A tentative Rangers start didn't necessarily prove that they were over their heartbreaking Game 2 loss, either.
The Rangers thwarted the Montreal Canadiens from there and emerged with a hard-fought 2-1 victory in Game 4 of their first-round series at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
"We had some looks but in the end it was more about finish", said head coach Claude Julien. "They wanted to compete, wanted to battle and wanted the puck on their sticks".
In their first home playoff game after splitting the first two on the road with the Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic Division Semifinals, the Blueshirts turned in a lifeless, listless performance in a 3-1 defeat that was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate.
"I can say to that this team right here now defensively are doing a real good job and we need to find an answer to be able to use our skill a little bit more", he said.
Carey Price stopped 30 of 32 shots for the Canadiens, who received their lone goal from Torey Mitchell.
Injuries forced them to somewhat abandon that strategy, but with a seemingly healthy roster, Alain Vigneault has opted for grind. They're a good team; they're a fast team; they create a lot. "You have to give that team credit, they played well tonight".
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Montreal. They're only focusing on playing better in Game 4 to try to even their first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens.
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I don't know when - but I'm going to make it tough for him. "But that wasn't the deciding factor in any moves". The 23-year old former Gator averaged a career-high 23.1 points while shooting 48.2% from the field.
But there's a multitude of ways to make sure opposing players have a hard night.
"You make minor adjustments as far as making a read or a puck decision that could help your game, but as far as the overall way of (changing) how we've played or how we've had success, obviously that's not going to happen".
Lundqvist has been stellar in the series with a 1.89 goals-against average and a.944 save percentage.
The pair were victimized by Miller-Hayes-Zuccarello (+1/-8), but most egregious of all, were thoroughly outplayed by both the Skjei-Smith pairing (+2/-7) and the Marc Staal-Nick Holden pairing (+1/-9), which had been so bad through the first two games that Holden was removed from the lineup in Game 3. I'm not one to complain about the officiating, by my word, the Canadiens practically assaulted Brendan Smith in the third period, and were never called once for a penalty.
Shea Weber's bomb from the point hit the post with 1:18 to play and Alex Radulov, in a scrum, tried to kick the puck in with about 43 seconds left. Radulov earned his fourth assist of the series on the play.
Unfortunately, a few minutes after the Rangers goal, the Canadiens converted on a 2-on-1 rush and tied the game at 1-1. "I think our team played really well, and we deserved to win. We have to just focus on playing well as a group, no matter where you're at and the situation you're in". Shea Weber and Torrey Mitchell finished it all off with a handsome passing sequence that ended up in the back of the net. McDonagh kept the puck in the zone and sent a nice pass to Nash near the front of the net and he slipped a backhand past Price at 4:28 for his second of the series. "I was trying to go to the net all night and trying to cause some chaos".
So far, that strategy has prevented the Rangers from using the up-tempo style they're best at, with the Canadiens clamping down defensively and forcing NY to dump and chase.
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