The Rangers took care of business, sweeping the Red Wings on Friday and Saturday. Friday, New York dominated the first two-plus periods before allowing a pair of goals. Saturday, Henrik Lundqvist stole the show, stopping 33 saves to notch his first shutout of the season and first since November 19, 2017 against the Senators. The Blueshirts kick off a stint of four straight games at MSG on Monday taking on Dallas, followed by Toronto, Buffalo and Boston.
Friday's Game Recap:
Saturday's Game Recap:
Lines for both games: Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich Panarin-Strome-Fast Howden-Chytil-Kakko Lemieux-McKegg-Smith Lindgren-Trouba Staal-DeAngelo Skjei-Fox
A few thoughts: 1) Mika Zibanejad - just continues to produce. He notched a goal and a pair of assists Friday, then added the only goal of the game on the power-play Saturday. Zib is now up to 20 goals and 43 points in just 37 games.
2) Chris Kreider - CK20 had a goal and an assist Friday, giving him six goals in his prior eight games and 12 markers and nine apples in his previous 21 games. With all the trade talk, all I will say is sometimes you don't know what you until it's gone. The net front presence is one not easily replaced.
Saturday, though, he was injured by "friendly fire," as Mika Zibanejad's knee hit Kreider's head, forcing the winger from the game. The good news is that the injury may be less severe than initially thought, but as we know, concussion symptoms can prop up at any time, so he is far from out of the woods yet.
Kreider's off to the locker room after Zibanejad's knee catches Kreider's head & he collides into the boards. pic.twitter.com/F1qU3V7Fcl
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) February 2, 2020
David Quinn says Chris Kreider is day to day. Despite the hit looking scary in the moment seemed optimistic it wouldn’t be long term. “We talked and it’s a lot better than I anticipated.…
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) February 2, 2020
3) Lundqvist showed that he can still rise up when needed. I didn't think the Rangers' D played that badly but Detroit still generated several quality chances. Lundqvist was to the task for each one of them. With the shutout, the 64th of his stellar career, Lundqvist now has a .941 save percentage against the Red Wings, which is the highest of any goalie with at least 10 games against them.
It's unclear how much Hank will play moving forward with Igor Shesterkin, who notched the win Friday and almost scored an empty-net goal, and Alexandar Georgiev both up with the team. Saturday's start was Lundqvist's first since January 11 and his second in the past month. But with the heavy condensed schedules, all three goalies show see fairly consistent work, keeping all of them fresh.
This is everything. pic.twitter.com/TmytdmX3xk
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 2, 2020
Right in the heartstrings. pic.twitter.com/8OfI2VxB6n
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 2, 2020
Still got it pic.twitter.com/tIDqOqQAZI
— Fitz (@FitzGSN_) February 2, 2020
4) Defense - Friday saw Ryan Lindgren paired with Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox with Brady Skjei. Those pairing lasted until Fox and Skjei were on the ice for both Detroit goals, necessitating a swap of Lindgren and Skjei back to their original pair mates. Saturday, coach David Quinn went back to Friday's duos.
I thought Lindgren was okay Saturday, as he struggled at times to get the puck out of his own zone, making several soft passes. Skjei and Fox were fairly solid and i thought Marc Staal and Tony DeAngelo were pretty good in the game.