The Rangers finally played their home opener Monday night after
starting the season with nine straight road games as the $1 billion
transformation of Madison Square Garden was being completed.
The game did not live up to the anticipation.
Fans had little to cheer about as the Rangers lost, 2-0, to the Montreal Canadiens and fell to a dismal 3-7-0 on the season.
“I mean everybody was excited for this game, playing at home here, so I’m pretty sure everyone’s disappointed,” Mats Zuccarello said.
That’s an understatement.
Coming off an OT win in Detroit that ended his team’s marathon road trip, Alain Vigneault was optimistic, only to see his Rangers fail to get a single puck past Habs goalie Peter Budaj, who made 27 saves. The Rangers came up empty on five power-play tries.
The good news for the Rangers was that Henrik Lundqvist was back in net
and played well after sitting out two games with an undisclosed injury.
He saved 25 of the Habs’ 27 shots, with his first blemish coming at the
16:34 mark of period 2 on a well-executed Canadien transition play that
resulted in Tomas Plekanec’s power-play goal. Plekanec slipped through
the defense and deked around Lundqvist for a backhanded goal.
But the Rangers felt the Habs never should have been given the opportunity, arguing a questionable roughing call on Brian Boyle.
“Probably from the angle, it looked like I probably hit him (Brendan Gallagher) in the head,” Boyle said. “It’s unfortunate that we got scored on, but again, there was plenty of time to try and generate offense.”
The refs picked on the Rangers again at the 5:37 mark of Period 3, when a Derek Brassard breakaway was blown dead after a dubious interference call on Chris Kreider at the blue line, where two Canadiens players simply seemed to get tangled.
The game did not live up to the anticipation.
Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News
Brian Boyle takes a peek up at the scoreboard during the Rangers loss.
“I mean everybody was excited for this game, playing at home here, so I’m pretty sure everyone’s disappointed,” Mats Zuccarello said.
Coming off an OT win in Detroit that ended his team’s marathon road trip, Alain Vigneault was optimistic, only to see his Rangers fail to get a single puck past Habs goalie Peter Budaj, who made 27 saves. The Rangers came up empty on five power-play tries.
Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News
Fresh off Tommy John surgery, Mets ace and Rangers fan Matt Harvey with his model girlfriend Anne Vyalitsyna (l.) before the game.
But the Rangers felt the Habs never should have been given the opportunity, arguing a questionable roughing call on Brian Boyle.
“Probably from the angle, it looked like I probably hit him (Brendan Gallagher) in the head,” Boyle said. “It’s unfortunate that we got scored on, but again, there was plenty of time to try and generate offense.”
The refs picked on the Rangers again at the 5:37 mark of Period 3, when a Derek Brassard breakaway was blown dead after a dubious interference call on Chris Kreider at the blue line, where two Canadiens players simply seemed to get tangled.
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