The Rangers extended their win streak to four, the last three at home, with a 4-3 win over Nashville. The Predators dominated action at several stages during the game, especially in the third, but Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves, 16 in the third, and the Rangers' forecheck created chances that were converted. New York closes their home stand out Saturday against Colorado. The right move would be to play Antti Raanta, but it's possible AV goes with Lundqvist to give him a shot at winning #400 on home ice.
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Poor defense all the way around on the Predators first goal. Jimmy Vesey and Marc Staal played hot potato with the puck, allowing Nashville to gain possession. Cody McLeoad split Derek Stepan and Adam Clendening, allowing him to set up unimpeded in front of Henrik Lundqvist and bang in the rebound after the initial save.
Calle Jarnkrok made it 2-0 on the power play. A meh call on Ryan McDonagh gave Nashville the man-advantage. Rick Nash's clear hit a Predators skate, rebounding to the center of the ice. Stepan was unable to get there, leading to the pass to Jarnkrok, who took advantage of a partial Kevin Klein screen to beat Lundqvist after hitting post earlier.
Down 2-0, Lundqvist made a timely save, stoning Ryan Johansen on a breakaway. Shortly thereafter he made a huge stop on Craig Smith to keep the game where it was. We have talked a lot about the net for Hank to make that timely save. Yesterday, he did, which made all the difference. In fact, this has been a key driver in his recent hot streak.
Right after both saves, Kevin Hayes made made the first of his two terrific passes to help cut the lead in half. First, after a solid forecheck by that line, Matt Irwin made a bad pass off the boards. It came to Hayes and he set up Michael Grabner who tallied his 26th of the season.
Michael Grabner continues his resurgent season, potting this feed top shelf for his league-leading 25th even strength goal! pic.twitter.com/3WavhfJr5R
— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) February 10, 2017
Then, Hayes, thanks to solid forechecking by Grabner, picked off the puck at the blueline following a Roman Josi turnover. He came in down the left side and drew two men to him. Then, found a wide-open Miller for a one-timer into the open half of the net to tie the game at two.
JT Miller ties it up at 2 agains the Predators for the @NYRangers! pic.twitter.com/lr1JRqoKcI
— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) February 10, 2017
New York took the lead in the third. Solid play by Clendening, who filled in very nicely for the injured Dan Girardi, to start the rush and gain the blue line. The puck went around the boards to Mats Zuccarello, who shot was deflected in by Chris Kreider before it split him half. That goal was his 22nd goal of the season, a new career high. Now that Zucc seems to be mildly over his goal-slump, it's time for Mika Zibanejad, who picked up the secondary assist on Kreider’s goal, to end his. He has not scored in the past nine games, dating back to January 17th, so if he can get going, that line truly would be dominant.
J.T. Miller's goal, which gave NY a 4-2 lead ended up being the game-winner. It looked like it hit the d-man and then went in off Juuse Saros, so should be Ryan McDonagh's goal. But it was and still is credited to Miller, who was brilliant again last night and now has 22 points his last 17 games. If it stands, Miller will have a new career-high in points with 44.
JT Miller's game winner for the Rangers against the Predators off the deflection! pic.twitter.com/tl3bEKZjDY
— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) February 10, 2017
Nashville cut to 4-3 on the man-advantage late. A bad penalty by Skjei, who retaliated down low and was caught. The Predators pulled Saros and controlled the puck in the New York sone before Roman Josi scored on the 6-4. Mike Fisher had a chance to tie the game late in the period, but the puck wouldn’t settle and Fisher shot wide. A bit of puck luck for the Rangers.
Some quick thoughts:
The Grabner-Hayes-Miller line was phenomenal again. Excellent on the forecheck with the ability to convert through the opportunities created. The J (ust)-K (eep)-M (oving) line - named because they seems to aptly describe the trio on the ice - carried New York to the win yesterday. Another proposed name was the GotHaM line, though only two of the three are from the US and none are from Manhattan.
The Vesey-Stepan-Nash line controlled the puck and had several excellent shifts, but something was missing. A possible resolution is to move Buchnevich up because he is more of a playmaker and offensive threat. That would result in Vesey landing back on the fourth line, which is where he was for a while after Buch returned from injury.
With CK2-Zib-Zucc rounding into form, three "top" lines are 1A, 1B and 1C. It's difficult to call any of them a second or third line. The Hayes trio has been the best of the three. But all three lines are dangerous when on the ice. This is why having a really good fourth line that can mainly be a checking line is what AV and GM Jeff Gorton should try and establish the next two and use the trade deadline to do so, if the belief is that two of Lindberg, Vesey, Pirri and Puempel are not suited to play with Fast on that threesome.
Defensively, I thought McDonagh-Holden were meh, okay. Same with Klein and Skjei, though they were a bit better than the top trio, who struggled against the Neal-Johanssen-Forsberg line. To me, Staal-Clendening was best duo, and not that didn't have their lapses, but overall, fairly solid. It likely will be a game-time call Saturday if the swelling has gone down enough on Dan Girardi's stitched up right ankle for him to play.