As disappointing as the result was, nobody can accuse the Rangers of being boring on Sunday, as they crafted an absolute instant classic at MSG in terms of excitement. And as disappointing as the result was, there was a lot to like about the Rangers in this game, as they were the better team for 50 minutes, both in terms of possession and on the scoreboard. That effort was led by Eric Staal who finally showed Rangers fans why the Rangers traded for him, tallying two points, going +15 in shot attempts, and winning 20 of 22 faceoffs. Keith Yandle was reliable as always, going +13 in shot attempts and adding another big point on the powerplay to tie the game in the third period. Tanner Glass, Oscar Lindberg, Viktor Stalberg, and Kevin Hayes (starting on the fourth line, because AV) all had excellent performances.

And yet, there’s the disappointing result staring the Rangers and their fans in the face – a third consecutive loss to their likely first round opponent, and it had a lot to do with the same problems that have hurt the Rangers all year.

The first problem is obviously the start. I give the Rangers credit for outplaying and outscoring the Islanders over the last 50 minutes of play and I love that they fought back after falling behind. But you can’t come out for the first ten minutes of a game and just not play like the Rangers did on Sunday. You don’t get away with that in this league. And it’s certainly not the first time this year the Rangers just completely disappeared for a stretch in an otherwise good game; Thursday night against the Penguins being a good example. But I’ll get more into the bad start and what causes these stretches later on.

The next problem, as much as I hate to say it, is Antti Raanta. And yes, he has been a problem all year. I like Raanta but the problem with him is that he’s just not ideal as a backup. Ideally, a backup goaltender is consistently above average and gives you a chance to win every time he’s in net. Not fantastic; won’t steal you games, but he’s never terrible. Raanta is quite the opposite. He’s either Henrik Lundqvist reincarnated, or he’s one of those 5-hole nets you practice on when you’re a little kid, and there’s no middle ground. Sunday’s game was the latter, with Raanta giving up five goals on just 22 scoring chances, the last two goals (including the winner) being absolute laughers. I’m not saying the Rangers need 2014-15 Cam Talbot back – a guy who comes in and is basically just as good as Lundqvist all the time. But they can’t afford to have a backup who is a sieve in half of his games (albeit outstanding in the other half). They need somebody who is consistently okay.

Then there’s Dan Girardi. What’s left for me to say about Dan Girardi? Well, let me put it this way. I mentioned earlier Keith Yandle being reliable, and reliability is maybe the most important quality for a defenseman. If getting dominated by the other team were the object of the game, then Dan Girardi would be the most reliable player in the league. He’s consistent if nothing else, posting another sterling mark of -33 corsiREL in this game. Beyond the stats, he also contends with some very noticeable isolated mistakes. On the Islanders’ second goal, he gets beat to a rebound as if he’s standing still, which is something of a specialty of his.

Then he ices the puck to set in motion the events leading to the winning goal. Icing the puck when you’re under pressure isn’t the worst thing in the world. Randomly icing the puck for no reason when you had almost unlimited time and space to make a play is a huge problem. It’s another Girardi specialty. Granted, the Rangers won the ensuing faceoff and then lost the game on the faceoff after that because of a mistake the coach made (and I’ll get to him), so you can’t entirely blame Girardi, but the Rangers should have never been taking a faceoff in their own zone to begin with.

However, as I’ve alluded to, I’ve yet to get to the biggest problem. That brings me to head coach Alain Vigneault, who’s performance yesterday -and all season- was something of a supercut on how to not coach an NHL team.

The first thing he does in this game which baffles me is essentially eliminate JT Miller from the lineup by the time the third period rolled around. AV’s reasoning for the benching? His game “wasn’t good enough.” Alright, so what you’re telling me, coach, is that suddenly there’s accountability on this team? Suddenly guys get benched for not playing well? Maybe Miller hasn’t been great, but what about Marc Staal? What about Dan Girardi? Here’s two guys who every night, are ten times worse than Miller was on Sunday, and practically get pumped ice time through a tube. Coach, true accountability is not picking and choosing certain guys, and punishing them to set an example. It’s holding everyone on the team to a high standard. On the Rangers, certain guys -who for some reason seem to have been randomly hand-picked by the coach- have that very high standard. Others have no standard whatsoever.

Then there’s the long stretches in games where the Rangers disappear. They had one right at the start against the Islanders where they were outscored 3-0 and that was ultimately the difference. I have to pin these poor stretches on the coach. I’ve seen what this team can do, I know the talent is there. There’s no reason for them to stop playing for ten minutes at a time. It’s just a total lack of focus and preparation and that starts at the top. To be fair, AV did call a timeout yesterday for the first time since the original six days, but that timeout has to come at 2-0 down, not 3-0. What is he waiting for?

His biggest mistake in this game was something very isolated. It’s not a situation that pops up many times and maybe it’s not something that’s really important over the course of 82 games. Still, there’s no excuse for an NHL coach to botch it this bad and lose a game over it. I’m talking about faceoffs. Ask me about faceoffs in general or ask anyone into advanced stats about faceoffs, and they’ll tell you it’s not that important. In fact, I often poke fun at Joe Micheletti for treating them as the most important aspect of the game. The numbers show that faceoffs don’t drive possession, so I don’t pay much attention to them long-term. Still, there are isolated situations where there will be a big faceoff, and the coach has to know what to do.

After Girardi’s extraordinary icing, the Rangers were forced into a defensive zone faceoff. Eric Staal, elite at faceoffs, took the draw and of course won it. The shift ended quickly and the Rangers had to get past another defensive zone faceoff. Succeed here, and mostly likely you at least get to overtime for a point. So, huge decision here for AV. He has Eric Staal who is elite at faceoffs. Even if he doesn’t want to send Staal out because he just took a long shift, he has Dominic Moore and Derick Brassard who are great at faceoffs. Who does he send out? Derek Stepan. Derek Stepan is deplorable at faceoffs. Of course he gets beat clean and the puck goes in the net almost immediately after. There’s no excuse.

Allow me to make an analogy. Like faceoffs, something like say, penalty shots, are not that important in the grand scheme of things, but a coach still needs to know what to do when the situations come up.. Say the Rangers had a big penalty shot to tie or win a game, and AV sends out Tanner Glass, and the Rangers lose because of that. The backlash would be legendary. Sending out Derek Stepan for a huge faceoff is the same thing. It’s just inexplicable.

This loss hurts because it was to an important opponent. Barring something unforeseen, the Rangers will be in the playoffs. Most likely, the Islanders are their first round opponent. When that happens -should it happen- the Rangers likely have Henrik Lundqvist in goal, solving one of their issues. But as long as Dan Girardi and Alain Vigneault are in charge, it’s hard to see them getting past that series.

Three Stars

1)Eric Staal

2)Keith Yandle

3)Tanner Glass

Was there pizza? There was pizza. Pizza record: 35-25-6