The Rangers defeated the Blackhawks 1-0 in overtime at the United Center on Sunday. In a match up of goalies playing at the top of their game, Corey Crawford was beaten 42 seconds into the extra frame by Derick Brassard to make a winner of Cam Talbot. New York continues their five game road trip with contests at the Coliseum on Tuesday and Verizon Center on Wednesday.
The Rangers were good against Nashville, excellent against Detroit and a notch below that against Chicago. New York dominated the first, but the switch flipped in the second while the third was relatively even. What the Blackhawks did was clog up the neutral zone, limiting the Rangers' opportunities. With Patrick Kane out, Chicago seemed to have shifted their style of play. playing more of a lockdown style. When the Rangers did threaten, Crawford came up big, especially in that one sequence in the third, when he stopped three shots.
Every time Chicago made a thrust forward, Talbot, your NHL Third Star of the Week, came up big. With the victory, Talbot is 14-6-4 with a 2.33 goals against average and .921 save percentage. The shutout was his fifth of the year, tying him with Henrik Lundqvist and giving the Rangers the most whitewashes in the league. After struggling a bit after taking over when Hank went down, Talbot has been excellent positionally the past three games.
Three quick items to discuss:
First, the perceived negativity on the blog. Yes, we know New York is 40-17-7 overall, 10-1-3 in the last 14, 29-7-3 in the last 38, 15-3-5 vs. the West and 11-2-3 since Henrik Lundqvist’s injury, with games in hand on everyone. However, despite that fine play, they cannot and should not get a pass if mistakes are made. On the blog, especially during the game, the reaction is to individual plays, so the highs and lows will be more pronounced. When something goes wrong and there is an adverse reaction, it is perceived as negativity.
You know I will call it as I see it, both pro and con. If they play well, it will be mentioned, similar if they play poorly. The excellent record is phenomenal but it's a stepping stone to where we all want them to get. The playoffs and Cup is the ultimate goal, anything less to me is a failure, be it right or wrong. So, the own zone mistakes or neutral zone turnovers or inability to produce on the PP all get the same or probably more focus that positive plays. Because the hope is that these get cleaned up moving forward. a perfect game is unattainable - though Game 6 against Montreal came close - but it should always be the goal. It's that striving for that attainment that leads to the criticism.
Second, the PP. Getting Keith Yandle makes the Rangers more dangerous, on paper at least. Again, it's early and he hasn't fully settled in, but you have to hope that his pass-first mentality pans out rather than NY acquiring a true shooter from the point. If Yandle starts to do that, like Marek Zidlicky is and will do in Detroit, then the trade goes to a whole new light rather than just upgrading the sixth d-man, as big as that may be.
AV may need to shift up the grouping again. Having too many pass first mentality players, like Yandle and Brassard and Zucc and McDonagh on the same five may be too much. Possibly move Kreider up to add a different look to the top unit. In practice, they went with a PP1: Ryan McDonagh-Keith Yandle, Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Marty St. Louis and PP1A: Dan Boyle-Dan Girardi, Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello with Kevin Hayes out. Shift Kreider and Zucc, which allows Nash to be at the half-boards and Kreider down low, or play Zucc at the point with Yandle and McDonagh on second unit with Hayes down low to create new looks.
Third. Thanks for all the kind words on the site. As i have said, I learn as much or more from you than you likely do from me. Hopefully, I provide some insights or a varying view that may not jave been considered or thought of by others or at least spur conversation. So thank you again for your readership and comments and please spread the word.
Rangers-Islanders blog up during day.