With the Rangers and Predators tied at 1 in the third period, Adam McQuaid was in front of the Rangers net when Nashville's Kevin Fiala's stick caught him up high.
McQuaid's glove flew off and he went to the ice but, even after the refs huddled, no call was made.
In describing the play, McQuaid said that he took a stick to the mouth but that the situation "is what it is." (Newsday)
David Quinn said after the game that everyone on the Rangers bench felt the situation warranted a penalty but that "you just have to keep on playing." (NY Post)
Nashville won the ensuing faceoff, deep in the Rangers zone, cleanly back to the blue line, a pass was made and PK Subban scored to make it 2-1 Predators.
With a bit over 90 seconds left, PK Subban was going to be called for interference but while the Rangers controlled the puck they had seven skaters on the ice and the Subban penalty was negated with a too-many men on the ice call.
At 5 on 5 the Predators had 56 shot attempts and 28 shots on goal to the Rangers 51 shot attempts but 32 shots on goal. (Natural Stat Trick)
David Quinn said that while he thought the Rangers got better as the game went along, they didn't really play "to the level" that the coaches are looking for. (NYR Game Notes)
He noted that the Rangers didn't "hound the puck" like they did in the preseason and need to do a better job of playing"'in your face hockey." (NYR Game Notes)
Henrik Lundqvist said that he saw "a lot of good things," liked how the Rangers improved as the game went along and went to the net with the puck. (NYR Game Notes)
Mats Zuccarello said "we have to be interrupting their play, quick on pucks, and in their faces. We need to be a hard team to play against, using our speed and having a good defensive zone." (NYR Game Notes)
Lundqvist stopped 30 of 32 shots and said that he was happy with how he played. (NYR Game Notes)
Quinn said after the game, "I've said this many times, he's a guy that keeps himself in incredible shape, an incredible competitor and one of the top goalies in the league. He certainly gave us a chance tonight. He had about ten bell ringers tonight, most of them on odd-man rushes." (NYR Game Notes)
Adam Rotter: The biggest takeaway from last night, outside of the missed call and then the too-many-men on the ice penalty, was how the Rangers got better as the game went along. It's unfortunate that the refs missed the call on McQuaid but even after they huddled, I felt as if the faceoff should have been in the neutral zone because of it. Instead it's a clean faceoff win and a go-ahead goal. They had the opportunity to tie it with 90 seconds left but that bench minor, with the chance to go up 6 on 4, was brutal. Overall, there were things to like from last night. The odd-man rushes were a bit much but Henrik was on his game and definitely kept this game from getting out of hand in the first period. His performance was nice, Jimmy Vesey had a really strong game, but didn't score, Filip Chytil made an outstanding pass on Jesper Fast's goal and I liked how Brett Howden looked. It was a loss, but something that the Rangers can hopefully build on and move forward with as they head into a back to back this weekend.