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Game 53: NYR 4 ANA 1, Lundqvist solid in net, Grabner nets two in win |
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The Rangers won their third straight game, a 4-1 victory over the Ducks on Tuesday. New York lost the puck possession and shot generation battle by a large margin, but were bolstered by the fine play of Henrik Lundqvist, lots and lots of locked shots and high quality opportunities amongst the limited ones the team had. They look to keep the roll going Thursday against Nashville.
As he Daily News wrote: "this was far from an ideal game for the Rangers, who were outshot 44-20, out-attempted 83-40 and went 11:27 of the second period without an attempt and the final 12:10 of the second without a shot on goal following Stepan's shot on goal at 7:50 of the period." Lundqvist made 43 saves yet might have even been outplayed by John Gibson, who despite only making 16 saves, likely saved at three or four goals with spectacular stops. One key component of the win was New York killing off all eight Anaheim penaties, bolstered by Lundqvist's eight saves while shorthanded.
A quick breakdown of each goal scored:
Good forecheck, great pinch by Marc Staal, better pass from behind the net by Pavel Buchnevich past Cam Fowler, who was just watching, to Oscar Lindberg in front for the goal 4:01 into the game.
Second goal, Zuccarello initially shot the puck wide, then was set up by an ice pass from Chris Kreider and beat Gibson from a sharp angle at 1:06 of the second.
Later in the second, Gibson stones Michael Grabner, who was all over the place and would get rewarded later, on a breakaway and then Jimmy Vesey, who should have gone with the one-timer but waited too long allowing Gibson to go post-to-post to make the pad save. Shortly thereafter, Brady Skjei whiffs on the pass behind the net, Andrew Cogliano picks up the loose puck, feed to Jakob Silfverberg and the result was a goal and 1-1 game.
After Derek Stepan was boarded by Logan Shaw, which went uncalled, Rick Nash came to his aid and Ryan Getzlaf plus Ryan Kesler helped move Stepan out of the scrum on the boards so he didn't get injured. Very classy play by both Getzlaf and Kesler. Per AV, Stepan reportedly didn't need to go through the concussion protocol. Though as we have seen before, that doesn't mean he won't have an issue later on. But hopefully he is okay and has no lingering effects from the hit.
Grabner made it 3-1. J.T. Miller's pass was a thing of beauty, setting up Grabner, who blew past Getzlaf, for the top shelf shot over Gibson for the goal at 3:45 of the third. He would add an empty-netter later to seal the win and give him 25 goals on the season. A pretty darn good return on a $1.65 million per season for two year investment. Speed kills, and even if Grabner wasn't his adoring, his ability to tilt the ice and create chances with his speed as well as thwart others has added a grossly missed element on this team.
Grabner and Miller seem to have built an innate connection, knowing where each other will be. Miller has at least one point in 14 of his last 16 games, six assists in his last four matches and 26 helpers overall, building off his breakout season of a year ago. As I have said before, anyone else really still want to trade him? I am sure he would net a big return, but you then leave a major gap on your team while dealing a forward just scratching the surface of how good he can be. Maybe Lindberg and someone like Ryan Group, who had a hat trick last night, goes to get a defenseman, as was suggested on twitter yesterday.
For all the shade thrown on Alain Vigneault, with the win, he became the second-fastest coach in NHL history to reach 600 wins, doing so in 1,105 games. Scotty Bowman was the fastest to 600. Pretty good company.
Dan Girardi was a shot blocking monster again. Despite the win, the defense still is on need of an upgrade. I still would want to see G playing third pair, sheltered minutes if a top-pair RH d-man can be acquired. If not, and we shall see what happens the next three weeks, then G is likely to stay with Ryan McDonagh. Because you know despite his regression and his limitations, you will get every thing he has, sacrificing his body for the team.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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