The Rangers were not particularly good, which has become an all too familiar pattern lately, but did just enough to beat Carolina 3-2 in a shootout Saturday. When the Blueshirts forecheck, as they did the second period, they control action. If not, as we saw in the first and third, they play on their heels, allowing the opponent too much room and space with minimal pushback.
If New York was looking past Carolina to Anaheim tonight, then they are fools. The Hurricanes, while not very good this year, has showed they for the most part will play hard nightly. Maybe not the whole lineup but big pieces of it will battle from first to last whistle. That's what happened last night.
A bad goal allowed by Cam Talbot through the five-hole to Elias Lindholm 2:01 into the game put the Rangers in a 1-0 hole. New York didn't generate many chances and entered the second down by that score. Off what looked like a set play, the Rangers tied the game. Derick Brassard won the draw, Mars Zuccarello went wide and JT Miller, moved to this line for this game, drove to the net and deflected the puck by Anton Khudobin.
A bit over nine minutes later, the Rangers took a 2-1 lead. Kevin Hayes won a battle on the left wall and flung a pass into the slot, which was corralled by Fast, who spun and sent the puck over Khudobin's raised glove. Fast almost had a goal in the first but was denied, but this time, his spin-and-shoot broke the tie.
In the third, Carolina kept coming in waves. The Blueshirts were out-attempted 30-9 at even-strength while outshot 17-6 overall but Cam Talbot stood tall most of the period. The evener came after a missed opportunity by the Rangers.
Hayes came down the slot on a 3-on-2 but instead of shooting, he tried a pass to Carl Hagelin that was off the mark. Hagelin, reaching for the puck, took a silly penalty. On the PK, the Rangers had a few chances to clear, including a golden one blown by Dominic Moore. Carolina was able to retain possession, John Michael Liles circled the net, resulting heavy traffic in front. He found Ryan Murphy at the point, whose slap shot got past Fast's block attempt and beat a screened Talbot to tie the game.
Talbot kept New York in the game in the third, sending it to overtime. No one was able to breakthrough in the extra five minute session. In the shootout, Zuccarello took advice Sent from my iPhone
Despite the win, troubling signs remain: - The Blueshirts came up empty on two power plays, dropping their recent mark to 0-for-18. It's not just the inability to score, but the failure to gain the zone initially. Nothing seems to working well right now on the man advantage. The changing of personnel hasn't had the desired effect, so another change may be forthcoming.
- New York is 7-1-1 in their last nine games and have won five straight on road. But they have tallied just 13 goals in their past eight games and 24 in 12. No one has been immune to this slump.
- Larry Brooks wrote today: "Rick Nash, who hasn’t scored in five games and who has two goals in his past 13 (one an empty-netter) remains stuck on 39 goals. Derek Stepan is without a point over his past 12 games. Zuccarello hasn’t scored over the past 14, Derick Brassard has one goal over his past 21 and now Chris Kreider has gone eight straight since scoring." The Rangers best line has been whoever is on the third trio while the fourth line has occasionally chipped in. While the wins now are nice, we all know that it's unsustainable once the second season starts unless the big boys start producing.
The only good news is that due to the offensive woes, the Rangers have been playing playoff-style contests. Brooks added today: "over the past eight games, the score has been within one goal for all but 4:34 of the aggregate 486:57 of hockey they have played." That's the style of play you see in the post-season. The ability to stay in games when the offense struggles is nice and hopefully bodes well for the future, but as noted above, the top-six likely needs to score for NY to advance.
The Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers (97 points) maintained their five-point lead over the Islanders, who beat the Devils on Saturday night. The Blueshirts have three games in hand on the Isles. That gap will get narrowed as the Rangers have six games in nine nights, all of them against teams in or just outside the top-eight in each conference.