Rangers Get Buffalo’d by Sabres

It wasn’t going to last forever. The Rangers finally lost a game, falling to Buffalo 3-1. They finally let in a goal on the penalty kill (actually two), they couldn’t score on the power play and they even coughed up a goal with a man advantage.

The Blueshirts looked more like last year’s version of the team—trying to be perfect and too pretty in the offensive zone instead of attacking the net. The Sabres looked more like the Rangers than the Rangers did.

Buffalo out-skated New York, was quicker to the puck and was more aggressive. They clogged the neutral zone, deflected passes and made the Rangers look like they were skating in quicksand. And they forced the Rangers into bad shots or just flat out blocked them. In other words, the Sabres played harder than the Rangers did.

Things actually started off well, though. Scott Gomez got the Rangers on the scoreboard first. The goal resulted from some great outlet passing.

From behind their own net, Dmitri Kalinin passed the puck to Ryan Callahan, who sent it up to Gomez, who took the puck into Buffalo’s zone, dropped it for Michal Rozsival, and the defenseman ripped a shot that deflected off Gomez into the net. 1-0 Rangers.

So far, so good. But that was the beginning of the end. It was the last shot they would take for about 20 minutes.

In the second period, the Rangers finally allowed a power-play goal. Ales Kotalik was credited with the goal, but it was actually put in by Blair Betts. Should that count against their PK stats? And then the turning point of the game happened.

Last season, Patrick Kaleta took a run at Paul Mara, and the late hit (he also left his feet) broke the defenseman’s face. And wouldn’t you know, the gutless Sabre tried it again. He actually missed Mara this time, but Mara dropped his gloves and started pounding on Kaleta. But Kaleta just went into duck and cover mode, and Mara was hit with a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

Buffalo scored on the power play (with Chris Drury, Gomez and Rozsival all out of position), but can you blame Mara? It turned out to be the game-winning goal, but Mara did what he had to do. Kaleta deserved every punch thrown his way. If the rest of the team had Mara’s passion last night, they could have won the game.

Other notes:

Down 2-1 in the third, the Rangers had a four-minute power play but Buffalo was the team that ended up scoring.

Tom Renney juggled his lines in the third to try and get some offense, but nothing worked.

Colton Orr pummeled Andrew Peters into submission in the first period.

Lindy Ruff won his 400th game.

Petr Prucha blocked a shot and limped off the ice. He’s built like Barney Fife and gets thrown around like a ragdoll, but he always manages to get back up and skate away.

The Rangers penalty kill was perfect for five games before finally letting in two goals last night. A couple more flawless games and they would have made penalty killing cool. Guys would have a new line picking up girls, by lying, “I’m a Rangers penalty killer.” And kids all over the Tri-State area would have been trick-or-treating in their Fredrik Sjostrom costumes… Oh well, everything has to come to an end, even the Rangers winning streak.

Next up: Toronto on Friday.

Bag-O’-Knuckles-O-Meter

Paul Mara: 2

Colton Orr: 2

Ryan Callahan: 1

Brandon Dubinsky: 1

Aaron Voros: 1