The Rangers came into Tuesday's game desperately needing a win. Thanks to a few costly turnovers by Anaheim, along with for the most part solid defense and an overtime PPG, they get to enjoy the break. Going from 16-3-2 to 20-12-4 is not the ideal, but a win Tuesday helps ease some of those bad memories.
Tuesday was the Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello show. Brassard took advantage of a bad Josh Manson turnover to beat John Gibson in the first and even in the game. In the third, it was Zucc getting a gimme from Jiri Sekac and feeding Brass for his second. In the overtime, thanks to a great pass by Dan Boyle, who settled a feed from Brassard in his skates and went cross-ice with the pass, Zucc beat Gibson for the game-winner.
The lines Tuesday were: Nash-Stepan-Fast Kreider-Brassard-Zuccarello Lindberg-Hayes-Miller Glass-Moore-Etem
I thought Miller was very strong again, continuing his fine play. Nash was a bit more engaged while Kreider showed some signs of being physical. I expect Nash to be back with Brass and Zucc while Kreider is with Stepan and Miller as the second line. Move Fast down to the third line and keep together the Moore-Glass-Etem line, who overall was the team's best Tuesday, creating chances off their strong forecheck. That said, Etem has shown lately he deserves to be moved up while Fast is a third/fourth liner at best, so I could see moving Etem up alongside Lindberg and Hayes.
The D was for the most part was better. The combinations coming in with Dan Girardi (knee) and Kevin Klein (oblique) still out were Staal-McDonagh, Yandle-McIlrath and Summers-Boyle. On the first goal, both Staal and McDonagh looked like they expected icing and when they didn't get the call, it allowed Corey Perry to get open and score. On the second, Richard Rackell had a great shot, but McDonagh was way too passive, backing up to give him that room rather than being aggressive and forcing the play. Other than those two plays, I thought the D was fairly solid.
We all love the info Carp provides. There were two nuggets in his recap that stood out to me, each of which we have noted previously:
The Rangers should get out their iPads and their shift-app and watch their shifts, and look especially at how they are not skating without the puck, unless there’s a chance they can beat somebody to a puck. Otherwise they’re doing a lot of gliding. A lot. It’s not slow motion, or complete dogging it. It’s just not 100 percent until it’s a moment too late. A lot of times they’re trying to go from 20 or 30 percent-to-100, where if they were going 50 or 60, maybe they win a puck, or beat a defender, or prevent a chance. So they get beaten to pucks, get beaten to spots on the ice where they need to be. Happens shift after shift, and AV and his staff have to be aware of this. One harder stride here or there, maybe you avoid some of these losses and this thing isn’t so bad.Shortcuts. Just too many shortcuts for too long, by too many players, top to bottom. This is something that’s got to stop if the rest of the season is going to be better. The lolly-gagging to the bench on changes, for example. It’s epidemic.
Effort. All the talent in the world usually won't make up for a lack of effort. I have said before, effort at times will beat talent if the talent comes without effort. When the two are combined, it's a winning combination. If you want to win in the NHL, it comes with a price. That price includes effort. If you won't give your all and you are willing to just cut corners, the ramifications are at times ugly hockey and more times than not, losses. I hate losing but worse, I hate teams and players that don't play the game right. New Yorkers will tolerate losses to a great extent if they believe their team is giving all they have. If they aren't, there is usually hell to pay with the fanbase. Lately, it has looked like the Rangers are going through the motions too often. While that may not be the case, perception is greater than reality, so in this case, whether true or not, the belief is that it is true. If the team does anything over the break, hopefully it's self-introspection with the realization that half-effort isn't enough.
Merry Xmas to those celebrating. I am heading to Disney with family but will try and blog when I can from there.