The Rangers swept their weekend back-to-back contests Friday and Saturday. Against LA, New York was outplayed in the first, but picked up their game as the contest wore on and Rick Nash finally was rewarded for his hard work, scoring the game-winning goal. Saturday, after dominating the first 35 minutes, another in what was a long line of penalties resulted in a Boston goal shortly after it expired, flipping the game’s momentum. The Bruins carried play the rest of the way, but Mats Zuccarello tallied the game-winner in a wild overtime. Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant in both games this weekend.
Rangers-Kings Game recap:
MSG post-game:
Los Angeles came out on fire after losing 5-1 to New Jersey the night before. New York weathered the storm in the first, thanks to a ton of blocked shots and Lundqvist between the pipes. Up 1-0 thanks to a Chris Kreider PPG that deflected off his leg, Marian Gaborik, whose game has really picked up lately, scored in his 1,000th game to tie it. A bad change and play in offensive zone led to the 2-on-1. Gabby made it look like he was trying to pass the puck, then put it just through Lundqvist’s pads.
Kevin Hayes finally shot the puck, giving New York a 2-1 lead. But Kevin Shattenkirk’s lazy reach at the blue line on Torrey Mitchell’s cross-ice pass, resulted in Gaborik gathering the puck just inside the Rangers blue line with a clear shot on net. Then Kirk got caught watching the puck and didn’t pick up Mitchell, who put the rebound into the open net with 7:59 gone in the third period. Shattenkirk was indecisive and it cost him. Either be aggressive and make the poke check or play the body or lay back and play positionally, he did neither and it cost New York.
Nash finally got one. After getting stoned earlier in the game and also missing the net, defense led to offense. He made a great play picking off the pass in central ice and then did a quick curl to create space. Nash steamed down the left wing and beat Jonathan Quick short-side. It would have been easy for Nash to be disheartened from the game and his season to date. But, he kept working and scored the game-winner. J.T. Miller added an empty netter late for the 4-2 win.
The defense still needs work because they can't keep leaving Lundqvist out to dry. A positive was that New York matched LA's physical play and didn't give an inch throughout the contest. Four different goal-scorers, aided by coach Alain Vigneault's move of Michael Grabner up and Nash down a line to create the following trios: Michael Grabner-Kevin Hayes-Jesper Fast and
Rick Nash-J.T. Miller-Mats Zuccarello. In addition, Lundqvist was phenomenal between the pipes.
Rangers-Bruins Game recap:
MSG post-game:
Unlike Friday's game, New York dominated action most of the first two periods. The Rangers got lucky in the first, when Ryan Spooner goal 4:29 into the game was overturned thanks to a good challenge by AV, as the play was clearly offsides. A little more than 10 minutes later, Grabner's shoot off the rush was high over Tuukka Rask, who lost sight of the puck, which rebounded off the backboards, hit Rask on the back and went over the goal line for Grabs' 16th of the season.
On the power play, a brilliant pass from McDonagh was on target to a streaking Miller, who put it past Rask on the breakaway for a 2-0 lead. It was second straight game the power play converted. after going the five previous without a goal New York couldn't stay out of the box - which was a theme all game - and eventually it bit them. Not on the PK, but shortly thereafter, as a wide-open Danton Heinen tipped in a Zdeno Chara blast from just in front of the net to make it 2-1 late in the second period. That goal seemed to ignite the Bruins and their crowd, as the ice tilted the remainder of the game with most of the play in the New York end.
In the third, the constant parade to the penalty box finally came back to haunt them. Brady Skeji's holding penalty created the power play, during which Brad Marchand scored the game-tying power-play goal 5:38 into the third period, finishing a tremendous feed from David Pastrnak. On the play though, Marc Staal followed Pastrnak around the net, then lost his coverage zone, leaving Marchand wide-open basically on the door step. Great play and pass by Pasta, lousy D by Staal and end result was a tie game. Lundqvist kept Boston at bay the rest of the way and off to overtime the two times went.
In the extra session, after several failed 2-on-1s by both sides, Boston took a too-many-men - their second of the game - penalty 1:05 into the 3-on-3 overtime that allowed the Rangers a 4-on-3 advantage. Good patience on the power play, especially by Zucc, who first looked to pass and then waited and waited before taking advantage of Kreider's screen to pick the near-side top corner on Rask and beat him off the post and maybe other post for the win.
From the Rangers' stats department:
Lundqvist has outstanding numbers when starting both games of a back-to-back. He has done it now 81 times in his career, and in the second game he is 53-21-7, with a 2.02 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage, to go along with nine shutouts. Just so happens he has now won all of the previous eight times he’s done it, with a 1.73 goals-against average and .948 percentage in that span. During this weekend, he stopped 66 of 70 shots and got his team four big points.
Two big wins, four big points. I liked the push back on Friday night and ability to be physical with LA. That will be needed Tuesday versus Anaheim. The four lines may now have some balance, especially the third line, which should get going with Nash and Zucc paired, while Grabner just continues to amaze. The defense still has too many holes and blown coverages in their own zone. Shattenkirk continues to struggle. During Saturday's game, he was caught flat-footed and beaten wide before taking a penalty. it looks like he can't open his hips quick enough or skate backwards well-enough, resulting in him getting beaten. This is an area that must be cleaned up. Lundqvist was tremendous, but AV has to avoid wearing him out, not just in number of games, but in shots faced and workload, due to the poor D in front of Hank.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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