The Rangers broke their three-game skid with a 5-1 win over the Flyers on Tuesday. Coming into the contest, Philadelphia had won four straight, outscoring their opponents 21-11, while New York had dropped those three straight games and scored two or fewer goals in eight of their last 10 games. Tuesday, neither of those stats mattered, as New York botched Gehrig first regulation win in 11 games.
Game recap:
MSG Post-Game recap:
Defense leads to offense. That mantra is how coach Alain Vigneault team’s play and what the Rangers have been searching for much of the season. Unfortunately, for most of the year, it’s been (poor) defense leads to offense (against). Yesterday, (good) resulted in offense (for) New York, as at least three of the five were tallied thanks to strong defensive work.
If the defense did breakdown, which happened on at least two occasions, Henrik Lundqvist was on his game again. With the score knotted at one and the Rangers on a power play, Philly came in on a 2-on-1 break. Scott Laughton dished it to Claude Giroux, but Lundqvist stoned him with the biggest save of the game. Less than a minute later, J.T. Miller deflected Ryan McDonagh’s point shot to give the Blueshirts a 2-1 lead they never relinquished. Early in the second, with the score 3-1, Pavel Buchnevich had his pocket picked and Lundqvist stopped Nolan Patrick in front of the net.
With Kevin Hayes sidelined, AV used the below line combinations. Buchnevich was moved back up to the first line and had a fairly strong game. His pass sprung Rick Nash on a breakaway for his first of two goals scored and his first marker in 12 games. Good for Nash to finally get rewarded for all his hard work. Steve Valiquette (listen above to the MSG post-game) pointed out that the three goals Nash scored last year on a breakaway cane when he shot it before the hashmarks rather than deking. This goal, scored by shooting before the hashmarks. Vinni Lettieri provides Miller a shoot first option while I thought Peter Holland had a fairly solid first game as a Ranger.
Nash-Zibanejad-Buchnevich
Zuccarello-Miller-Lettieri
Grabner-Holland-Fast
Carey-Desharnais-Vesey
Ryan McDonagh was back in action, relegating Steven Kampfer back to the bench. AV mixed up his bottom two pairs, shifting Brendan Smith to play with Kevin Shattenkirk and Marc Staal to skate with Brady Skjei. The Philly goal came about due to average coverage at best by Smith and Shattenkirk but they were better as the game wore on.
I said above good defense led to offense. Solid own zone play resulted in Buchnevich feeding Nash for his first goal. On the penalty kill, Holland fed a streaking Paul Carey, who beat Brian Elliott under the crossbar in the waning stages of the first period. With an even strength, power play and short handed goal, the latter New York’s first of the year in that category, Tuesday’s game was the first time in four years the Rangers notched one goal in each of those three methods in the same period. Nash’s second goal came about thanks to strong defensive work by Staal and Nash did the rest, steaming down right wing, beating Elliott again low to the blocker side. Jimmy Vesey did a nice job going hard to the net, drawing attention, creating room for Nash. The only negative was that Staal missed the last period with a left hip flexor, though the hope is that injury isn’t serious.
McDonagh-Holden
Skjei-Staal
Smith-Shattenkirk
What more can we say about Lundqvist. With the victory, became the first goaltender in NHL history to earn 20 or more wins in each of his first 13 seasons, and he is also the first goaltender in NHL history who has earned at least 20 wins in 13 consecutive seasons at any point during the course of a career. His save on Giroux, as I noted above, changed the tenor of the game. Instead of being down 2-1, the score remained even. In addition, even after giving up the first goal of the game 2:06 into the contest, the 10th time this season the Rangers had given up a goal on one of the first three shots of the game, Lundqvist didn’t lose his composure and remained sharp.
Vigneault basically rolled four lines yesterday. Defensively, minutes in the first two periods was fairly even spread out. That changed when Staal was sidelined, but it was nice to be able to use four lines again.
Time on Ice:
Even Strength Time on Ice:
It was a nice win but it’s just one game. Nash and others said the same following the victory. The win shouldn’t sway the view of this team, especially if it’s not followed up by one Thursday and then beyond. To many, even that won’t matter. I will withhold judgment until I see what happens on the California trip, as that has a tendency to be a fairly good indicator as to what type of team New York is or will be.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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