Marian Gaborik's Late Goal Not Enough as Rangers Fall To Kings, 2-1

New additions to the lineup did not seem to make a difference in their first game because it was the same old story for the Blueshirts tonight in Los Angeles. A struggle to generate offense in the first two periods hurt the Rangers, and two errors both lead to Kings goals in this game. Unfortunately the smallest mistakes will always burn you when things aren’t going right and your team isn’t scoring. That is basically how things went down tonight.

The first period saw the Kings come out and dominate early, applying most of the pressure in the Rangers zone. Henrik Lundqvist looked sharp in the first few minutes of his return after missing two consecutive games with the stomach flu.

Brandon Prust found himself in the box for boarding when he stapled LA defenseman Jack Johnson into the boards, but it was obviously a case of Brandon attempting to be a physical force right out of the gate.

The Blueshirts did not register a shot in the game until six minutes were left on the clock in the first period, and that shot came from newly acquired Olli Jokinen. I felt Jokinen played a decent first twenty minutes as a New York Ranger, registering a shot and creating a scoring chance when feeding Vinny Prospal who was cutting to the net. The final shot totals in the first were five for the Kings and four for the Rangers.

Special teams was the name of the game in the second period of this one, as the powerplay and penalty-kill would eventually end up making or breaking the Rangers. After killing off two consecutive penalties, New York received a powerplay of their own.

Head coach John Tortorella elected to put five forwards out on the ice with no defensemen at all, and it turned out that it would come back to bite them. A stray Marian Gaborik pass eluded Chris Drury and Olli Jokinen at the point and sailed out to the neutral zone where Anze Kopitar picked it up and roofed a wrister over Henrik Lundqvist to break the scoreless tie with a shorthanded tally.

Up until that point, Henrik Lundqvist was tremendous for the Rangers, probably keeping them in it. Offense still was a problem in that period.

The third stanza was more of the same. The Rangers were trying to fight through the strong defensive wall of the Los Angeles Kings, but were only good for one Marian Gaborik goal with only a few minutes remaining. Prior to that, Vinny Prospal was defended well in the neutral zone while waiting for a Jokinen pass to arrive on his blade.

Captain Dustin Brown turned it the other way and made a brilliant pass to Ryan Smyth, who made a quick move around Lundqvist and scored on the backhand to pretty much close this one out. The Rangers did respond with a goal of their own, but fell short of the comeback.

Olli Jokinen, I thought, had a decent Rangers debut. In 20:34 of ice time, Olli had four shots on goal and also created some offensive chances with great passes. On the flip side, he was out on the ice for both Kings goals, but Tortorella had him out there often and in various situations.

He did not make much noise on the first line with Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, but again, it is just one game so whether or not Torts will keep them together is difficult to predict just yet.

Brandon Prust surely displayed what kind of player he is and what he will bring to the lineup nightly, picking up a total of nineteen penalty minutes in this game. He was a bit anxious in his first shift, demolishing Johnson along the boards and getting a boarding minor, but soon after went at it with Brandon Segal, a fight in which he won. I like what I am seeing so far, and hope that he can keep that up consistently.

Marian Gaborik is beginning to heat up yet again, registering his fifth goal in three games tonight in Los Angeles. This has to be a great sign for the struggling Rangers offense, and I think we may even see Erik Christensen join Gabs on the first line in the near future because these two have had something going. Prospal continues to hook up with Gaborik often, so I would not make any changes there.

I will wrap it up here as it is getting late and I need some rest after the hectic past 48 hours or so. The Blueshirts are off on Wednesday but back at it on Thursday when they host the red hot Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden.

By that time, Jokinen and Prust will have some time with Tortorella and the team, so maybe we will see the comfort level rise in their games.