The Rangers found a way. More precisely, Antti Raanta provided that way, enabling New York to escape Tampa with a 1-0 overtime win, thanks Mike Zibanejad's game winner with 1:04 remaining. New York gets no time to enjoy the victory, as they head down the coast to face the Panthers tonight.
As NHL.com noted, Tampa Bay was 6-2-2 in its last 10 heading into Monday's game and just three points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference despite trading several pieces of its lineup prior to last week's trade deadline, including Ben Bishop, Brian Boyle and Valtteri Filppula. The Lightning came in to Monday's game off a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night and were 17-11-2 at home this season. What does the above mean? It meant that Tampa was a desperate team, trying to remain and move up in the playoff hunt, so the game had bigger implications for them than maybe New York.
But the Rangers entered Monday's game at a cross roads. Called out by their coach for their lackluster and soft play, management decided to call up Tanner Glass to stir the pot. If you are going to call him up, then you have to play him, which is what AV did. In addition, Steven Kampfer was promoted, which as you will see didn't sit with Adam Clendening when he was sat for Kampfer last night.
New York did display much better effort. Whether it was causation or correlation or mere happenstance driven by the game and the opponent, the Rangers were much more engaged. Glass did his part the set the tone, fighting Luke Wilkowski at 6:34 of the first period. But I am reluctant to say that one fight spurred the attitude adjustment. That's just fitting the one event into your broader remit, though maybe knowing he had their back did have some level of an impact. In addition, most of the game was marred by the opening of the penalty box for another call on the ice, creating a special team's game during which neither PP was able to capitalize.
Antti Raanta started for New York and was absolutely spectacular between the pipes. He stopped all 38 shots he faced, including all 16 shots in the second period, to earn his 13th win and third shutout of the season. While there have been some bobbles along the way, because of Raanta and Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers have allowed two goals or fewer in regulation in 13 of the last 21 games and in 39 games this season. In 18 starts this season Raanta 13-3-0 with a 2.03 goals against average and .933 save percentage. Look at those numbers and let them sink in. No imagine if they lose Raanta to Vegas in the expansion and the cost to acquire a new, good back up, regardless of Benoit Allaire's magic touch.
Antti Raanta Highlights from last night:
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New York got the win thanks to Zibanejad. Indeed Palat broke into the offensive zone during overtime, but Ryan McDonagh was enough of a distraction and impediment that Palat shot it wide. Rick Nash, who was by far the team's best forward and a beast late in the game, got the puck to McDonagh in the D zone and he fed Zib for the breakaway. Zib went quickly from backhand to forehand, beating Andrei Vaselivsky low to the glove side.
Glass played just 5:17 but that was more of a function of the game rather than anything else. Due to the penalties, Brandon Pirri skated only 8:30, and that includes some PP TOI, while Oscar Lindberg was on the ice for just 7:05. Glass does bring some toughness albeit with extremely low puck possession numbers. He should be spotted in to provide the Rangers with some energy, enabling forwards to rest down the stretch with New York fairly locked into a playoff spot and a good bet to earn the first wild card. Playing Glass over Matt Puempel or Brandon Pirri is one thing. Starting him in place of Pavel Buchnevich or Michael Grabner when it's not just for rest is whole other matter.
Clendening clearly didn't react well to the scratch. He has been the poster boy for the advanced stats versus eye test, as his Corsi with Brady Skjei and his zone entries are impressive, offset by his at times clueless play on his own zone. Clendening and Skjei each had rough games on Saturday against the Canadiens — as did the entire team, including Marc Staal and Nick Holden, but Clendening took the hit to sit Monday. He had played six straight with Dan Girardi (ankle) and Kevin Klein (back spasms) sidelined but gave way to Kampfer yesterday. His comments likely weren't well received by AV and management, but as I tweeted, I give him credit for speaking his mind and honestly, don't disagree with what he said.
“Just when I thought I was getting my chance and looking to take advantage of my opportunity because of the couple of injuries—that you never want to see, but happen — I had the game Saturday where I think the stat line looked worse than it actually was.
“There was a bad bounce on the first, [partner] Brady [Skjei] was battling the flu, it kind of snowballed and I see a dash-three next to my name. so I’m a pretty easy target,” he said. “I hope it’s not a permanent thing, but more of a wake-up call. It’s pretty clear it’s a wake-up call for the whole team. You can’t sit 20 guys.”
“It kinda sucks. I’m not going to say I’m happy about it especially when I’ve gotten an opportunity like this. “I understand where I am when everyone’s healthy, that’s clear and I have no problem with that.
“But with the chance to find my game and get my rhythm, I think Brady and I have been really good together, but there was that one bad night. Somebody has got to take the fall.”
AV made a pairing shift seemingly driven by one shift against Washington earlier in the week. He moved Staal, who likely could use a game off, up to the top pair alongside McDonagh. That moved Brendan Smith from the first to the second pairing alongside Holden. Kampfer skating alongside Skjei. For one game, those moves paid dividends, though Tampa did carry stretches of the contest.
Larry Brooks noted that Staal (18:04) played his finest game in months paired with McD (26:28) while matched against the Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Kucherov triplets. Skjei (16:13) was dynamic in rebounding from a poor game Saturday night against Montreal through which he was battling the flu, which might have contributed largely to his poor effort. Holden (25:59) has his steadiest game in a while paired with Smith (24:13). With another game tonight, it will be interesting to see if AV gets Clendening back in, resting Staal or Holden to keep them fresh, which should be the call down the stretch, especially with Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein still out, or sticks with the same six, showing his stubbornness.
New York played part of the game dumping and chasing, getting the puck in deep and going in a straight-line to the offensive zone. The Rangers struggled when they went away from that strategy, resulting in the ice tilting in Tampa's favor. Hopefully the team learned a lesson from this and carry that style of play forward, mixing and matching where appropriate.
If Grabner's hip has healed enough for him to go, sit Pirri. If not, I might even play Puempel because Pirri did less than nothing yesterday. As I said, the past few days, I would have called up Marek Hrivik and sat Pirri. With back-to-back games, AV should rest a few players so that the only change isn't just Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes.
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