Flyers 6 – Rangers 3
The Rangers have played 5,389 games across 79 NHL seasons, with last night’s 6-3 defeat by the Flyers at the Garden marking the 2,301st time they’ve lost.
Which is to say that even with the relative importance of last night’s match as it relates to the Atlantic title, the game itself will eventually recede into memory.
Not so, however, regarding the performance of Jaromir Jagr. His compelling hat trick game – all three by the end of the second – not only boosted his season total to a league-leading 49 goals and league-leading 104 points, but is already indelibly etched in the mind as one of the most memorable in franchise history.
That’s how dominating it was, even in defeat, even with his teammates unable to climb aboard his back for the ride.
“I think as a team we probably let Jaromir down,” Tom Renney said after the Flyers moved into a tie with the Blueshirts for the division lead, though the Rangers have 13 games remaining to Philly’s dozen. “He did everything he could – the will, the execution – to get us this game.
“Generally speaking as a club, we let down our best player.”
The Rangers were 3-0-2 in their first five against the Flyers by going 8-for-20 on the power play while killing 28 of 33 against. Last night, however, the Flyers went 3-for-5 on the PP – getting all three in the first period, including one with less than one second to go.
The final two came while the Rangers were attempting to kill a 5-minute major issued to Ryan Hollweg for ramming R.J. Umberger from behind into the boards at 16:43 and the Blueshirts on top 2-1. It was a monumentally foolish – and dangerous – play by the winger, who will certainly receive a multiple-game suspension for the act.
“I was taking an angle to finish the check as he was turning to go up the ice, but my timing was a little off,” Hollweg said. “But I take full responsibility. I feel I let the team down.
“The game could have been different if not for that. I have to be really careful in the future not to let that happen again.”
The Flyers got their goals by driving to the front of the net and getting traffic in front of Henrik Lundqvist. It marked the first time in 29 Garden starts that The King yielded five goals, the Flyers sealing it on a very late, shorthanded empty-netter.
“I felt like they got some easy goals,” Lundqvist said. “I don’t think they had to work that hard for some of them.”
While Jagr made it look easy, his work ethic never wavered. He did basically what he pleased to score on his first three shots before finishing with five shots in 23:24 of ice. He made Peter Forsberg look foolish on his first goal, and that just doesn’t happen.
“I’m not thinking about my own game,” said No. 68. “This is a team game.
“It would be nice if I could celebrate after a win, but there’s nothing to celebrate.”
But there is a performance to remember.
