from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The last thing you expect is for an NHL coach to give his team an excuse for losing, yet that’s what the Rangers’ Alain Vigneault did following his team’s 2-0 Game 3 defeat to the Penguins on Monday night at the Garden.

Before the game, before the Blueshirts were shut out for the second time in 27 hours by Marc-Andre Fleury, before the Rangers fell behind in the series 2-1 with Game 4 coming up on Wednesday, the coach all but mocked and dismissed a question regarding the brutal march through late April and early May in which New York was playing its fifth game in seven nights.

But when it was over, when the Rangers had suffered back-to-back shutouts in the playoffs for the first time since the 1937 Finals, Vigneault essentially cited the schedule as cause for his team’s inability to score.

“We were forced to play a stupid schedule,” the coach said in response to a question about the power play that failed five more times but looked reasonably good in doing so. “Five games in seven nights…I’m real proud of how our guys handled it…they handled it real well. We put our best foot forward in every game.”

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added 9:18am, Watch Vigneault's post-game press conference below...