DETROIT — The “alternative facts” of this game might be that the Rangers and Red Wings were grinding it out.
The truth of the matter is what happened at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday afternoon was hockey at a level unfit for the NHL, and coach Alain Vigneault had an explanation for it after his team escaped with a 1-0 overtime victory.
“I know the ice was the same for both teams, but the quality of the ice today was just horrendous,” Vigneault said, with this building in its 37th and final year. “When you can’t put two passes together because the puck is bouncing all over the place, makes it very hard on both players, who have some skill. It makes it hard to put that skill on display.
“It took five or six minutes of each period for the ice to be horrible. I think that had a lot to do with the show we saw on the ice.”
Yet that won’t be reflected in the two points the Rangers (30-16-1) collected, after J.T. Miller finished a 2-on-0 pass from Mats Zuccarello at 1:56 of the 3-on-3 extra frame. And although goalie Henrik Lundqvist only saw 21 shots, he stopped them all for his second shutout of the season.
Following a few weeks when Lundqvist was going through a career-worst crisis of confidence, he and his team have now won two in a row following the steadying 5-2 victory over the Maple Leafs on Thursday in Toronto that ended a three-game losing streak.
“It just comes down to a few things you need to pay attention to,” said Lundqvist, who has stopped 44 of the previous 46 shots he faced after allowing 16 goals on 76 shots during the three-game slide.
“Not put too many things in your head, in your basket, where you change too many things even though you’ve given a lot of goals in a couple games — it’s just a couple games. Sometimes you have to take a step back. Going into this game we were 3-2 in my last five, and still people talk about, ‘It’s awful, it’s terrible.’ But you have to take a step back sometimes. I know I can be better, and the last two, with help from the guys, I feel like I’ve been better.”
What has also been better is the Rangers defense, which shut down the Red Wings (20-19-8) by blocking 17 shots and stockpiling the front of the net. It was the antithesis to what happened Tuesday, when they were down 7-3 to Stars after two periods and Lundqvist was pulled en route to a 7-6 loss.
“I corrected a few things,” Lundqvist said, “but with the support in front of me, it’s a lot easier to get there.”
It’s inevitable that all teams will play games like this during the season, regardless whether it’s the result of bad ice or just tight checking. The Rangers came in with the most goals in the league, and their high-flying, four-line attack was ground to an atrocious halt from the drop of the puck.
It also didn’t help that center Kevin Hayes was unable to come out for the third period, suffering a lower-body injury, the extent of which was not immediately known.
“Pretty tough game,” said Miller, now with 16 goals on the season. “A lot of chips, a lot of bounces, a lot of rims — a lot of boring hockey for anybody watching. But sometimes there are games like this.”
Lundqvist was countered by 25-year-old rookie Jared Coreau, but the Rangers got only 19 mostly harmless shots on him as the teams combined for a paltry 39 — just 10 combined in the first (three for the Rangers) and 12 in the third. But as ugly as it was to watch, the Blueshirts now go home to play host to the Kings on Monday night with another two points in the bank.
“A win is a win is a win, eh?” Vigneault said. “We’ll take the win.”