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Rangers feel they didn’t make Mason work hard enough

Steve Mason, Scott Hartnell, Luke Schenn, Jakub Voracek, Benoit Pouliot, Marc Staal

Steve Mason, Scott Hartnell, Luke Schenn, Jakub Voracek, Benoit Pouliot, Marc Staal

AP

The New York Rangers got 38 shots on goal in Steve Mason’s first start of the playoffs, including 16 in the first period alone, but they still don’t feel like they challenged him enough in tonight’s 2-1 loss to Philadelphia.

“I think we made it too easy on Mason,” Rangers forward Martin St. Louis said, per ESPN’s Katie Strang.

“We didn’t make it tough enough on Mason in his first game back,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh told Newsday’s Steve Zipay.

Forward Rich Nash argued that too many of the Rangers shots were fired from the outside and they didn’t put enough traffic in front of Mason, according to the Bergen Records’ Andrew Gross. In other words, he feels that the Rangers were lacking when it came to generating quality chances, even if the quantity of shots was there.

At least one Rangers player though was willing to give Mason some credit though.

“I don’t know if he made big save after big save, but he made some big ones,” Brad Richards said, per the Winnipeg Sun’s Ken Wiebe.

In particular, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault feels they were lacking on the power play. The Rangers were 0-for-4 with the man advantage and have a 15.0% success rate in the series.

Whether or not the Rangers feel they could have been better, Mason more than earned his first career postseason win tonight. If he continues to perform like he did tonight, then the Flyers have a fair chance of eliminating the Rangers.

With the series tied at 2-2, Game 5 will be played on Sunday.

Follow @RyanDadoun