The Rangers have had a knack this season for going to school on their opponents, especially after losses, under head coach Peter Laviolette.
Well, the Blueshirts need to put those habits to work and hit the books after falling behind in the Eastern Conference Final series against the Panthers Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, where the home team looked distressingly inferior at times in a 3-0 loss in Game 1.
“Accountability — not from me, although I can help — but from them,” Laviolette said of what’s made the team so receptive to adjustments this season. “And realizing that maybe it’s not the way we want to play or it wasn’t as clean as we would like. You go back and look at the chances [in Game 1]. It’s kind of an even game. Like, the whole thing was kind of even, it sits around the 50 percent mark.
“I just look at some of the crispness and the execution and the skating and the movements and the coverage. Not a lot, but there’s just things I felt like we could’ve done better that maybe could have pushed it in our direction. We had a lot of chances to score. I think we hit the post three times and a lot of point-blank chances, a couple on the power play, backdoor nets that were empty.
“There’s opportunities where we could’ve scored the one goal and it didn’t go. Execution on how we move out of the zone or through the neutral zone. Execution on the details of finishing.”
Tactical and systematic adjustments, both in games and between games, have been a strength of Laviolette and the Rangers.
There were 10 teams who the Rangers lost to and then beat the very next time around, including Columbus and Washington twice.
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It didn’t matter how much or how little time had passed between the contests, because the Rangers rarely fumbled their second opportunity after having a chance to reflect and dissect the first defeat.
Some of the following games unfolded similarly to the previous, but the Rangers were able to fix whatever plagued them or doomed them in the previous loss to pull out the win in their next crack at the same opponent.
Like the Nov. 20 matchup with the Stars, who rallied from down 2-0 by scoring six in a row, including two empty-netters to take a 6-3 victory.
Three months later, the Rangers protected their 2-1 lead at the start of the third period before Vincent Trocheck’s empty-net goal sealed a 3-1 win.
Or the two games against the Senators on Dec. 5 and Jan. 27, when the Rangers fell behind 2-0 in both.
The first game saw the Rangers pull within one before Ottawa scored three in a row for the 6-2 win.
The next time around, the Rangers were able to push harder and storm back with a whopping seven unanswered goals for the 7-2 victory.
They gave up four first-period goals to the Maple Leafs in a 7-3 loss on Dec. 12 and then gave up none through the opening 20 minutes of a 5-2 win a week later in Toronto.
They allowed the Hurricanes to score at least once in all three periods in a 6-1 trouncing on Jan. 2 before they shut out Carolina in a 1-0 victory on March 12.
“Throughout the year we’ve done a good job of responding after losses,” Adam Fox said. “Adjustments play a big factor in that, but mentality and just realizing what you were lacking the game before, whether it’s execution [or] urgency. Especially in the playoffs, those wins feel even better and the losses feel even worse. I think just understanding that urgency and responding for a big game.
“Lavi has done a great job of making adjustments and watching and seeing what we were lacking and coming out and being stronger in that portion of the game.”
Personnel changes are certainly on the table for Laviolette, who has Matt Rempe, Blake Wheeler and Jonny Brodzinski waiting in the wings.
But the Rangers weren’t one player away from defeating the Panthers in Game 1.
They’ll have to get to work on their game if they hope to keep this series competitive.
