Coach David Quinn disappointed in Rangers' penalty-killing unit
Jesper Fast of the Rangers and Hampus Lindholm of the Anaheim Ducks take holding penalties during the second period on Dec. 14, 2019 in Anaheim, California. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Two days after praising his team’s penalty killing unit, and assistant coach Lindy Ruff, who is in charge of that group, Rangers coach David Quinn was disappointed in his team’s man-down unit, which allowed two goals in three attempts.
“Well, we didn’t finish killing the first one, and then we just kind of made a bad read on the initial rush (on the second power play goal),’’ he said. “We had done a really good job killing that penalty, and (were) talking about on the initial rush (by the opponent), absorbing the rush, instead of moving forward. If you’re going to move forward, you better get the body or the puck, and we got neither.’’
Jesper Fast stepped up in the neutral zone on Rickard Rakell, and made minimal contact, not enough to knock him off the puck, or even prevent him from entering the zone. Rakell got around him and sent a pass to Hampus Lindholm, who beat Henrik Lundqvist with a slap shot from the top of the slot to tie it 3-3.
“It’s one of those things, you know?’’ Quinn said. “Unfortunately, when we struggle on the PK, it seems to come in bunches, within a game. On this one, it certainly didn’t help us tonight.’’
Quinn praises Lundqvist
Henrik Lundqvist, playing his second game on the trip and second game since Dec. 2, made 39 saves, many of them outstanding.
“He made some big saves for us,’’ Quinn said. “I know he probably wants to make one more. One more save. He wants to get into a rhythm; we want to get him into a rhythm, and, again, he made some big saves when we needed them . . . I just wish we were able to play better for him in that second period.’’
Blue notes
D Marc Staal was a game-time decision with a sore ankle, but he played. LW Brendan Lemieux returned to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game with an upper body injury. Micheal Haley was a healthy scratch . . . In the third period, Quinn shuffled his lines, and ended up dropping Chris Kreider to the fourth line, with Brett Howden and Brendan Smith.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
