Thrilling. That's the only way to describe the Rangers' 4-3 overtime win over the Penguins.
Down 2-0 after a lousy first three minutes in the second period, New York started to find their game the rest of the period. The Blueshirts tied it with a pair of goals in the final 20 minute stanza, the second coming with 5:32 remaining. Just 73 seconds later, Pittsburgh retook the lead but Mika Zibanejad re-tied with just under three minutes remaining off a brilliant rush down the left wing and cross-slot pass by Chris Kreider for the deflection goal. if that wasn't exciting enough, a very questionable penalty shot was called with 10.7 seconds remaining, which Alexandar Georgiev stopped, stoning Evgeni Malkin. Then Kreider completed his career-high four point night, dishing the puck to Zib, whose shot back off the near post and the back of Casey DeSmith's elbow into the goal.
Condensed Game:
A few thoughts:
1) Kreider, a PPG and three assists, was a man possessed last night. I obviously don't expect that kind of production each game, but the effort should be there that way. He was shot out of a cannon, making Jake Guentzel look slow in the second and spinning Kris Letang like a top on the game-tying goal.
2) Neal Pionk - look at the tweet below. Three more assists last night and seems to be growing in confidence each game. That's why the games he has played and 11 remaining are key, as they help accelerate that growth
3) Zib's second of the game was the 100th of his career. Five points the last two games. Maybe he closes strong, as he has had an uneven and somewhat disappointing year until now.
4) Brady Skjei is getting top line minutes but needs to show he warrants that spot in the future. His play has been uneven at best. Yesterday, on the first goal, he screened Georgiev, preventing the goalie from seeing the puck after Vladislav Namestnikov was beaten to the puck. Skjei has tremendous skating ability but would like see him get a bit stronger and be better positionally. The latter is what I hope to see in the last 11 games.
5) Jesper Fast had a very good game with Zib and CK20. First, he helped the penalty kill go 3-for-3, continuing that unit's solid play. Second, after getting robbed by DeSmith on a 2-on-1 feed from Zib, he had a perfect deflection to tie the game at two in the third.
6) Georgiev was solid again last night. a soft goal allowed to Carl Hagelin, when he failed to close his pads and the puck went off his stick through the five-hole. Besides that, another good performance and aided by two shots that hit the post, one by Phil Kessel. But he made 37 saves and stoned Malkin on the penalty shot, showing great patience and waiting Malkin out before poking the puck away.
7) Reason for the penalty shot:
Two presumptions here: Georgiev purposely ("deliberately") pushed the net off its moorings, which certainly didn't look to be the case. Second, not sufficient time remaining for the full two minutes to be served. Unsure how the penalty could not be served in its entirety in the regulation time or in overtime, since with OT, the two minutes could had been served or am I reading the rule incorrectly?
8) Pavel Buchnevich was also engaged throughout. The skill is there, now he just needs to keep getting the ice time and chance to fail without fear.
9) Susan Sarandon - all i will say is that is an experiment we knew was a bad idea when it was first announced and didn't need to have it happen to know that. Yet the actual was worse than the expectation. A mistake from concept to production and the word Oh now needs to be stricken from our lexicon.
10) Ty Ronning - 60 goals
11) I know the main focus is the draft pick. But as I have said before, there is something to be said about playing hard nightly and gaining experience. Wins like last night - and team is 5-2-1 from the sell-off - is could matter in the future when the team is better and some of these players are on the squad and can draw on this experience. Never play just to tank, it's not in an athlete's DNA, plus, if you believe in hockey karma, then not throwing games might help on the ping-pong balls or frozen envelopes later. As I tweeted yesterday, "Heck of a comeback win. Doesn’t stick with the plan to finish lower in standings and get higher pick. But a character building victory."
The counter to this is what Larry Brooks wrote today:
Bootstrapping off an idea of and an exercise performed by The Athletic’s Tyler Dellow, I calculated where Hall of Famers (and projected Hall of Famers) have been drafted.
In 31 drafts from 1980 through 2010, I have identified 72 Hall of Famers. Of those, 21 were selected with either the first or second pick, 11 were selected third or fourth, six were selected fifth or sixth, 12 were selected from 12th through 20th, and 22 were selected lower than that.
So, if you’re picking first or second, you have a 33.8 percent chance of grabbing a Hall of Famer; picking third or fourth, your odds drop about in half to 17.7 percent; picking fifth or sixth, another drop almost in half to 9.6 percent; between 7 and 20, your chance drops to 2.7 percent. After that, you’ve got a .04 percent chance at drafting a Hall of Famer.
In continuing what I said last week, here is the run down for the last 16 games of the season. After losing to Winnipeg 3-0 on Tuesday, Tampa 5-3 on Thursday and Florida 4-3 in a shootout Saturday night, New York defeated Carolina 6-3 last night tonight and Pittsburgh 4-3 in overtime Wednesday. Next up are contests versus St. Louis (Saturday), Columbus and Pittsburgh follow, after which it's Washington (home-and-road), Tampa (last home game) and Carolina (road) to close out March. In April, New York faces the Devils, Islanders and Flyers, all on the road. The victory kept Rangers sit 23rd in the league, just ahead of Chicago, who is 24th, and one pint behind the Isles, who have a game in hand, 22nd in the league.
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