Rangers Lose to Red Menace in OT

Should we start with the good news (the Rangers got a point out of the game)? The bad news (the Rangers lost)? The refs randomly deciding the Red Wings had to win the game (a bad too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty)? The Ted Lindsay statue? Ron Duguay still living in 1979 (did he try to go to Studio 54 last night?)?

In the first five minutes of the Rangers’ 5-4 loss to Detroit, the two teams looked like they weren’t even in the same league. The Red Wings came out on the ice like a killing machine. In those all-red uniforms they resembled the old Soviet Union/CCCP squads. “We are red machine. We will crush you.” They scored the first two goals before the Rangers even got out of the locker room. The Blueshirts just stood around watching Detroit before they realized that they were playing in the game, too. The Rangers gave Detroit too much respect.

But then Ryan Callahan scored, and for the next 35 minutes the teams went back and forth in each other’s zone attacking and forechecking. The Wings are basically what the Rangers aspire to be. The Callahan/Scott Gomez/Nigel Dawes line was flying all night. Dawes scored his first goal of the year, and Gomez had two assists. He was the best player on the ice for the Blueshirts. Back on the D line, Paul Mara was hitting hard and Marc Staal (an assist) had a good game.

The Rangers dominated play in the third period. Aaron Voros was up to his old tricks, scoring two goals and being a pest in the crease, to give New York a 4-3 lead. Brandon Dubinsky added two assists. The Rangers were back to dumping the puck in and driving to the net. At times they were relentless. It looked like they were headed for a nice win over the Stanley Cup champs, but the refs whistled the Rangers for a bogus too-many-men penalty. The Red Wings scored on the power play. And 23 seconds into overtime, Marion Hossa put one past Henrik Lundqvist as Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden stood by casually chatting about their fantasy football teams. What a disappointing way for the game to end.

Lundqvist let in five goals, but didn’t really have a chance on any of them. Two were deflected in and the others came on defensive breakdowns. Five bad minutes to start and 23 bad seconds at the end, and that’s all it took to lose the game. The Drury/Naslund/Korpikoski line was AWOL. Eight games into the season and they haven’t shown up yet.

Before the game, the Wings unveiled a statue of hockey great Ted Lindsay. He was a nine-time All-Star and won the Art Ross trophy in 1949-50. He was also the voice of the NHL on NBC’s old Sunday afternoon game of the week back in the ’70s. And speaking of the ’70s, is it time for Ron Duguay to abandon his Farrah Fawcett hairdo?

Next game for the Rangers: Monday night against Sean Avery and the Dallas Stars.