The energy and excitement was there beforehand. It really was.
And then, in wave after wave of terrible play, the Rangers forced all of the good emotion out of the Garden, leaving the newly hung Eastern Conference championship banner to hang there, looking down on a crowd that couldn't even make it to the final horn — and no one could blame them.
This was supposed to be a glorious home opener, one when the Blueshirts' run to the Stanley Cup final just three months ago could be remembered, and celebrated, and then left behind for a new season that is brimming with high expectations. Instead, Sunday night was a drubbing, a 6-3 loss to the previously winless Maple Leafs that was deficient in so many areas all coach Alain Vigneault could do was call it "a team loss."
"No one in our group wanted to perform the way we did," Vigneault said. "I don't have a reason or an explanation for you right now. We obviously believe and know that we can perform a lot better than we did. We expect more from ourselves."
The star of last season's run was goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and after 35:13 of this one, having given up six goals on 24 shots, he was mercifully summoned to the bench and replaced by Cam Talbot. By then, the Leafs were up, 6-2, and Tuesday night here against the Islanders was already on the mind.
"Obviously there are things we need to work on," said Lundqvist, who had never been pulled after allowing six-plus goals in less than two full periods. "Part of that is I have to be better. There is a combination of things we just need to go over."
How about all of the second period? That's when the Rangers opened the E-Z Pass lane to the scoresheet, allowing Toronto to score on the power play (Phil Kessel), shorthanded (James van Riemsdyk), as well as three at even-strength (Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak and David Clarkson). The defensive lapses became hard to watch, as the Leafs (1-2-0) seemingly were getting great scoring chances every time down the ice.
"Every opportunity seemed to find the back of our net," Vigneault said, "and every opportunity was a grade-A scoring chance."
Before the game, Vigneault had called this game "an opportunity to bounce back," referring to Saturday night's 5-2 loss to the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Well, this performance made that one look like a work of art. It has been made very clear early on the Rangers (1-2-0) are not that team from last season, not by a long shot.
"We've got to look at each other here and look at our team and figure out what we need to do to be successful," Ryan McDonagh said after his first game in front of the Garden crowd as Rangers' captain.
"We have to get in sync here."
If there were a bright spot, it was Rick Nash, who lifted a great feed from Marty St. Louis late in the first period for his fourth goal of the first three games, negating Cody Franson's early power-play tally for the Maple Leafs and sending the game into the second tied, 1-1.
Yet even Nash couldn't stick around for this one, not coming out for the third period after leaving to be with his wife for the birth of the couple's first child.
Even if they had Nash, the Rangers had little hope in that final 20 minutes, regardless of Derick Brassard's toss-away goal with just over five minutes to go that made it 6-3. The cheers for that goal, coming from those few remaining in the stands, sounded almost mocking. Last season couldn't have seemed further away.
"We didn't perform well with or without the puck," Vigneault said, "and that's why we got the result we did."
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