked the first time that we saw what’s expected to be the team’s playoff line-up.

Here’s what Lindgren had to say following the practice:

Lindgren’s first remarks were “ready to go.” I think those three words were sweet music to the ears of Rangerstown, USA.

While never using the word “setback” verbatim; Lindgren admitted that he thought he would be able to return earlier, but due to his physical brand of play (and because of the team’s comfortable control of a playoff berth), the training staff advised him to stay put until he was 100%.

And despite what felt like murky waters at points – the Rangers still went 8-1-2 without their top left defenseman.

With Lindgren back, at least we can all stop talking about LTIR too!

It was what it was, and at the end of the day – it all worked out.

Also speaking prior to tonight’s game was the head coach, as Gallant conducted his daily “TURK TALK.”

Here it is:

Gallant, as you might imagine, was very happy to have Lindgren back – and finally get a look at a line-up that he’ll most likely use during the first game of the playoffs – and hopefully beyond – and for sixteen wins!

When it comes to the standings and home ice, Gallant said what he said last year – while of course he’d like to finish in first-place – it’s all about reaching the playoffs.

Gallant said this when asked about the idea of “cherry-picking” a first-round opponent. “THE TURK” wasn’t having any of that talk, and said that whoever the Rangers play in the first-round will be tough.

Gallant also brought up the team’s success from last season, when they came back from a first-round 3-1 deficit against Pittsburgh, and then went on to win a Game 7 in Carolina during the second-round.

To be honest – these pregame “TURK TALKS” don’t have as much meat to them as they used to – which is a testament to the team’s current success.

It’s also a good thing too.

For Gallant and company, it’s all about the playoffs at this juncture – and where these final remaining games of the regular season have now become tune-ups.

As far as anything else, Gallant said the obvious – CZAR IGOR would get the nod in net.

Following the practice and the pregame interviews, and with the Rangers now returned home for a quick nap; at around 1:30PM Tuesday, the Rangers announced that they had reached a three-year deal with Brett Berard.

Let’s take a quick look at this news.

The following information comes courtesy of https://www.nhl.com/rangers/news/rangers-agree-to-terms-with-brett-berard/c-342517656?icmp=int_web_nyr_news_rightrail:

As you know, history, and not prospects, is my forte.

However, from the people I’ve talked to who have seen Berard play (I have never seen him play a sixty-minute game); it is thought that his NHL ceiling is as a third-line left-winger.

Berard will finish out the rest of the 2022-23 campaign in Hartford – and where he’ll most likely begin the 2023-24 season too.

All the best of luck to him moving forward.

As far as anything else, and in something that was never brought up by the M$GN tonight; the date of March 21st, 2023 marked the 29th anniversary of the greatest trade deadline of franchise history.

While I won’t recap everything that happened on that date tonight, as I have already done so in the past (you can get the full 411 here: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/ ); unless the Rangers go on to win the Stanley Cup in June of 2023, then 3/21/94 will remain as the best, and most defining, trade deadline in all of Blueshirts’ history.

Prior to the pandemic, and before becoming a WORLD RENOWNED AUTHOR (yes, my alleged cockiness here is intended to be humorous – but what I’m about to say next is true regardless); during the summer months, when the Rangers were off, I wrote DELOREAN blogs, where I went back in time and reviewed old games as if they were happening in the moment.

(You can find all of those blogs, walks down memory lane, here: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/delorean-blogs/ )

And one of my biggest thrills when reliving the past? Rod Gilbert reaching out to me after reading one of them!

During those DELOREAN blogs, a dirty-dozen in all, I said that I never wanted to go back to 1994 – just because I think everyone knows what happened – and because there’s so much 1994 stuff out there that it would be redundant and not unique.

Should I get time over the summer (I’m currently working on two different book projects now – so I’m not sure if I’ll have the chance); then I’d go back on what I have previously said – but I wouldn’t talk about a playoff game.

Instead, I’d go back to the date of March 22nd, 1994, the first Rangers’ game played following that busy day of March 21st (a 4-4 draw with Calgary).

Just think about it – can you imagine if Rangers’ social media was around back then?

I can see it now:

— “FIRE NEIL SMITH!”

— “MIKE KEENAN IS COOKED AND HAS LOST THIS TEAM!”

— “TRADING MIKE GARTNER WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT THEM!”

— “CRAIG MACTAVISH? REALLY? CANCEL HIM! I WON’T WATCH THEM EVER AGAIN!”

— “19-40 CHANTS WILL NEVER END!”

Moving on!

Here was the Rangers’ line-up from Tuesday night:

FIRST LINE: Panarin/Mika/Tarasenko

SECOND LINE: Kreider/Trocheck/Kane

THIRD LINE: Lafreniere/Chytil/Kakko

FOURTH LINE: Vesey/Goodrow/Motte

FIRST PAIR: Lindgren/Fox

SECOND PAIR: Miller/Trouba

THIRD PAIR: Harpur/Schneider

STARTING GOALIE: CZAR IGOR

BACK-UP GOALIE: THE HALAKNESS MONSTER

DAY-TO-DAY: Nobody

PRESS BOX: Ben Harpur and the memories of Jake Leschyshyn

BOX SCORE time.

The following graphics and information come from ESPN.com:

SCORING:

PENALTIES:

TEAM STATS:

GOALIES:

“THE KING OF COMMENTARY,” Henrik Lundqvist, was back tonight, where right away, he said the following about the two blowouts from the weekend, “This group has a ton of confidence. The biggest challenge is to keep the confidence.”

I wouldn’t say that the confidence was shattered after tonight, but this game was a reminder that winning isn’t always easy.

In a comment that I felt was coming for a long while, Lundqvist said the following about Ryan Lindgren, “I have a soft spot for Lindgren. Always plays physical. Always team first. He reminds me of Dan Girardi.”

Seriously, is there a better comparison out there, whenever talking Rangers’ past & present, than Lindgren & Girardi?

Unfortunately, as Lundqvist was speaking, the always idiotic Sieve Vagistat horned in, where the Clear-Sighted Asshole was also sporting a new haircut – a chop job that he most likely received from “The Lemon Tree.” All that was missing was his free lollipop for sitting still like a good little boy!

For all of the gambling advertisers that routinely plague these broadcasts; it’s a shame that you can’t bet on what Vagistat will say. If you could, then you’d be a millionaire, as of course, he must’ve said the phrase “east-west” no less than 1,000 times, brought up that he knows Benoit Allaire, and then plugged his fake news stat company – where on Monday morning, “CSA” tried to devalue the Rangers’ 7-0 win over Nashville.

Moron.

For whatever reason, M$GN wanted Vagistat to talk about playoff hockey – you know – despite Henrik Lundqvist sitting right there. (And let’s not forget that the captain of the 1978-79 Stanley Cup Finalist Rangers, Dave Maloney, is there too.)

Once returned to Lundqvist, he praised K’Andre Miller when he said, “When you’re that good of a skater, it allows you to stand up and get you confidence because you know you can get back. Overall his game is unbelievable.”

Many Ranger fans weren’t agreeing with their “KING” after tonight – but more on that during the GAME REVIEW.

As Vagistat continued to drone on, where I wondered if M$GN could ever land Mark Messier on the program, then would they let Boo Nieves talk over him for thirty minutes; Lundqvist talked about his heating-up successor, CZAR IGOR, and said, “He’s a confident goalie right now. If he gives up goals through, he’s not on top of his game. But he’ll always have good reads. Always square to the puck. It’s very hard to score on him.”

That’s what happened tonight – as CZAR IGOR was fantastic – and the three goals that Carolina scored were the end result of porous defense – defense that Igor routinely bailed out all night – until there were ten minutes remaining.

Vagistat then replied by giving us more of his crap from his arts & crafts, charts & graphs, fake news company.

Following Vagistat reciting all of his “EXPECTED STATS;” Lundqvist returned the broadcast to reality and said, “I struggled when things didn’t go the way I wanted. I changed my stance. I went down. I needed to stay up. It’s the most challenging part when you have a style like I did and Igor has. He’s been working on it and it’s paying off.”

As Vagistat continued to say nothing that had to do with tonight’s game, Lundqvist said he wasn’t so high on Carolina’s playoff chances. Can you blame him?

While it’s too late for me to look this up right now; off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other goalie that dominated one team as Lundqvist did with Carolina over the years.

Come 7PM, we went to Sam & Joe, where after Micheletti finished talking about “six-somes” (that’s the first time I’ve ever heard the word “six-somes,” as JUMPIN’ JOE must’ve just finished watching that PornHub documentary on Netflix); M$GN and the Rangers then paid their respects to Knicks’ legend, and NBA Hall of Famer, Willis Reed, as the all-time great passed away on Tuesday at the age of eighty-years-old.

I thought this was classy, and both Rosen & M$GN would continue to pay their respects to Reed.

RIP to the two-time NBA champ.

As far as anything else; M$GN opted to bombard us with gambling commercials rather than showing us John Brancy belt out the National Anthem.

On brand.

GAME REVIEW TIME.

FIRST PERIOD:

As a generality, here’s how this game largely went: icing, offside, whistle, whistle, whistle, not much offense from the Rangers, a bunch of saves for CZAR IGOR, and rinse-wash-repeat.

While I wouldn’t say this game was “boring;” at the same time, if you missed this contest – then you didn’t miss much.

Very quickly, and in a harbinger of what was to come; CZAR IGOR was tested – and tested frequent-and-often he was.

At just the fifty second mark, Jarvis snuck behind Zibanejad – and Igor came up with his first save of the game as the Cane was approaching the paint.

Thirty seconds later, CZAR IGOR had two more saves to his record, where not even ninety seconds into the game, the Canes could’ve very easily been up by two-goals.

At the 2:06 mark, the Rangers tested the Canes’ goalie, Frederik Andersen, for the first time; but a Kakko-to-Lafreniere tip/deflection try was denied.

On the third line, I thought they had a better showing tonight, especially when compared to their other games from the past few weeks. However, they weren’t the fourth line, where once again, I thought Gallant’s final trio was the best line of the game.

At the four-minute mark, CZAR IGOR stopped a pair of the alumni, Fast and Skjei – two players who thrived tonight, and really, have played well ever since moving down south.

On Lindgren’s second shift of the game, and now approaching the five-minute mark, he touched the puck for the first time. The Garden Faithful roared in approval, as they paid their respects to double-nickel here.

In a rarity, I thought Sam and Joe said something profound, when they praised the play of tonight’s lone scratch, Ben Harpur.

As previously opined on this site, I would’ve went with Harpur over Mikkola – but I knew that wouldn’t be reality. That said, it’s nice that the Rangers have that option.

With the Rangers having trouble getting the puck into the visitors’ zone, a Fox-to-Mika attempt was sent out of play at the eight minute mark – which presented us with our first TV timeout.

Back from the break, Dave Maloney, in-between the benches, stated the obvious – the Hurricanes would be the toughest team that the Rangers would see on this five-game homestand.

Sam and Joe’s response? To get down on their knees and worship every Finnish player on the Hurricanes. Not mentioned once during this? Kakko and Mikkola, the two Finns wearing the home jerseys.

Now approaching 9:30 remaining, the Canes mounted some offense, but following some hairiness, CZAR IGOR said NYET NYET.

As Sam and Joe continued to lavish heavy praise on Jack Drury; CZAR IGOR stopped him with 8:53 to go.

Now with 7:54 left on the clock, Andersen struggled on a long distance shot from Zibanejad, and where Tarasenko came a hair away of picking up the first goal of the contest. However, no dice.

Just over a minute later, Kreider went to the hopper, but an Andersen poke-check, just as CK20 was about to go five-hole, prevented Kreider from his 33rd score of the season.

With 4:50 left on the clock, Kreider’s BFF, Zibanejad, broke up a Canes’ odd-man rush, where following it; CZAR IGOR deftly booted the puck to the corner. We saw a lot of that from #31 tonight, as there were many times where he was trying to create offense rather than safely freezing the puck.

As we hit 3:04 remaining, the Rangers’ fourth line, who had been doing a good job of forechecking; saw Goodrow force a turnover in the Canes’ d-zone, which then forced Andersen to make a stop on Lindgren.

Now with an o-zone faceoff in their favor, the following:

#NYR 4th line scores right off of the faceoff and it’s Tyler Motte for the Rangers lead! pic.twitter.com/w8ZtT60247

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 21, 2023

1-0, GOOD GUYS, as following Goodrow’s o-zone faceoff win (where you know, the ANALytical community says these faceoffs don’t matter); Vesey was able to chip the puck to the corner, Goodrow retrieved it – and BOOM – there was Tyler Motte, all alone & in front of Andersen, scoring his third goal during his last four games played.

Talk about a huge goal, as at the time, it felt like Carolina was the aggressor.

Jacob Trouba, CAPPY, once again had another strong showing – and even with Lindgren now back (which allows Fox to return to normal) – I thought he was the best Rangers’ rearguard of the game.

After THE GREAT EIGHT had previously blocked a shot from Staal; with just fifty seconds remaining, Panarin shot a puck into traffic, but since Trouba was wisely back – he prevented the Canes from having a breakaway and/or odd-man rush.

For good measure, with just three ticks left, CZAR IGOR prevented Slavin from scoring the equalizer.

We remained at 1-0, GOOD GUYS, after twenty.

Here’s what I said at the time:

1-0, GOOD GUYS, after 20. 1P Thoughts:
— You didn’t expect another blow out, did you? #NYR proving they can win in multiple ways. Excellent period – especially Mr. CZAR IGOR
— SOG 12-9, FOs 9-6 #NYR, Hits 5-all
— O-zone draw wins “MOTTEr,” yet analytics suggest otherwise!

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) March 21, 2023

SECOND PERIOD:

To be fair to Mr. Rosen, the affable Hall of Fame announcer (and who I often use for comedic relief on this site) – he wasn’t the first mook to say the word “shutout” on-air.

Following Vagistat doing the same during the last broadcast; tonight, it was John Giannone’s turn to piss on the holy code of broadcasting.

Idiot.

Now back from intermission and returned to the bridges with Sam & Joe; this is when Rosen went on-and-on about CZAR IGOR’s shutout and how the team had their longest shutout streak of the season.

Why, why why?!?!?!

Prior to the opening faceoff of this frame; the M$GN cameras also spotted Kreider and Fast exchanging pleasantries. That wouldn’t last long, especially following the former Blueshirts’ “Players’ Player” award winner’s slew-foot of CZAR IGOR.

This period was a slow grind, where not much took place, especially since all you heard was never-ending whistles.

Worse than that, at one point, the Canes were out-shooting the Rangers 15-3 in this period.

Let’s just race to the pertinent points of this frame, because really – there isn’t much else to talk about.

With 13:33 remaining, Martinook high-sticked Motte. That meant that not only had Motte scored the only goal of the match thus far; he also drew the only penalty too.

The Rangers’ power-play, in a word, was abysmal here. They didn’t register one shot on goal, much less have any zone time either.

Following the power-less play, and with 11:20 remaining; CZAR IGOR stopped Martinook on his jack-in-the-box breakaway attempt.

As the Canes continued to pepper CZAR IGOR, and as the goalie kept on making glove save after glove save; down to 3:30 remaining – Motte was blatantly tripped by Brent Burns in front of an official. No call.

While the Rangers’ power-play wasn’t any good tonight; at the time, the team hadn’t put a SOG in over twelve minutes. This potential power-play could’ve helped.

To exacerbate the situation, just twenty seconds later, Lindgren was boxed for holding Fast – a phantom penalty if you ever saw one. Worse than that, after being elbowed by Fast – Lindgren didn’t go to the penalty box – he went to the locker room instead – as Tarasenko would then serve this penalty.

Fortunately, Lindgren didn’t remain with Rangers’ trainer, Jim Ramsey, for long; as he’d be back following the successful penalty kill.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a Disney “Willis Reed” moment either – as let’s face it – it would’ve been something if he then went on to score the game winning goal.

That said, he almost had the game winning assist.

Ugh!

Once again, Igor was phenomenal in net during this kill.

Then, just as the penalty kill had expired; Trocheck and Motte made a mad-dash to Andersen, where following a save – Motte was hooked by Kotkaniemi with 1:50 remaining.

In other words, Motte, who had an excellent showing tonight – a rarity when assessing everyone else who played – now had a goal and two penalties drawn to his name.

The Rangers wouldn’t score on this power-play either – much less get anything going.

Due to Motte’s goal and Igor’s 24 saves – where I’d reckon to say at least a third of them were tough ones – we remained at 1-0, GOOD GUYS, after two periods.

Here’s what I said at the time:

1-0, GOOD GUYS, after 40. 2P Thoughts:
— #NYR open 3P on a 50 second PP
— The CZAR IGOR SHOW
— Fourth line best line – 1 goal, 2 penalties drawn
— That Lindgren scare, oh boy
— SOG 24-17 CAR; Hits 10-8, FOs 25-17 NYR
— Get that PPG & finish them!
LGR!

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) March 22, 2023

THIRD PERIOD:

What could’ve been.

Tarasenko’s SOG, with just twenty seconds remaining on the power-play, was easily denied by Andersen and that was that – the power-play was now 0-2.

As Sam Rosen said that he wanted to have wine and break bread with JB Smoove (I’m not making this up); CZAR IGOR came up with a pair of saves on Martinook and Skjei with 17:17 to go.

A few seconds later, CZAR IGOR, now screened by four skaters, stopped Skjei again.

It’s funny, I was listening to “The Blueshirt Underground Show” last night (plug located at the end of this); and it was brought up how well #76 has been playing in his “new” home.

While that’s true; with the money that Skjei, a LD, is making – the Rangers are paying Lindgren, Harpur, Miller and the remaining money on Mikkola’s salary for nearly the same price.

I think the Rangers won that deal – and as mentioned in “Tricks of the Trade!”

With the two teams getting chippy, as Staal hit Motte late and Trocheck responded with a late hit on Fast too; it felt like the Rangers couldn’t win a d-zone faceoff. Carolina continued to press the issue, but CZAR IGOR came up big each time.

At around the 6:30 mark, the third line of each team started going at it near the benches, but no whistle. Instead, play continued and CZAR IGOR made another save, this time on a GOOD LOOK from Puljujarvi.

Following a succession of three more saves for #31; the goalie drew a penalty himself, as Fast had purposely tripped/slew-footed/clicked skates with the 2022 Vezina winner.

Now with 12:38 remaining, “THE TURK” took his timeout, as he, along with everyone else, knew that the Rangers needed a power-play goal to win this game.

The Rangers’ power-play then went 0-3 on the night, where a Chytil whiff from the slot didn’t help matters.

Here’s what I said at the time, now with the two teams returned to full-strength:

#NYR PP 0-3, 10:35 to go – it’s gonna be Igor time now

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) March 22, 2023

It wasn’t Igor time.

As Rosen mentioned the shutout one more time; Chatfield, from Igor’s left, cleanly beat him from the circle on a seeing-eye shot.

1-1, with 10:11 remaining.

Shutout be gone.

However, with 9:40 remaining, this is when Kakko scored, as following a Lindgren rush to the net, the Finn broke the recently tied game.

2-1, GOOD GUYS.

But of course, sometimes, “the Rangers have to Ranger.”

Just eighteen seconds later, and with 9:22 to go; Miller got lost in coverage and BOOM – Fast found Noesen, all alone, and dead center, a foot out from Igor.

2-2.

I know that everyone is burying Miller for this play – and I know that he has been slumping as of late sans his game from Sunday – but I go back to one of my tired talking points – the other team is paid to play hockey too – and yep – the Canes are very good team.

Furthermore, no defenseman is perfect.

But yeah – Miller brain-farted big-time here and it cost his team.

That said, the Rangers’ highly heralded power-play was 0-3  – and I think their lack of success was a bigger reason than Miller’s gaffe for this loss.

What once was a 1-0 Rangers’ lead with nearly 10:00 remaining, was now a 2-2 game, following three goals scored in 49 seconds.

You could feel the Carolina game-winner coming the entire way – even if the Canes got away with a penalty when scoring it.

As the Canes continued to amp the pressure and with the Rangers’ top-six not being able to do much of anything; Lindgren was slew-footed as the Canes were attacking.

With Lindgren down on the ice, Burns found Teravainen for an unmolested easy tip-in/deflection goal.

3-2, bad guys, with 2:33 remaining.

Not mentioned by the M$GN crew?

Prior to the goal, Panarin turned over the puck in the o-zone.

Since the Canes never relented, it wasn’t until there was only a minute left where CZAR IGOR could leave the net.

Kane had a pair of chances, but not good ones, and as the final horn went off, the Canes, who took the lead for the first time in the game with just 2:33 to go – took the two points too.

I suppose the most frustrating thing about tonight’s tilt, one where the Rangers never looked particularly good in; is that as opposed to the previous games from this month – they weren’t able to push the game into overtime, thus at least stealing a point in the standings.

That point would’ve been huge, especially since the second-place Devils gained one tonight in their 2-1 overtime loss to the Wild.

But what’s done is done and we move on.

And as “THE TURK” said earlier in the day – it’s about getting into the playoffs – and that is how these players, and this team, will ultimately be judged by – what they do in the postseason.

Here’s Gallant following the loss, where “surprise-surprise,” yours truly, one of his biggest fans, agreed with everything he said:

Following praising his goalie, who Gallant said was the only reason why the team had a chance to win the game; “THE TURK” added:

“It’s disappointing. I don’t care about the past games, it’s about getting ready for every one. The points and standings, that doesn’t matter, it’s about playing well and winning points when you get a chance and tonight we didn’t play near well enough to beat that team.”

I would concur with the coach with the best winning and points percentages of franchise history.

Fortunately for the Rangers, they’ll get a fast chance to get the crappy taste of this loss out of their mouths; as these two teams rematch on Thursday night, in Raleigh.

And this team has responded to adversity and bad losses all season – so I’d expect a better result come two days time.

I’ll be back on Thursday night, if not tomorrow (should anything truly break), with a Rangers/Canes Part IV review.

Until then, keep the faith and LGR!

PLUGS TIME!

On Monday night, our pals over at “The Blueshirt Underground Show” returned with a new episode. To check it out, click the play button below:

Also returning on Monday night was our friends over at “2 Guys, 1 Cup.” To check out their latest episode, click the link below:

Perfect graveyard shift listening ⁦@2G1CRangers⁩ #nyr https://t.co/TI0wRMoAHD

— BlueCollarBlueShirts (@NYCTheMiC) March 21, 2023

My first plug of tonight’s blog – the mandatory plug for my book, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden.”

As mentioned previously, the book is now available in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle formats. To purchase a copy of the book, visit this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Rangers-Rafters-Madison-Square-Garden-ebook/dp/B09CM5N2WD

For those still looking for signed paperback versions of the book, I have re-ordered more copies. I now have a few signed copies for sale at $25 a pop (includes shipping price) through me directly. Here is all the information on that:

Order “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden” Book Today

My four-volume set of books, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is a game-by-game recount of the Rangers 2021-22 campaign.

My second title as an author, “One Game at a Time – A Season to Remember,” is now available in eBook, paperback and hardcover formats.

To obtain signed copies, visit: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/onegamebook/

To purchase all four volumes on Amazon, visit: Amazon.com – “One Game at a Time.”

The greatest volume-set of books on Rangers’ history today!

“Tricks of the Trade – A Century-Long Journey Through Every Trade Made In New York Rangers’ History,” a four-volume set of books that meticulously covers every trade made in franchise history, is now on sale.

All four volumes of the title can be purchased on Amazon.com and are presented in three different formats – eBook, paperback and hardcover.

To purchase Volume I: Conn Smythe (1926) – Craig Patrick (1986), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume II: Phil Esposito (1986) – Neil Smith (2000), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume III: Glen Sather (2000-2015), visit Amazon.com

To purchase Volume IV: Jeff Gorton (2015) – Chris Drury (2022), visit Amazon.com

To purchase signed copies of all four volumes, visit https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

Here are my last few blogs, in case you missed them:

NYR/NSH 3/19 Review: DEJA VU! Rangers Blow’em Out & Shut’em Out Again; Neuter The Preds, Blueshirts Make History; A No-No for “THE HALAKNESS MONSTER” & Four MILLER TIME Points, Chytil Ends Schneid; Scores GWG, First-Place Within Reach, Women Empowerment/M$GN & More

NYR/PIT 3/18 Review: SUPERMAN RETURNS! CZAR IGOR’s Shutout Propels Rangers’ 6-0 Blowout Over Ice Birds; The Blueshirts Best Win Yet, It’s All Coming Together, Multi-Point Games Galore But Chytil Still Can’t Score, “ATM LINE,” “TURK TALKS,” ESPN & More

NYR/PIT 3/16 Review: Rangers Play a Full Sixty; Get the Pittsburgh Menace Off Their Backs; Team-Wide Win; Fourth-Line Dominates Again, Tarasenko “The First Rental;” First-Line Heating Up, Chytil Slump Continues, “TURK TALKS,” M$GN/Lundqvist & More

If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog for the next update:

Don’t forget to order my new four-volume set of books, “Tricks of the Trade!”

If you don’t order through me, all four volumes are now available on Amazon.com

For more details, check out: https://bluecollarblueshirts.com/tricksofthetrade/

Thanks for reading.

LET’S GO RANGERS!

Sean McCaffrey

BULLSMC@aol.com

@NYCTHEMIC on the Tweeter machine