About Last Night

It is not very often that when you sit out someone who is an offensively gifted player, your team finds a way to win a hockey game.

With Brad Richards as a healthy scratch for the first time in his career, the New York Rangers found a way to win Game 4 last night at Madison Square Garden by beating the Boston Bruins by a score of 4-3 in overtime.

Scratching Richards was probably one of the toughest decisions that head coach John Tortorella had to make in his coaching career but it turned out to be for the best.

With Richards out of the lineup, the Blueshirts found a way to succeed for three reasons.

Better Offensive Lines

It is easy to see that Richards is simply not a fourth line player. He is an offensive minded NHLer that needs to play with other offensive players in order to succeed.

With Richards gone, Tortorella managed to find the right line combinations. This was especially the case for youngster Chris Kreider.

Kreider moved up and got to play Rick Nash and Derrick Brassard. This line generated a lot of sustained offensive pressure and played a big role in Kreider’s overtime winning goal.

In all, the line of Kreider (one goal), Brassard (two assists), and Nash (one assists) combined for four points and also had nine shots on goal. If Richards was in the lineup, this line may have never come to fruition.

A Better Power Play

While the Rangers power play is still dreadful and only has three goals on 40 or so chances, it was a lot better tonight without Richards on the ice.

The club’s power play managed to put six shots on goal, have better puck possession, have a lot more moment and more importantly, it happened to come through when the team needed it the most.

With the team down 3-2 in the third period and Bruins’ forward Tyler Seguin serving a too many men on the ice penalty, Rangers’ forward Brian Boyle made them pay with his third goal of the playoffs. The team’s power play may have been 1-4 on the night but in the end, it ended up coming through.

A Real Fourth Line

As mentioned above, Richards is NOT a fourth line player.

Richards is not someone who is going to play a physical brand of hockey, get into a fight or play less than ten minutes in a hockey game.

However, Kris Newbury, Derek Dorset and Michael Haley are. These guys can hit, provide energy, go after pucks and be fine with playing around eight minutes a game.

This line may not produce a lot of offense but they fulfill the roles of what is supposed to make up a fourth line.

Boston Bruins

Speaking of three reasons, the Bruins made three costly mistakes last night that ultimately ended up costing them the hockey game.

The Bruins were controlling the hockey game up until about 8:30 into the second period Rangers’ forward Carl Hagelin got a lucky bounce and managed to put one past Bruins’ netminder Tuukka Rask. 

On this particular play, it looked like Rask lost his balance and was then not able to stop Hagelin’s soft backhand shot from going into the net to cut the Bruins’ lead to 2-1.

The next Bruins’ mistake was made 1:15 into the third period. Bruins’ defenceman Zdeno Chara, an all-star and a Norris Trophy winning defenceman, took the puck from Rask from behind the net and ended up having his pocket picked by Rangers’ forward Derek Stepan.

Stepan was then able to take the puck and slide it past a sliding Rask to tie up the game at 2-2, wiping out a 2-0 Bruins lead.

The Bruins’ managed to get a power play goal from Seguin to go up 3-2 with a little less than 12 minutes to go in the hockey game. The Bruins worked hard on that power play and were able to finally get one past Rangers’ netminder Henrik Lundqvist after he had made a few terrific saves.

Unfortunately, another Bruins’ error would prove to be costly 47 seconds later. At that time, the Bruins’ would take a bench minor for too many men on the ice.

Up until this particular point in the game and even in the series, the Rangers’ power play had not been successful. In fact, some would seven say that it was pathetic as it had only converted 2 of its 40 or so chances.

With that said, the Rangers’ power play managed to click and for the Bruins, it came at the wrong time. Derek Stepan was able to get the puck, go the net with it and then make a pass out front to Brian Boyle who took a snap shot and beat Rask for the tying goal.

Three of the Bruins’ mistakes ended up in the back of their net. Not only that, but the team also managed to blow two leads in the game as well and then lose the game 4-3 in overtime.

If the Bruins want to wrap up this series in Game 5 at home tomorrow evening, they must find a way to limit their mistakes and hold onto a lead when they have one. If they are not able to do that, memories of their 2010 blown series to the Philadelphia Flyers might begin to rise to the surface.