The Rangers completed a comeback for the ages, scoring five goals to rally for a 5-4 win over the Wild at MSG on Monday. The victory falls under the "holy cow, I can't believe they came back." Given how bad the Blueshirts looked the first two periods, I doubt anyone in the building or watching or following the score thought there was a glimmer of hope, especially since five goals were needed.

My 10 thoughts:

1) Clearly this was a gut-check win. It would have been easy for the Rangers to check out given the circumstances and absence of a forward and a defenseman, who were tossed out during the game. But they found a way to dig deep and put forth a much better effort in the third period.

2) While Ryan McDonagh has the C on his chest, the emotional leader for the win was Henrik Lundqvist, following his between period speech before the third stanza. Hank - by virtue of his status and stature - is a defacto captain, so happy he stepped up, but it's clear that McDonagh is still feeling his way as a leader. Lundqvist wasn't great but New York has to do a better job of taking players in front of the net to give him a chance at times.

3) While McDonagh may still be settling into the C, to use that as an excuse for his on-ice struggles is a cop-out. He is playing poorly, pure and simple. Not because he now is juggling the duties as a captain in addition to his job as a hockey player, but just because he is not playing well. I don't know the reason, but shifting John Moore didn't do the trick yesterday, so it may be back to the drawing board for coach Alain Vigneault.

4) Desperate times call for desperate measures. AV put Rick Nash with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello and the effect was tangible. Nash had been one of the more noticeable - in a positive way - Rangers the first two periods, but he took over in the third. He had a great screen on Klein's slapshot goal that opened the frame. Nash went to the dirty area to score New York's second marker. Brassard was in the right place at the right time on Carl Hagelin's shot off the crossbar to make it 4-3. I will get to the last two goals in a second, but seeing how good that trio looked, you almost have to keep them together, regardless of how long Chris Kreider is out.

5) Ducc and Zucc. Anthony Duclair showed again last night why he needs to stay in the lineup. Granted, he isn’t going to score nightly, but he clearly has the talent level to be a threat in each game. He used his speed to create space between himself and Ryan Suter and his quick wrister beat Darcy Kuemper for his first career goal. It wasn't Zucc's first career goal, though it may have felt like it to him, seeing how he has struggled this season and how his failure to backcheck effectively led to the Wild's fourth goal. With Minnesota reeling and the Rangers rolling, Zucc went to the front/side of the net and Brassard found him for the game-winner.

6) Chris Kreider and John Moore. Kreider has to learn how to use his strength and avoid taking these penalties. Whether or not you want to argue Jonas Brodin turned his back, Kreider has to be smarter. This is the second time this year that Kreider has been tossed from a game. When you take those two incidents and add in the Carey Price one from last year's playoffs, unless he finds a way to harness his speed and strength, he will never get the benefit of the doubt and will consistently be in the cross-hairs of the on-ice officials, It would not shock me if he gets a two-game suspension.

7) What the heck was John Moore thinking? It's clear he wasn't, because there is no place in the game for the elbow to the head Moore gave Erik Haula. His similar penalty against Dale Weise last year in Game 5 of the series against Montreal resulted in a two-game suspension. This one, since it was a match penalty, automatically requires a hearing with Department of Player Safety, and I would expect Stephane Quintal, who was at the game last night, to give Moore anywhere from 5-10 games.

8) Beyond the victory, there were lots of issues. The team's inability to make a tape-to-tape pass to go from D to O has resulted in several turnovers and a lack of a sustained attack. What was very noticeable the first two period is how good Minnesota was at this, which enabled them to use their speed through the neutral zone and generate an attack and how bad the Rangers were. New York was better in the third, but this is a major area of weakness.

9) Thank god New York faced one of the few teams with a worse power play than them. Minnesota entered the game 0-for-20 on the man-advantage. They had four power plays for 14 minutes, including a pair of five-minute ones for the Kreider and Moore hits, and failed to capitalize. That ended up being the difference in the game. The Rangers only had one power play, so hard to make a call as to how the grouping reshuffling looked due to the lack of opportunities.

10) The blueline is a mess. Marc Staal was paired with Dan Girardi while Klein was paired with McDonagh. There were some good moments and then ones that make you scratch your head. Can someone, anyone, cover the front of net and not leave it open to take a forward behind the cage? (Yes, I mean you Ryan McDongah) It will be back to the drawing board for AV, especially with Moore likely to be suspended. I would call up Conor Allen, who has five points in seven games, rather than insert Michael Kostka into the lineup.

Four days off to work on the aforementioned issues. If the team had lost, I was recommending two days of bag skates and two days of D to O breakout passes. With the win, the skate is scrapped, but the underlying issues need to remediated and fast with a heavy November schedule upcoming.

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