The Rangers rallied for a 2-1 win over the Bruins on Monday, The victory was the team's first of the season when trailing entering the third period. New York is off until Thursday, when they face the Islanders in Brooklyn.
Better. That's the best way to describe the team's play yesterday and lately. With the win, the Rangers are 4-2-1 in their last seven. More important, is that stylistically, they are playing the way this squad needs to in order to win. There are still mistakes to be corrected and issues to be ironed out, but even though they were down 1-0 entering the third and playing with just five defensemen after Dan Girardi left with a lacerated right hand, they didn't stray from the game plan.
The first two periods were a turnover-fest. Chris Kreider, in his first game back from injury, had several miscues. His neutral zone turnover led to Boston's first goal and a shot by Jimmy Hayes that Henrik Lundqvist should have stopped. On his other egregious turnover, the Rangers were fortunate that Ryan Spooner hit the post and it didn't ricochet in off of Lundqvist. Keith Yandle looked like he was trying to gift-wrap the win to his home state. But even with the miscues, the battle and compete levels were high, which enabled the team to make up for the mistakes.
I like what AV did in shifting up the lines. Derick Brassard’s goal was a result of good hard work by Rick Nash and especially Ryan McDonagh, as well as Mats Zuccarello after that first line was put back together. McDonagh pinched to keep it in, Nash rotated back up high to provide defensive coverage, allowing McD to stay low and Zucc went hard to the net. The game-winner came from the newly constituted Jesper Fast-Derek Stepan-J.T. Miller line. The Kreider-Kevin Hayes-Jayson Megna line, which was created was okay, as Hayes is slowly rounding into form, Kreider, as noted above was shaky while Megna did what he has done a lot of lately, drive hard to the net, though I could see him being the odd-man out Thursday. I thought the fourth line of Viktor Stalberg-Dominic Moore-Tanner Glass was fairly solid again, though I didn't love having Stalberg and Moore on late trying to protect the one-goal lead when Moore and Nash were available. All that said, Oscar Lindberg could get back in Thursday, but with Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck in Brooklyn, Glass likely remains in the lineup.
Defensively, AV shifted Klein up to play with McDonagh and Girardi down to play with Yandle. Those plans went out the window when G was hurt, forcing AV to mix-and-match. McDonagh (24:47) was a beast, showing the form that many of us believe he can and has played at nightly. Klein (25:50) and Dan Boyle (23:09) really stepped up with G out, Yandle (17:00) was better in the third while Marc Staal (21:47) was fine. For those cheering when G got hurt, enough. Whether you like a player or not and regardless of if you want Dylan McIlrath in, you never root for an injury. Kreider was forced to miss two games with his injury, but to a forward, a lacerated hand and inability to shoot is a major deal. For a d-man, it's more the possible loss of the ability to compete physically with that hand, especially against a tough Isles squad. So it's unclear if the injury will force G out.
Lundqvist, other than that gaffe on the Hayes shot was solid and at time spectacular. He kept the team in the game the first two periods. At 2:42 of the third, he somehow robbed Max Talbot with his skate, keeping the game tied at one. Overall, he was good and you know he will be back in there Thursday against the Islanders.
Better. That's the word for the day. It describes their play lately and where we think their level of play can be moving forward.