DAL 7 NYR 6

Game 45: DAL 7 NYR 6, Furious third period rally falls short  January 18, 2017, 7:25 AM ET [254 Comments] Jan Levine  New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT

AV:

On the team’s defensive play…

“There’s no doubt that we need to do a better job in front of our net. Our offensive game is pretty good at this time, but defensively obviously there are too many breakdowns. It’s all business here, we have to get back to work tomorrowand get ready for the next game. On three of the first four goals we have someone in front of the net, we’re just not taking the pass. Twice were defensemen, once it was a forward. It’s an easy read to make, it’s an easy pass to take, and we don’t take it and we give the other team a grade-A opportunity. It’s something that we can work on, we’re going to work on, we’re going to try to get better and get ready for the next game.”


"He's going to play next game," Vigneault said. "He's going to play and he's going to try real hard and we're going to try and play better in front of him. This is a team. We're all going to stick with one another and do what we can here to get out of this three-game" losing streak.

McDonagh:

On allowing seven goals tonight…

“It’s not good. It’s simply not playing the way we need to play and we don’t want to play this catch up game here. We have this last stretch and it shouldn’t take us an embarrassment, beating or whatever you want to call it to get ourselves to play with some pace and energy. Individually here and as a team we’ve got to find a way to come out with a jump and come out with that intensity. It’s something that just crept into our game here, the starts, and it’s been a stretch here, but I’ve got confidence in this group. We’ll find a way to start clicking again.”

“It shouldn’t take us an embarrassment, beating, or whatever you want to call it, to get ourselves to play w/ some pace & energy."

Lundqvist:

On his play recently…

“It’s tough. I feel like it’s embarrassing, frustrating, and disappointing, at the same time. I spent the last 24 hours really working hard and trying to prepare for this game and you come out and get a pretty good start. Then our first period, there were a couple missed plays where they made us pay. Most goals were scored right in front. As a goalie, you need to just be more aware I guess. The bottom line is I need to find another level; it’s not good enough. Obviously when you’re looking for confidence and a good feeling you’re hoping for a game where there’s a lot of structure and shots are more to the outside, but that’s not the case right now. There are a lot of opportunities right in front and I just need to find a way to get going. But it’s hard when you’re trying to do all the right things and it’s not paying off right now.”

On the importance of the mental and technical aspects of his game…

“It’s a combination. The mental aspect - if you’re not in the right place you start making technical mistakes. Sometimes the game can help you with the structure. The last couple games there’s been some chances where there’s a lot of bouncing around right in front and you try to be in the right place but you’re not. You just need to keep working hard here. I work as hard as I can right now in practice, I try to prepare mentally, I think I just need some good momentum going my way.”

On the toughness of this stretch…

“It’s definitely a low point. Right before the break, two wins there and played really well in Philly. I think this season so far, parts have been really good and definitely there are games where I feel I need to play better. I think this year we are a team that knows we can score, so sometimes we are going for that a little bit more than we’ve done in the past and it’s going to have an effect on how we play at times. But in the end I just need to focus on my game. Sometimes it might be a 5-4 or a 4-3 game instead of the 2-1 you prefer as a goalie. Sometimes you look at the game and you just see all the goals, but as a goalie when you feel that structure and everything is happening and you know what to expect, sometimes it’s definitely easier to play.”

Girardi:

On the defense…

“It wasn’t fair for him [Henrik Lundqvist] tonight. We didn’t play the right way in front of him for the first two periods and that’s not helping the situation at all. He’s working hard, he’s doing what he has to do. To leave a lot of guys in front of him wide open, it’s hard to stop open nets. We can’t do that to him. He’s our number one guy and he’s a leader on our team and we can’t do that to a guy like that. That’s very disappointing for us.”

Stepan:

"It's terrible. Good teams don't leave their goalie out to dry like that," Stepan said. "That's just unacceptable. Simple stuff. It comes down to working hard and working smart. That's all we did in the third period."