John Tortorella may give clipped answers and avoid tangential questions, but that doesn’t mean he can’t offer a fair assessment of his team.
The Rangers coach gave a short, accurate answer when asked after Thursday night’s game what went wrong for New York in its 3-2 overtime loss to the Bruins.
“We got spanked in overtime,” Tortorella told reporters.
The teams were neck-and-neck late in the game, with the Rangers erasing the Bruins’ 1-0 edge in the second period and going up 2-1 before Torey Krug evened the score in the third. In overtime, however, Boston had a noticeable edge, drumming up more of the fast-paced, pressing offense that had marked pockets of the game for both sides earlier in the contest.
“We never regrouped,” Tortorella said.
Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who had an otherwise strong game in net, was eventually overcome in overtime by a Brad Marchand goal. The Bruins outshot the Rangers 16-5 in overtime after notching just two more shots than the visitors in regulation.
“Sooner or later when you face a lot of chances like that, you’re going to make a mistake,” Lundqvist said. “It’s not a mistake I’m going to sleep less over. I thought we played a solid game, but we just came up short here, in overtime, again.”
Lundqvist had 45 saves on the night, but his record in overtime playoff games fell to 3-11.
Spanked, indeed.
