10:11AM: David Quinn spoke with the media on MSG following the game and said:
- On blowing leads, “I think it’s mental. It’s a microcosm of our mentality when we are up. We were just talking in there about the Dallas game. We score early in the third and it’s 3-2 and we stayed on them and on them and never stopped. We never stopped, we just kept playing. We never let the score dictate, we didn’t play scared. That is what we are doing right now. Maybe because we are going through a tough time and not confident enough but we have to get out of it in a hurry. You can’t have a three-goal lead and 3-1 lead going into the third and do what we did.”
- On the losses, “I don’t rate them, they all suck.”
- Why do you think the confidence changes, “we went into a little rut and I think that we felt like…the Philly game is where it started. We felt pretty good after the Islander game before Thanksgiving and we haven’t found it again. We’ve had flashes and moments but haven’t put it together for 60 minutes. We gotta figure it out and get back to playing 60 minutes and not letting the situation dictate how we are going to play. We went through it early when we were 3-7-1 and we found a way to get out of it and we have to do it again.”
- On Hayes, “I think he is going to be okay.”
10AM: Henrik Lundqvist said “it’s tough to accept this one. This was right there for us. That was a tough one, felt like we should have won this one.” (MSG)
Mats Zuccarello said, “I think we should tuck one in 5 on 3 and kill the game, that is on us. If we had gotten a goal the game would have been over. This is a tough one. We were te better team and should have won this game.” (MSG)
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9:44PM: First Period:
- Pavel Buchnevich (Power Play) Assists: Filip Chytil, Jimmy Vesey
- Kevin Hayes (Power Play) Assists: Mats Zuccarello
Second Period:
- Mika Zibanejad (Power Play) Assists: Neal Pionk, Kevin Hayes
- Jordan Oesterle (Power Play) Assists: Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz
Third Period:
- Josh Archibald Assists: Derek Stepan, Alex Goligoski
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson Assists: Clayton Keller, Nick Cousins
Overtime:
- Derek Stepan Assists: Nick Schmaltz
Stats:
Adam’s Thoughts:
- Another game where the Rangers grab a multiple goal lead early and another game where the Rangers don’t end up with two points.
- I felt that this game was tighter than the score indicated and that the Rangers didn’t do a whole lot at 5 on 5/even strength. They were terrific on the PP and I thought that the third goal, by Zibanejad, was going to be enough against a team that struggles to score, but Arizona chipped away and the Rangers couldn’t add another.
- They had chances to get goal #4 but the Coyotes goalie deserves credit for some terrific saves after the Rangers went up 3-0.
- Again, it’s that extra save that Henrik Lundqvist makes or doesn’t make that usually determines how many points the Rangers get. This isn’t entirely on Lundqvist, but he needs to be almost perfect for the Rangers to win right now.
- Kind of strange/ironic that current #21 on the Rangers whiffed on a big chance to win it and former #21 on the Rangers converted on his chance to win. Howden had a couple of other chances and I think that overall his game is still pretty solid, especially for a rookie, but he hasn’t scored a goal since before Thanksgiving.
- The hope is that the Rangers continue to score early and score often because they need the practice in defending leads. Hopefully the Rangers are able to start holding onto some leads and grow as a team with that.