RALEIGH, N.C. — It will take one more game, at least one more game, for the Rangers to sew up their second-round series and advance to the conference finals following Saturday’s 4-3 Game 4 defeat here to the Canes.
If you want to spin the end of the Blueshirts’ 7-0 joyride to start the playoffs somehow as positive, there is of course the continuing and eerie parallel to 1994, a fairly famous year around here.
Those Rangers also won their first seven postseason games, lost a potential second-round Game 4 clincher in Washington before taking out the Caps in Game 5 at the Garden before moving onto the Devils, “We’ll Win Tonight,” “Save by Richter!” and all that jazz.
This group would sign up for something similar when the Candy Canes come to Manhattan for Game 5 on Monday.
The defeat, though, does have an additional consequence in that it prevents Adam Fox getting perhaps a full week’s rest before the next round starts. Fox, who took a leg-on-leg from Nick Jensen in Game 4 of the Washington series on April 28, has not seemed entirely up to par throughout this series and appeared to labor at times in the match.
There should not be undue concern over this one in which the Rangers seemed disconnected early while committing a bevy of coverage errors, both forced and unforced. They fell behind 2-0 at 6:33 of the first and were down 3-1 by the end of the period.
But then the Blueshirts dug in because that is what they do. They persevered and tied the score 3-3 at 2:04 of the third on a bank-shot by Alexis Lafreniere, who was the best player on the ice by miles and miles only to have Brady Skjei win it on a power-play clapper from the right point at 16:49 with Ryan Lindgren in the box having tripped Jordan Martinook 32 seconds earlier.
It was, of course, the first power-play goal the Blueshirts had allowed in the series after snuffing the first 16 man-advantages, and it came from Skjei, the one-time Ranger who was sent to the Canes in exchange for a first-rounder at the 2020 deadline so that the club would have enough cap space to extend the then-pending free agent Chris Kreider.
Mika Zibanejad, who played with force, did not dwell on Skjei’s rocket. Neither did he dwell on the hole into which his team leaped in the opening minutes. Instead, No. 93 focused on the way the club reacted to the first (two) multiple-goal deficits it has faced in the tournament.
“We know we are playing a very good team. I think it’s better to look how we responded,” Zibanejad said. “That’s not what you want, you always want to have a good start, but it was pretty calm after the first and we worked ourselves back in the game.
“We can take that into the next one on Monday.”
Artemi Panarin didn’t have his best night — that is putting it kindly — and neither did Chris Kreider. Vincent Trocheck was a target throughout and was stifled. The power play got only one opportunity late in the first period and did nothing with it. They’re allowed.
So you move on from this one. But there is a matter of concern for the Rangers and the concern is centered on Filip Chytil, who was unable to make the game after he woke up Saturday morning with an “illness.”
Chytil had seemed to make a triumphant Game 3 return on Thursday following a 188-day absence related to post-concussion issues. He was ebullient after the match. The Rangers were going to have their best lineup available.
Now, and at least for this game, not.
“He felt great [Friday], went to the team meal,” head coach Peter Laviolette said hours ahead of the match. “Woke up this morning and didn’t feel well.”
Red flag alert.
Maybe this is coincidental. Maybe Chytil caught a bug and will be back when the team next skates. But there is a history of NHL teams using “flu-like symptoms” as a euphemism for “concussion.” We wait.
And if a bad thing is happening to a good person who is universally beloved by his teammates, that is just something the Rangers will have to navigate. It presents another obstacle. It presents another challenge.
With Laviolette concerned either about his players’ ice time or the way Matt Rempe is officiated, the Rangers inserted Jonny Brodzinski into the lineup for the first time this tournament. No. 22, who set a screen on Barclay Goodrow’s deflection of Braden Schneider’s right point drive to bring the club within 3-2 late in the second, played a sum of 8:49 that included four shifts worth 3:01 in the third.
Obviously there is some trust there. It will be interesting to see whether Brodzinski remains in the lineup or whether Rempe, with the last change, gets back in at what will surely be a raucous Garden on Monday when the Rangers seek to finish the job. I’d think Brodzinski.
The Blueshirts have taken it day by day throughout the season and the tournament. That is a hallmark of their mentality. Now, there is at least one more day to navigate before they can end this series.
Three down.
Still one to go.