The Rangers, after a poor first 20 minutes, gave the Lightning all they can handle before falling 4-3 in overtime yesterday. Victor Hedman’s somewhat controversial goal, thanks what looked like a pick by Nikita Kucherov, created space for Hedman, who beat Alexandar Georgiev, who made 26 saves and was solid again, short-side for the game-winner. New York faces the Canadiens on Friday.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
“If that’s what we’re going to do against the elite teams in the league, I like the direction we’re going.… #NYR Coach Quinn talks about tonight’s effort vs. Tampa. â¬‡ï¸ pic.twitter.com/oKPGwnZ5mf
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 28, 2019
Lines: Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jimmy Vesey Vladislav Namestnikov- Ryan Strome-Jesper Fast Brendan Lemieux-Lias Andersson-Pavel Buchnevich Brendan Smith-Boo Nieves-Connor Brickley
Brady Skjei-Neal Pionk Mac Staal-Tony DeAngelo Fredrik Claesson-Kevin Shattenkirk
Alexandar Georgiev
A few thoughts: 1) Jimmy Vesey continues to impress. Recently moved up to the first line, he hasn’t not looked out of place skating with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. Vesey made a sublime pass cross-ice to Zib, who showed tremendous skill on quickly shifting to his backhand and beating Andrei Vasilevskiy. After New York went down 3-1, Vesey was able to use his speed, get and maintain inside position on Hedman and beat Vasilevskiy.
2) Push back - after getting their doors blown off in the first period and showing the disparity of talent between the two squads. But New York showed their resolve, which has been one of the hallmarks of the short Quinn era, in flipping the switch in the second period. The last 40 minutes was exciting end to end hockey where New York gave Tampa all thei could handle.
3) Brendan Lemieux didn’t look out of place. As Quinn said, he needs to get his skating legs, since he had been seeing only around seven minutes per game. When he does, look for him to see 12-14 minutes a game.
As said by others, Lemieux fits the prototype of the modern NHL bottom-six forward. He brings aggression, speed, a good two-way sense and an ability to score hard-nosed goals. Lemieux is going to be hard to play against, hard in the corners and hard-nosed in front of the net. I think he is a third liner, possibly with Filip Chytil, when he is back in the lineup, and Lias Andersson or maybe Anderson and Pavel Buchnevich, like last night.
4) Game-winning goal - by the strict letter of the rule book, that sure looked like a pick. Kucherov, who had three assists and leads the league with 104 points, did a good job of setting up the play, carrying the puck and dishing it to Hedman just before he made contact. A close call and can understand why a call wasn’t made, but Kucherov took out Vladislav Namestnikov and the Rangers’ defenseman, leaving Hedman wide open with tons of room.
5) Stretch run - hopefully New York has a bit more push back then they did last season, when they collapsed down the stretch. The hope is that with the new coaching staff and the young blood in town that now has some experience, this season will be different. Again, the goal is to have as many ping pong balls as possible but also to use the next six weeks for continued growth and a modicum if success. A good quote below from Marc Staal that Caro posted in his recap column:
“I feel like last year was a different feel,… said Marc Staal, whose entire career before that saw the Rangers buy at the deadline and play meaningful games into April or May (and once into June). “It was the shock of it, but just the fact that we were (selling), it kind of bled into the last 20 games. I think everyone in that room still wasn’t really sure what direction we were going to go in the summer, and if we were going to be around.“I think this time we’re going into the last 20 and I think we have a coaching staff that’s trying to instill the right habits and the right work ethic and pushing this thing forward. So I think you’re going to see more compete in games, right down to the end, like tonight. I thought we worked hard. We’re not going to get the results every night, but we’re going to compete. That’s probably the biggest difference from last year’s (post-)deadline.…
6) As I noted yesterday, Chytil was a healthy scratch. Below is the full quote from Quinn on what he wants to see from Chytil before he gets back in the lineup. Fairly clear that he is not targeting or punishing Chytil and if he does what’s expected, this won’t impact him or Quinn's view of him in the future.
“The consistent effort that I know that he’s capable of giving,… Quinn said. “By no stretch of the imagination is he showing up trying to be lazy or not work hard. I think part of the learning curve for any young player is to redefine what hard work is. I think he’s just going through that. I think he’s going through what a lot of 19-year-olds go through, learning how to redefine what hard work is, redefining what compete is. And it’s non-negotiable and it’s got to happen shift in and shift out. Mistakes are going to happen. And when you play this game with the right intentions, mistakes happen a lot less often. He’s had some great stretches here, and he’s going to be a great player for us, and this is just part of the learning curve and developing.“I’m not (surprised). It’s not odd. It’s not abnormal for a 19-year-old to sit out. He’s sat out two games so far this year. He’s going to sit out a few more. Over the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big of a deal. It seems like it is now because we’re going through it right now. But when the dust settles and the season ends and he comes back with the level of play we all anticipate him to come back with, this isn’t going to be talked about.…
New York recalled Libor Hajek on Thursday. The timing is curious at best as the move came out right after Larry Brooks’s column, which stated Hajek has struggled this season at Hartford, a sentiment felt by many. In addition, Hajek, the key piece of the Ryan McDonagh trade, was who GM Jeff Gorton wanted, promopting the inclusion of J. T. Miller in the deal. His future development will go a long way to determining how we value that deal down the road. As of now, Tampa has the broad edge on that trade.
Hajek, despite his poor numbers on a weak Hartford team, has played better recently. But his promotion is curious at best. First, it send a strong signal that John Gilmour, who was not extended for a year like Boo Nieves and Steven Fogarty the other day, will become a group VI free agent, meaning he has little future with this organization. Second, Hajek and not Ryan Lindgren, who played well on his three game stint earlier this season, got the call, which is curious at best. Last, with seven defensemen already on New York and Brendan Smith playing forward, who sits for Hajek? Is it Smith and Pionk or Fredrik Claesson? Does someone else ride the pine? A difficult balancing out just got tougher.
The positives are that Hajek gets to learn and develop at this level. We get to have a first hand look at the 21-year old as he gets his sea legs in the NHL. Hajek gets to learn David Quinn’s and Lindy Ruff’s system first hand. Hopefully he gets the ice time to accelerate his development.