In a night where "change" was the word of the day, the Rangers defeated the Hurricanes 4-1 Saturday at MSG. That win broke a two-game losing streak overall for New York and was their ninth straight and 15th in 16 games against Carolina at home. The final score really doesn't reflect how close the game, which turned on a "change"
Prior to the contest, coach Alain Vigneault indicated there would be "subtle" changes to the line combinations. Those "changes" resulted in Mats Zuccarello moving to the third line with Carl Hagelin and Kevin Hayes replaced by J.T. Miller on the line with Derick Brassard and Rick Nash. Dominic Moore "moved" back down to where he usually plays, the fourth line, with Tanner Glass and Jesper Fast while the second line of Kreider-Stepan-MSL remained intact. On defense, the pairings were McDonagh-Girardi, Staal-Klein and J Moore-Boyle, meaning Boyle was down, Klein up, which made sense and meant that Moore's speed was the be to help out Boyle defensively.
The first half of the game, those changes didn't breed much success. The Rangers did get off a 2-0 lead, thanks to a good forecheck by Miller and interception of a pass by Nash, who waited for Milelr to clear the zone and beat Cam Ward on a weak goal, similar to the one Henrik Lundqvist allowed Thursday. The second goal was a beautiful short-handed rush by D. Moore, who beat Justin Faulk with an outside-in move and slid it five-hole past Ward. However, the Hurricanes were the better team, pinning NY in their end, taking advantage of poor defensive coverage and good forechecking to carry play.
The second frame began as the first ended, with Carolina carrying play. However, a much scarier situation occurred, when Lundqvist, who carried the team in the first and was the best Ranger by far in the game, went down to the ice on a freak play about three minutes into the stanza.
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With the Rangers up 2-0 and the Canes pressuring, Ryan McDonagh’s stick inadvertently lifted Lundqvist’s mask upward at the exact moment that Jay McClement deflected Brad Malone’s shot up into Lundqvist's exposed throat. At that time, worrying about wins and losses went out the window, as the main concern became Lundqvist's health, and more important, ability to breathe.
“I had a bad feeling because I could kind of see the puck coming, then I lost track of it,” Lundqvist said, who had a headache after the game. “When I got hit, it’s obviously extremely painful and it’s hard to breathe for a couple minutes. I got very lightheaded and got a little worried the first minute or so. But they told me to breathe and I slowly started to feel better.”
Surprisingly, Lundqvist remained in the game. I would love to say that was the galvanizing moment, and I am sure it helped as the contest wore on, but Carolina cut the lead to 2-1 on a gorgeous tip-in by Malone. On the play, poor coverage in their own zone and a failure to fully mark Malone by Boyle led to the tally. At this point, the game clearly was a pick-em contest, with Carolina outshooting NY 24-10, so something radical had to be done, leading to the second "change."
Late in the second, AV shuffled the pairings again. The new lines were: Nash-Stepan-MSL, Fast-Brassard-Hagelin, Kreider-Hayes-Zucc and Miller-Moore-Glass. All of a sudden, the forecheck was harder, the passes were crisper and each line attacked in waves. It didn't pay dividends right away, but 10:16 into the third, the BC duo of Hayes and Kreider tallied the third goal, on a great pass by Hayes to Kreider. That goal came after a hard drive down the wing by Kreider, who was the Rangers' best forward on the evening, and hard work behind the net by Zucc and Hayes.
Just 21 seconds later, Boyle made it 4-1. An offensive zone faceoff win was followed by great patience behind the net by Hagelin, who didn't force the play. He held the puck, came around the net and fed it back to the point rather than just sending it in front. Boyle blasted it on net and caught a break when it looked like it deflected off a 'Canes d-man.
The Rangers really flipped the switch the final 28:09 of the game, outshooting Carolina 28:09. but it wasn't just the shots, it was the quality of them and the control of the game New York finally took. Expect these lines to remain intact, at least to start Monday's game against Florida. Defensively, the Rangers tightened up as the game wore on, but early on, their play was embarrassingly poorly, headed by Dan Girardi. If not for Lundqvist in that first period, the Rangers likely would have been trailing rather than up 2-0.
Lundqvist's said after the game:
The first couple of minutes it was more for me to see if I’m going to start to feel better after a while, and slowly it did. I had some headaches the rest of the game, and that was I guess normal because I couldn’t breathe there for a little bit. They said because I couldn’t breathe for a little while there it was a reaction I guess.”
When I was first listening to what he said and heard the terms lightheaded and headaches, immediately I started worrying about a concussion. But when he added, "that was I guess normal because I couldn’t breathe there for a little bit. They said because I couldn’t breathe for a little while there it was a reaction I guess," I was actually able to exhale. They talk about toughness on the ice, but as we see with Lundqvist, he brings that toughness mentality to his play between the pipes.
A good, not great win. Florida in on Monday, Boston in on Wednesday and then a trip to Nashville is upcoming on Saturday followed by a home contest against Dallas on Sunday. Not an easy week at all for the Blueshirts. If they play as they did the last half of Saturday's game, they have a good chance to win, if like the first half, Hank will need to stand on his head. Beating Florida would restore a 10-point lead over them for the second Wild Card spot.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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