The New York Rangers' loss to the New Jersey Devils on Monday night in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference final wasn't exactly surprising...or at least, it shouldn't have been.
After all, the Rangers have followed the same pattern in each round of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning the first game of the series, losing the second, winning the third and then losing the fourth. Overall, the Rangers are 0-7 in this postseason when leading in a series, and 10-1 when tied or trailing. In terms of their position in the series, the Rangers are in extremely familiar territory heading into Wednesday night's Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.
However, the factor that has to have Rangers head coach John Tortorella concerned heading into Wednesday's crucial game is the fact that the Blueshirts' defensemen, a crucial element of their success this spring, had their worst outing of the postseason on Monday night at the Prudential Center in Newark.
Of the 38 goals the Rangers have scored in these playoffs, 11 have been scored by defensemen, including three each by Anton Stralman, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. The Rangers' blueliners have also been keys to a team defensive system that's frustrated gifted offensive players like Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson and Washington's Alexander Ovechkin. On Monday night in New Jersey, though, there were key moments where the Rangers' defenseman play was simply offensive.
The first major faux pas belonged to Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who has been a stud performer night in and night out alongside Dan Girardi on the Blueshirts' top defensive pairing. That didn't stop him, however, from getting drawn into a fight with Devils rookie Adam Henrique near the midway point of the first period, just over a minute after Bryce Salvador had put the Devils ahead with a seeing-eye shot from the point. NBC analysts were quick to point out that while both players would go to the penalty box, it was the Rangers who would lose a key part of their team for a five-minute stretch.
The five-minute absence of McDonagh, who has logged yeoman's minutes for the Rangers in the playoffs, was particularly noticeable a minute and a half later, when Michael Del Zotto was embarrassed on a 2-on-1 breakaway by the Devils duo of Zach Parise and Travis Zajac. The result was the eventual game-winning goal, and Del Zotto spent a long stretch of time all but chained to the bench in the wake of his slip-up.
"It was a struggle for him," Tortorella said in his post-game press conference. "He hasn't had many games like that this year. We'd figure, 'I have an extra D dressed,' we'd figure we'd take a little pressure off of him and just let him watch."
Del Zotto has been, arguably, the Rangers' most improved player in 2011-12, posting career highs of 10 goals and 31 assists during the regular season while maintaining a plus-minus rating of plus-20, by far the best of his career after he was minus-20 as a rookie and minus-5 in 47 games last season. He's also chipped in with two goals and eight assists during the playoffs, including the game-winning goal in the seventh game of the conference semifinal against Washington. However, Monday night's game was a step backwards, and Del Zotto will be challenged on Wednesday to return to form in an all-important fifth game.
"Michael has gone through a great process," Tortorella said. "He's a big part of our club. He'll bounce back."
With the Eastern Conference Final down to a best-of-three, he'll need to.
