NY Rangers open renovated Madison Square Garden with a 2
Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily NewsRangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist sprawls to make one of his 25 saves, but it isn't enough as the Blueshirts lose 2-0 in their home opener.
CANADIENS 2, RANGERS 0
The fans at the new and improved Madison Square Garden were embarrassingly subdued for most of Monday night, but it wasn't like the Rangers gave them much to cheer about.
After an arduous nine-game road trip to open the season, the Rangers (3-7-0) finally got to slip on their blue sweaters and open the refurbished World's Most Famous Arena in an Original Six matchup with the Montreal Canadiens (7-5-0), a battle they lost in a sloppy 2-0 affair.
'I think we've gone through a tough part of (the schedule), but I wouldn't call it weathering a storm. I expect our team play well on the road and win,' coach Alain Vigneault said at the team's morning skate. 'There's not a road way to play and a home way to play. There's a right way. So I expect our team to have better results than what we've shown so far.'
The coach's expectations failed to be met on Monday.
The Rangers opened the first period as the aggressors with good pressure on the forecheck, generating several chances, including a quality try by Chris Kreider that deflected off of goalie Peter Budaj and then off the crossbar. The Habs answered by swallowing 10 Rangers chances with blocked shots and evening the shots on goal count at seven by the end of the first frame.
The Blueshirts got perhaps their best opportunity of the game with about seven minutes to play in the second period, when Kreider hustled down the puck behind the Canadiens net and centered the puck to Derek Stepan on the doorstep. Stepan quickly wristed a shot, but was denied after the puck caught a piece of Budaj's glove.
After sitting out two games with an undisclosed injury, Henrik Lundqvist was back on the ice and mostly back to form, stopping 25 of the Habs' 27 shots on goal. His first blemish came at the 16:34 mark of period 2, when a well-executed transition play by the Canadiens resulted in a power play goal from Tomas Plekanec, who slipped through the Ranger defense and deked around Lundqvist for a backhanded goal. The Habs were given the power play opportunity after a questionable roughing call on Brian Boyle.
The zebras picked on the Rangers again at the 5:37 mark of Period 3, when a Derek Brassard breakaway was blown dead after a bogus interference call on Kreider at the blue line where two Canadiens players simply seemed to get tangled. A dormant Garden crowd finally sprung to life after the replay played on the arena's new big screen, giving way to a chorus of heavy Broadway boos.
J.T. Miller and Mats Zuccarello generated a few more chances for the Rangers, but couldn't get past Budaj, who finished with 27 saves in the shutout. Alex Galchenyuk added an insurance goal for the Habs with just over three minutes to play.
At the very least, the Blueshirts exited their home ice on Monday with the comfort of knowing Lundqvist looked healthy, and that despite taking seven penalties, they were in the game until the Galchenyuk goal.
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