Garden Crowd Is Revved Up, but Rangers Look Jet-Lagged

Maybe it was the buildup to the home opener. Perhaps it was lingering fatigue from the 16,000-mile road trip that preceded it. Or possibly it was simply that the Rangers have become a sluggish team in desperate need of a spark-plug player.

Whatever the reason, the Rangers fell listlessly to the Toronto wholesale jerseys from china Maple Leafs, 4-2, on Thursday, spoiling the unveiling of the renovated Madison Square Garden.

“Physically we were lethargic and mentally we were lethargic,” Coach John Tortorella said.

The Rangers (3-3-2) opened the game with a dominant first period — their best 20 minutes of hockey of the season — and led, 1-0, on Dan Girardi’s goal off a rebound from a terrific individual effort by Marian Gaborik. The score could have been 3-0, but two apparent goals were disallowed.

But the Leafs equalized early in the second period on a soft cheap nhl jerseys goal allowed by Henrik Lundqvist from a sharp-angle shot by Matthew Lombardi.

The Rangers’ effort sagged the rest of the way, bringing down an excited crowd with them.

“I think we got juiced just from coming back home and playing in front of the crowd and all of the things going on around us here,” Tortorella said. “But after they scored the goal, we struggled with our energy, we struggled making passes.”

In the third period, the Leafs broke the 1-1 tie with nba jerseys cheap goals by Joffrey Lupul, Clarke MacArthur and Mike Brown. Two of those were stoppable.

“I lost my concentration after the second goal,” Lundqvist said.

It got so dire that the Garden fans started chanting for Sean Avery, the longtime Rangers spark plug demoted to the Connecticut Whale in the A.H.L. after falling out of favor with Tortorella.

Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto struck with a late goal that made the score respectable.

The lethargic defeat also spoiled the home debut of Brad Richards, the $60 million free-agent signee who made little impact. He managed three shots on goal — two of them late — in 24 minutes of ice time.

The chemistry between Gaborik, acknowledged as one of the game’s best goal scorers coming into the season, and Richards, one of the game’s best setup men, has been slow to develop.

“I’ve known him for a month now, and it’d be NFL Jerseys Cheap great if we could come in here and click perfectly,” Richards said. “But realistically, we have some work to do.”

The Leafs took 36 shots to the Rangers’ 30. The Rangers have been outshot in each of their eight games.

Despite having an off night, Lundqvist did stop Phil Kessel, the N.H.L.’s leading scorer, on two breakaways.

Defenseman Michael Sauer, who missed the previous five games with a shoulder injury, stopped a sure Toronto goal with a sliding save in the second period.

The Rangers came out energized in the first period, skating with the energy they had not displayed during the two-continent road trip. After Girardi’s goal, the Rangers seemed to have scored again on a Del Zotto shot at 9 minutes 45 seconds, but Ryan Callahan was cheap nfl jerseys knocked into Jonas Gustavsson by defenseman Mike Komisarek. No goal.

At 12:33, Brandon Dubinsky seemed to score, but it was nullified, because Callahan crashed into Gustavsson following up his own rebound.

The Rangers did not complain about the decisions.

“I made contact with the goalie on both of them — I definitely bumped him on both,” Callahan said. Tortorella called the nullified goals the right calls.

The evening started with suitable pomp. The Rangers entered Hollywood-style, walking down a blue carpet lined by fans in the lobby. Later, they skated out one-by-one for the official introductions, with the loudest cheers reserved for Lundqvist and Callahan, who was making his first Garden appearance as Rangers captain.

While the anthems were sung, patrons in an unrenovated portion of the 400 Section hung a large sign. “16 Avery,” it read. “Send Torts to the Whale.”

That sentiment re-emerged during New York’s dismal third period. As the Rangers slogged on the ice below, fans chanted, “We want Avery.”

Lundqvist was asked about the crowd’s pro-Avery chants.
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“We’ve got plenty of guys with spark,” Lundqvist said. “Aves is ... is ... one of a kind. There’s nobody like him.”

Lundqvist added, “This is the team management wants.”