The Rangers extended their winning streak to five with a 4-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday. New York took advantage of an undermanned Boston team, who was missing Brad Marchand, David Backes, David Krejci and others, but you have to play who is on the schedule regardless on when that game is. The cozy home schedule for the opening part of the season basically ends Saturday against Edmonton and the road portion of it kicks in.
Game recap:
MSG Post-game::
Boston carried a good portion of the play the first part of the opening stanza but then New York then the tide. A great job by Jesper Fast and Ryan McDonagh to keep the puck in the offensive zone to maintain possession, which lasted for 42 seconds. Due to that extended offensive zone pressure, New York was able to get fresh bodies on the ice, including Pavel Buchnevich. The puck came to Buch, who dipped around Zdeno Chara, drove to the net and buried one over Tuukka's Rask’s shoulder at 9:53. The Bruins came right back, needing just 21 seconds before David Pastrnak collected a missed shot off the backboards and slid one through Lundqvist’s legs to tie it, 1-1. A bad play by McD and Holden on the goal, allowing Pastrnak to create some room and find the puck in the crease
With the score tied at one, in a span of 29 seconds, the Rangers got two goals from Jimmy Vesey, each of which from the dirty area in front of the net and both scored after deflections, jamming in the puck from a maze of bodies. Vesey's duo was the fastest two goals scored by a Ranger since Jaromir Jagr in 2006. Vesey, coming off a stretch of bad games that saw him ride the pine for long stretches of each, showed why its way too early to write him off, displaying grit and good hands in the greasy area. It’s one game and we need to see a lot more of this type of effort an he needs to expend that as well with better awareness in the ice, but he should be able to build off this.
Boston carrried play the final 40 minutes, but that’s when Henrik Lundqvist shined. Hank looked more solid on his skates and confident in his decisions. He projected a sense of calm on the ice while making several brilliant saves. Boston’s second goal, scored by Patrice Bergeron, occurred right after Lundqvist had stoned Bergeron after a bad shift by McD and Holden. That duo stayed on and Bergeron scored right after the Bruins won the offensive draw to narrow the gap to one with 13+ minutes remaining in the game.
McDonagh’s game is like a scatter shot, all over the place. Great play on the opening goal of the game. Excellent read of the situation to get the puck to Rick Nash for the empty net tally to seal the victory. But in between, way too much ugliness, which is not something we are used to seeing. This makes me wonder even more if he is playing through a fairly significant injury, because if not, the thought is very scary.
New York’s D zone coverage is a work-in-progress. The handoffs in the zone and then recoveries after leave a lot to be desired. It’s these areas where Kevin Shattenkirk is still adjusting, and it looks like the whole team is feeling their way through it as well. Sixty-five games remain for New York to figure it out, but it sure would be nice for that happen in the near term.
Three other notes: First, the rumors that Colorado asked for Brady Skjei for Matt Duchene doesn’t surprise me or most of us, as that had been rumored. I tweeted yesterday, I have no issue with turning that down, which shows how much I like Skjei and expect him to become a top-pair d-man. Plus, he was better than anything the Avalanche received in their trade, which was more volume than anything else, as I wrote the other day, though I think Sakic did well. Seconds I wouldn’t mind Evander Kane, as Ek wrote, but it all depends on the cost. With an expiring deal, it’s a short term move if New York got Kane, as I wouldn’t go long term on him given his past issues. But Buffalo will want D and likely ask for Skjei, which would be a short conversation. Also, my youngest daughter’s bat mitzvah is this weekend, so my availability will be a bit less than usual, meaning I will do my best to get blogs up but they may be a bit delayed.
New York is wrapping up one of the tougher stretches of their schedule. The comeback win over Las Vegas, strong team performance in victory over Tampa and resiliency versus Florida Saturday got it off to a good beginning. Monday’s win over Columbus continued the hot streak, which was extended Wednesday at home against Boston and then hopefully continues at MSG on Saturday versus Edmonton. Following Saturday game, it’s road contests versus Chicago and Columbus.