The New York Rangers came as close as they could to winning Games 1 and 2 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, yet find themselves down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Kings.
Brian Boyle takes little relief in falling just short of winning, however, as the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“I don’t give a [expletive] about underdogs,” Boyle said. “That’s ridiculous. Give me a break. We’re not. We’re here, too. We’re a good team. And we can’t take any solace [in two close games] because we lost.
“We came here to win games. It doesn’t matter how the hell we do it, we have to win the game. If you don’t win the game you didn’t do what you came to do and that’s the worst feeling there is.”
Other Rangers put a more positive spin on Saturday’s 5-4 double-overtime loss to the Kings, yet Boyle’s refusal to sugarcoat the loss might just be the honest reaction. After all, it’s pretty difficult to recover from losing two straight postseason games in which you had 2-0 leads.
Still, the Rangers get a chance to “hold serve” in this series by turning things around at Madison Square Garden. It’s a quick turnaround with Game 3 on Monday, so it’s probably ideal that it seems like there was plenty of optimism mixed in with the dejection.
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We've played close to 9 periods here. I liked most of what our team has done. They've tried hard.' - #NYrangers coach AV
— The Mayor | Team MM (@mayorNHL) June 8, 2014
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Ryan McDonagh: "We realize what's at stake. The series isn't over yet. They have a 2-0 lead but we're going home. We're excited."
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) June 8, 2014
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Either way, the Rangers don’t have a long time to linger on these losses. We’ll find out soon enough if that ends up being a positive thing.