Some Los Angeles Kings fans believe that they acquired the wrong Richards this summer, but Mike’s team beat Brad’s in the first of their two meetings for 2011-12.
The New York Rangers managed to stay in the game 1-1 after a brutal defensive effort in the first period. Going further, it looked like they had a chance to hook the tights and steal one from the Kings when Brad Richards did some dirty work to set up Marian Gaborik’s 2-1 goal. Mike Richards ultimately came through in the end, though, as he scored the game-tying goal and then earned the primary assist on Jack Johnson’s overtime-winner.
As expected, the Rangers really miss Marc Staal on defense. Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves and bailed his team out repeatedly, while Ryan Callahan scored a captain’s goal on some unusually bad work by Jonathan Quick. Head coach John Tortorella hit his quota for stunned looks, but deep down, he should feel happy that his team even scraped out a point.
Much like the Ducks’ one-game worries, the Rangers can at least take solace in the fact that they lost to a strong team. The talent deficit seemed most obvious in the first goal of the game, when Justin Williams sent a gorgeous saucer pass to Anze Kopitar, who showed off his world-class release.
Hey, at least the Rangers only have to deal with that one more time this season.