Penguins' star shows up, Rangers' star does not

NEW YORK – Big boy pants.

Alain Vigneault implored his best players to pull up theirs, after the Penguins' stars did in Game 2 of the Rangers-Pittsburgh series Sunday night.

Well, it probably wasn't as much a matter of big boy-ing up as it was of finding a way to put a puck — or at least two as needed — into the net.

Yet here it was again, a big boy game, and the Rangers' No. 1 line let them down offensively, while the Penguins' No. 1 player, Sidney Crosby, scored the game-winning goal on a beaut of a breakaway, his first goal of these playoffs.

Before the game, the Rangers' sixth in nine ridiculous nights — a schedule beyond unreasonable — Vigneault talked about how Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had stepped forward in Game 2, a 3-0 Pittsburgh win that evened the series at 1-1.

"Their big boys put on the big boy pants," Vigneault said. "I need mine to do that."

Then he was asked if he needed to relay that message to his big boys.

Vigneault smirked and said, "I think they've picked up on it."

Well, the performance was better in a 2-0 Game 3 loss Monday night, even by the big boys. But the result was the same.

Zero goals against Marc-Andre Fleury, who had been comical at worst and jittery at best through the first round, and for many of his playoff failures since the 2009 Cup. Outside of the Game 1 overtime, Fleury has shut out the Rangers for eight regulation periods.

Yeah, the Rangers rang three pucks off the iron. That's not good enough.

Which brings us to the biggest boy on the team, Rick Nash, who's not in Crosby's stratosphere at his best but at his worst is this: One goal in 22 playoff games as a Ranger.

Nash and Derek Stepan did nothing of note in Games 1, 2 and 3. Nash had all of his assists in the first three games of the Philadelphia series, when he played a dynamic game before disappearing. He reappeared for Game 7 against Philly, though scoreless, then went into witness protection again.

Clearly, this isn't only on Nash, who tried to be involved Monday. The Rangers need a lot more from Martin St. Louis, the most accomplished offensive player they have, and from Stepan, who has been silent in four seasons' worth of playoffs in his young career (nine goals, 13 assists, 22 points in 55 games, including 2-2-4 in 10 this year).

Those three are huge reasons why the power play is an unimaginable 0 for 35 since Game 2 vs. the Flyers.

Nash sticks out like a sore thumb because of the repeated playoff failure — and because of his $7.8 million contract, and mostly because the Rangers broke up a 51-win, 109-point, Eastern Conference finalist core to get him.

He isn't that player anymore. He plays on the perimeter now, understandably after suffering his second concussion in a year. But he also showed what a force he can be when motivated — in his return to Columbus, before and after the Olympics, and in Game 7 last week.

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, after Crosby's dynamic but goal-less Game 2, said Sid the Kid would take 13 more wins like that even if he didn't score a goal. Well, now the Penguins' captain has got a goal and two wins in the series.

The Rangers don't even have a captain. And their big-ticket guy?

Not a point. And still looking for those pants.

Twitter: @RangersReport