The New York Rangers weren't fighting for their playoff lives on Sunday so much as they were fighting for the playoff lives of a small handful of teams much lower in the Eastern Conference standings - oh, and working on their own place in the eventual postseason seeding, of course. But the Broadway Blueshirts just couldn't find a means to outlast the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon, eventually succumbing by a score of 5-3.
The game left the Pens in sole possession of one of the final two NHL playoff spots in the East, one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, who lost in surprising fashion to the toothless Toronto Maple Leafs later in the day, and four points ahead of the surging Philadelphia Flyers. It also left the Rangers to deal with the implication of their second loss in a row and their third loss in the last four games.
"We are not executing as quick as I think this group can right now," said Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault.
The Rangers, facing a Penguins team missing one of its key contributors in star center Evgeni Malkin, managed to claw their way back into the game on three separate occasions, but a third period goal from Pittsburgh forward Matt Cullen put the Broadway Blueshirts' Eastern foes ahead for good.
It was a tough outing especially for Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, who may still have been feeling the sting of the last matchup between the two teams, wherein the All-World New York goaltender suffered neck spasms and was forced to leave the game, but not before losing his cool and dislodging his net from its moorings when he couldn't get the refs attention and the Penguins had begun to press.
"I think that's baby stuff," Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said at the time.
Lundqvist wasn't shaky on Sunday, but he did allow a pair of unfortunate goals - one early from Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist that Hornqvist banked in off Lundqvist's pad from behind the Ranger net, and the Cullen marker that found its way past King Henrik after bouncing through defenseman Marc Staal's skates - though he wasn't the only Ranger to leave much to be desired with his play.
New York forward Kevin Hayes was caught napping in the neutral zone on Conor Sheary's fifth goal of the season and as a result, didn't step on the ice at any point in the third. Dominic Moore suffered a similar fate.
Really, the back-and-forth affair was perfectly indicative of the Eastern playoff field, where the Washington Capitals are clearly the class of the conference and a team on the bubble, Pittsburgh, really doesn't look all that different from a team in the Rangers that, though they're second in the Metropolitan division and third in the East, are only separated from missing the postseason dance altogether by a measly six points.
