The Rangers had a split-decision weekend. After rallying for 2-0 down with a pair of goals, New York surrendered the game winning goal with less than four minutes left and then a clinching goal with 1:28 remaining against Washington on Friday. Yesterday, the Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first and never relinquished it, despite some solid from New Jersey in the second and early in the third. The final score was 5-2, aided by three markers in the final stanza.

Game recap against Capitals:


Friday, another slow start ended up filming the Rangers. Fourteen seconds in, Jay Beagle game Washington a 1-0 lead. In the second, a mishandled pass ended up in the net by Nicolas Backstrom to make the deficit two goals. Michael Grabner tallied his 14th late in the second and Jesper Fast, who has been one of the team’s best players lately, knotted ut at two almost halfway through the third.

But a bad read by Boo Nieves resulted in a turnover just inside the neutral zone on an attempted breakout pass by Kevin Shattenkirk. New York was never able to recover and Matt Niskanen best Nieves to the puck in the crease following a Henrik Lundqvist save to give Washington the lead wity3:32 remaining. Two minutes later, Tom Wilson beat Ryan McDonagh, who was off his angle, wide and tucked the puck past Lundqvist for the 4-2 lead and victory.

Mistakes, physical and mental, cost New York the win or at least one point if they made it to overtkme tied. As posted on in the comments, in the previous five games through Friday’s game, the Vesey-Hayes-Nash line had one goal, three assists and a -11 rating. Meanwhile, the fourth line had carried the Rangers lately, notching four goals, three assists and a plus-five rating. Without Mika Zibanejad, who is slowly making progress, the burden is raised for everyone and through Friday, only some had answered the bell.

I am sure Barry Trotz loved seeing Kevin Shattenkirk being on the ice for the first tally of the game and then the final two goals scored by Washington. On the first, he was trying to hit Nieves, who never looked back, allowing Wilson to steal the puck. On the second, ‘Kirk had his side of the ice and didn’t get to the front quick enough to help Mac, who was beaten by Wilson, though hard to fully blame Shattenkirk there.

Saturday, AV mixed up the forwards. Fast was moved up to play with Nash and Hayes while Vesey was moved down to skate with Nieves and Paul Carey. The Kreider-Desharnais-Buchnevich line remained intact as did the Grabner-Miller-Zuccarello trio. Those tweaks played dividends against New Jersey.

Game recap against New Jersey:


Vesey tallied the first of the game in the opening stanza, thanks to some good work by the fourth line. New York carried play much of that period, outshooting New Jersey 13-7. In the second, the action went up and down the ice, with both Lundqvist and Keith Kinkaid making several spectacular saves, the Rangers added two goals and Devils scored their first. Nash made a brilliant backhand feed to Fast, whose wrist shot beat Kinkaid. That goal extended Fast's goal-scoring streak to an NHL career-high three games, giving him six goals in the past eight games. He scored six goals in 68 games last season.

N ew Jersey cut it to one, as Fast waited for the puck to come to him instead of going to get it. That allowed the forecheck to cause a turnover, with ultimately the puck landing on Damon Severson's stick and he bit Lundqvist, who was partially screened by McDonagh's attempted shot block. There McD should just stay on his feet. After Marcus Johansson hit the post on the power play, Severson had his pocket picket by Zuccarello just as the Rangers' penalty was expiring and Zucc beat Kinkaid to restore the two-goal bulge. Zucc also had the save of the game, stopping a rolling puck from crossing the goal line after a Lundqvist save on Brian Gibbons with the score 1-0, and then after Zucc gave the puck away, Hank stoned Jesper Bratt.

In the third, Zucc got his second of the game, thanks to a nice feed by Miller. New Jersey scored 13 seconds later with Miles Wood getting an easy one in front. Kevin Hayes added the final goal of the game, aided by some good work down low by Nash. The end result of the weekend was two points earned and maybe at least one point lost, which kept New York in ninth place of the conference and sixth in the division, one point behind the Isles and Penguins, though the Rangers have two games in hand on Pittsburgh.

New York took three of four from their Metro Division rivals, beating Carolina, Pittsburgh and New Jersey while falling to Washington. Despite getting six points, as noted above, they are sixth in the division, yet just five points behind Columbus in first with a game in hand and two behind the Caps also holding a game in hand on Washington. Those close quarters are likely why AV played Hank in the back-to-back games, despite Lundqvist having the flu this week and missing the Pittsburgh game. New York could end up anywhere from first to likely sixth in the division. I know Newsday had a column (https://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/steve-zipay/rangers-nhl-playoffs-1.15393639) noting that the Rangers will need to decide their direction, buyer, seller or both. You know my view on this, despite work to be done, I don't foresee NY moving any of those who will be UFA unless the season goes amazingly pear shaped before the deadline.

Right now, the main focuses need to be:

1) find a way to get Nash a goal. Nash was robbed twice by Kinkaid's glove Saturday. the man is snakebit and has no puck luck. But despite this, Nash had two great feeds to set up goals.\

2) improve the defensive zone coverage. Too many open shots yesterday by New Jersey and also against Washington and Pittsburgh. This continues the recent pattern and must be cleaned up quickly.

3) fix the power play. The man-advantage went 0-for-3 against New Jersey and is 3-for-33 over the past 11 games. Zibanejad is missed especially here, where the lack of his right-hand, slap shot from the left dot has create a huge vacuum. But, until he returns, the team needs to find a way to convert and make winning games a bit easier.

4) production throughout the lineup. The swapping of Fast and Vesey paid dividends yesterday. Having all four lines contribute is a huge key, especially the mddle six, though the top line was quiet this weekend.

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