TAMPA — So here we are again, the Rangers in the conference finals with a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup despite being unable to score, and unable to score in the playoffs largely because their leading scorer can’t and doesn’t.
Following Monday’s Game 2 slop-fest of a 6-2 defeat to the talented Lightning in which his team committed a succession of brain-dead penalties in concert with repeated turnovers and blunders in critical portions of the ice, Blueshirts coach Alain Vigneault called out his “top players,” even if not by name.
And though there were at least a dozen indictable co-conspirators in that one, there can be no doubt the coach was metaphorically eyeballing Rick Nash.