Game 50: NYR 4 NJD 3, Zibanejad hat trick, KZZ line dominance (Buchnevich)

Buchnevich

Game 50: NYR 4 NJD 3, Zibanejad hat trick, KZZ line dominance

By Jan Levine

Feb 1, 2019 • 9:08 am

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The Rangers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Devils 4-3. The Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Mats Zuccarello lone continued their recent dominance, highlighted by Zib’s hat trick. Henrik Lundqvist was solid between the pipes, especially late, keying the victory. New York faces Tampa at home Saturday.

Game recap:

David Quinn Post-Game:

A few thoughts:

1) Zibanejad - can we now end any of the silly discussion on moving Zibanejad? He is blossoming before our eyes. The Derick Brassard for Zib trade has been highway robbery for GM Jeff Gorton and the Rangers. Maybe he isn’t a truly elite center, though time will tell, but he sure as heck has shown he is a first line one. Twenty goals for the fourth time in five years, on ice in late-game situations, learning to use his howitzer shot more frequently, controlling the puck in the offensive zone, making his line mates better: I will say that’s almost the complete package.

This was his first hat trick as a Ranger and second overall in the NHL (first was Feb. 27, 2016, with Ottawa).

2) Zuccarello - it’s pretty much a fait accompli that Zucc is going. As someone who pushed years ago for him to return from the KHL and is a huge fan, I will miss him. Maybe he does return on a team friendly deal again, as he did when he signed his long term extension. But even if not, he will always be a Ranger. Zucc plays a foot taller than his size, and now healthy, the stats below show how good he has been recently. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone, I have a feeling that will be the case with Zuccarello.

3) KZZ - I would say that trio is working out well.

4) 5v5 - pretty damn good, save for Vesey, who had the most egregious turnover of the night, resulting in the Devils third goal, tying the game, and a spot in the Quinn bin (thanks Carp):

5) Brendan Smith - slightly better last night. Still not great. Took a bad penalty. Needs to be even more physical, but thought he played better last night. I wouldn’t have scratched Tony DeAngelo and I didn’t think Neal Pionk, who was beaten by Marcus Johansson’s dive to the puck for the second goal of the game, was particularly great, so will be interesting to see what Quinn does Saturday.

6) DeAngelo - benched Thursday and Larry Brooks describes why he sat. Quinn remains consistent in sending messages regardless of the game by game impact. While Brooks doesn’t explicitly say what ADA did to get benched, you have to think it was an inappropriate comment or action by DeAngelo that landed him in the press box. Hopefully he learned his lesson and he will be back in the ice Saturday next to Marc Staal.

Two nights after Pavel Buchnevich sat against the Flyers, Tony DeAngelo was designated as the healthy scratch on the blue line for the Blueshirts in Thursday’s 4-3 victory over the Devils in Newark. This was not a performance-related decision. DeAngelo, in fact, had played the most consistently structured and productive hockey of his short tenure on Broadway over the previous six games during which he had been elevated to the first pair as Marc Staal’s righty partner.

But something occurred early in the second period of Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to the Flyers that prompted the first-year coach to sit DeAngelo for a long stretch before going back to No. 77 for his regular shifts during the third. Again, it was not a bad read, an inexplicable giveaway, an undisciplined penalty or anything that would have been noticeable by reviewing the video. It was something else, something behavioral that crossed a line.

“It was a maturity issue,… Quinn told The Post. “He and I have talked about it and are working on it. He’s too good to let maturity issues get in the way of him becoming the kind of player that he can be.

“It’s something he’s got to work on and it’s something we’ve got to help him with.…

Thursday, in sitting DeAngelo, the coach broke up the tandem that had been the club’s most effective first-pair while going back to the Staal-Neal Pionk duo that has had its challenges pretty much from the get-go. Over their six games intact, Staal-DeAngelo recorded a 58.0 Corsi share, a 57.5 shot share and a plus-two rating in 78:49 of five-on-five play. In the six games prior to that, Staal-Pionk came in at a 41.0 Corsi, a 41.1 shot share and a minus-four in 74:43, per Naturalstattrick.com.

What’s more, prior to Thursday’s reasonably sturdy work, the Staal-Pionk pair had the worst Corsi rating — 41.2 — in the NHL of any tandem that had played at least 500 minutes, per Corsica.Hockey. Yet, Quinn reunited No.’s 18 and 44 because there was a lesson to be taught No. 77. And by the way, that did not stop the Rangers from dominating at five-on-five in this one.

7) Pavel Buchnevich- much more engaged last night. Drove to the net. Did dirty work on the boards, helping to create the game-winning goal. Moved up a line to replace Vesey, who was benched after his turnover. Was in late to protect the lead, partially due to his icing, but seeing how New York struggled too often last night to actually get the puck out of the zone, not the worst ideas in the world. Overall, a much better game that should buy him a little bit of good graces with the coach.

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