PITTSBURGH _ As his first season as Rangers coach came to an end Saturday night against the Penguins, David Quinn essentially said he knew what he was signing on for when he agreed to take over as the Rangers coach during this rebuilding stage the team is going through. And this was it.
"Honestly, it was pretty much what I expected," Quinn said, before his team closed out the 2018-19 season with a 4-3 overtime win over the Penguins inside PPG Paints Arena. "It really was."
In the final game of the season for both teams, Ryan Strome scored the winner with 2:51 remaining in overtime. For the Penguins, the one point earned from the result _ combined with the Islanders' win over the Capitals in Washington � meant they finished third in the Metropolitan Division and will face the Islanders in the first round, with the first two games being on Long Island.
With the win, the Rangers finished 32-36-14, for 78 points (20 points out of a playoff spot). The Rangers moved down to seventh in the pre-lottery draft order and have a 6.5 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick. They have a 20 percent chance of finishing with a top-3 pick. (Edmonton is playing a late game Saturday and the outcome could affect the Rangers' lottery odds slightly). The lottery is Tuesday in Toronto.
As for Quinn, he said he didn't feel like the transition from coaching college hockey at Boston University to coaching in the NHL was a big deal, but he talked about how he was surprised by how "coachable" his players were. He said he believes he is a better coach now than he was at the start of the season, and that the Rangers coaching staff as a whole will be better next season, after a full season together.
As the Rangers players meet with management Sunday for their breakup day interviews and the team plans for next season, Quinn said the one thing the Blueshirts need to improve is their defense.
"We have to play better defense," he said. "We cannot be giving up the chances we've given up, and we can't be giving up the goals we've given up. No. 1, first and foremost, we have to be a better defensive team. And that's going to be stressed in our end-of-the-year meetings with every individual."
The Rangers gave up 264 goals entering Saturday's game, ninth-most in the league. They had scored 217 goals, tied with the Vancouver Canucks for 23rd most.
"I thought there was a stretch where we played very good team defense; our chances (against) were down; we were defending the net front better; we looked more purposeful in our defending _ I think we wanted to defend," Quinn said. "I think we've lost that this last four, five weeks. But looking over the big picture, we have to defend better."
They defended OK Saturday, for the first two periods at least. Sidney Crosby, who entered the game needing two points to get to 100 for the season, scored on a two-on-one break, one-timing Jake Guentzel's saucer pass past Alexandar Georgiev for his 35th goal of the season at 6:36 of the first period. But rather than folding, the Rangers dug in, and got the equalizer when Brendan Smith _ playing left wing _ picked off a pass in the neutral zone and picked the top corner over Matt Murray's glove hand for his fourth goal of the season (second as a forward) at 12:49.
The teams were scoreless in the second period, but a total of four goals were scored in the third, with Nick Bjugstad and Jake Guentzel scoring for Pittsburgh, while Brady Skjei and Vladislav Namestnikov (shorthanded) scored for the Rangers. In the overtime, Crosby appeared to score the game-winner, but the goal was wiped out after video review determined that Guentzel had interfered with Georgiev on the play.
