It should be a simple thing. Score goals. It’s the whole point of a hockey game.

The Rangers found themselves with an unlikely lead in Game 1 of their best of seven series with the Washington Capitals, and things went from hopeful to totally surreal.

The officiating was already questionable, with a bizarre unsportsmanlike penalty coming on a Jay Beagle check, that looked completely legal. And then there was the phantom charging penalty on Aaron Asham (called a charge in last night’s game, but apparently was changed to the even more unwieldy “illegal hit to the head”), and a mysterious roughing call on Ryan Callahan after a scrum in front of the net.

That Callahan penalty was a killer. Callahan is regularly the best player on a struggling Rangers power play. He had just got cross checked in the back of the head, not once, but TWICE. That’s not to say that the Rangers would have scored on the ensuing 5-on-3, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt their chances.

Then there was the tripping penalty-that-should-have been that lead to the Jason Chimera goal, putting the Caps ahead 3-1.

But, the wretched officiating took a back seat to the Rangers’ continued inability to put the puck in the net, yet again. Yes, Braden Holtby put on a sparkling performance, but there seemed to be no willingness to push traffic in front of Holtby. Aside from a few stints, the Rangers forwards seemed content to stay to the perimeter, shooting from long distances and bad angles, trying to find open lanes to make cross-box passes.

The Caps did a fantastic job of blocking shots, turning the Rangers’ game of sacrifice against them. But, the biggest issue is whether Henrik Lundqvist can bounce back from a dismal second period performance, in which he let in two goals that I’m sure he wants back. I have said it many times, for the Rangers to be successful, if the team cannot consistently score, Lundqvist needs to type in the cheat code otherwise known as “god mode.”

This has to do with a lot of things. But, essentially it boils down to the Rangers skaters need to score goals. And that’s the one department that Lundqvist has no control over. For instance, Rick Nash had 8 shots over the 23 shifts he was on the ice for. By midway through the 3rd period, he looked out of breath and drained. Where was Rick Nash? He was skating his heart out and making Holtby stop him.

At the end of the day, the whole point of the game is to score more goals than the other guy. The Rangers did that fairly regularly in the month of April. But, John Tortorella’s Rangers seem to be lacking consistent performance one way or another. They managed one goal on 36 shots. Give credit to the black and blue Capitals for their shot blocking, and taking the weight off of Holtby, who made the clutch saves when he needed to.

Act I of this passion play of dueling goaltenders goes to the young Braden Holtby. How the Rangers respond will be key to this series, and if they can’t manage to perform in Act II, it may be too much for these Blueshirts to handle.

The reality is that if these stunted-scoring Rangers cannot pull out a game 2 win, they will not be able to recover against this hot-as-the-sun Washington squad. So, very early in these playoffs, the Rangers face a must-win scenario to avoid putting themselves in a 2 game sand trap that no hacking, clawing, or scraping will be able to get them out.

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