The Rangers were not particularly great last night, but as I wrote in a blog a few days ago, a win is a win is a win. After a solid first and middling second period, the Rangers kind of took their foot of the gas pedal - which has been a disturbing pattern a good part of the year - and allowed Buffalo to carry play in the third. Fortunately, the $59.5 million man - yes, I know the deal kicks off next year but I wrote it because I know everyone is thinking it - Henrik Lundqvist saved the team's rear end with a stellar period, making several key saves to preserve a 3-1 victory.
Game Highlights:
After taking a 1-0 lead, the Rangers seemed to coast rather than putting the pedal to the metal and trying to put away the Sabres. The goal, which came on a gorgeous breakout pass from Ryan McDonagh (two assists) to Derek Stepan for the touch feed/redirection to Rick Nash, who beat Ryan Miller on a beautiful move and put the puck in on the short-side. Nash and McDonagh were two of those who heeded coach Alain Vigneault's call for the team's core players to step up. Unfortunately, once again, there were too many passengers and not enough drivers last night.
So instead of having maybe a two or three goal lead entering the third, New York was clinging to just that 1-0 margin. This is where Lundqvist shined, and as Steve Zipay wrote, the turning point of the game. 'First, he denied Cody Hodgson's breakaway with a poke check and Hodgson immediately was called for tripping at 7:11. Enter Brad Richards and the Rangers' power play. At 8:29, Richards scored his eighth goal of the season, roofing a shot from the goal line to Ryan Miller's left on passes from Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello'. The goal by Richards, who is so much better down on the half-boards and below the circle than at the point in my opinion, came after a nice move by Brassard, who faked the shot, creating room and making Miller move, and then dishing the puck to Richards for the goal.
The clincher came off the stick off Zuccarello. You all know my view on MZA and how I wanted him back here. After being a healthy scratch earlier in the year, he has rally answered the bell, providing supplemental scoring for NY. He reminds me a lot of Theo Fleury, not necessarily as a scorer or someone who will drop the gloves, but as a skater who plays bigger than his size and gives no quarter to anyone. To me, he has been one of the most valuable players on this team to date.
Defensively, the team was average again. McDonagh was solid as he has been basically all the season but the rest of the team was average at best. I wrote yesterday how Marc Staal has struggled lately and last night was no different. Maybe he is struggling with getting used to the visor, as is Dan Girardi. Maybe he is still adapting to the change in depth perception due to the injury. Maybe as was suggested in the comments on the prior blog, he has laid back a bit instead of pinching, letting Stralman do that, which could be due to his problems with puck possession and control. If those three are the case, they are somewhat relatively easily fixable. There were no major glaring errors but as whole, there wee middling at best. Moving forward, they all need to be much better, and I think they have that capacity to do, but performance not potential are the keys and that performance has been lacking.
Unfortunately, Lundqvist lost a shot at his second straight shutout against the Sabres when his attempted clear around the boards hit the glass and a body and went to Tyler Ennis who belated it past Hank. Of course, he could have made the easy play and given it to the defenseman who was open with no one around right in front of him but it's hard to criticize his performance.
The Rangers now head into a contest Saturday against the Devils to kick off nine straight games at home. As Carp wrote today, 'the hardest part of the season is now behind them. They have only 23 road games left, and two of those are at Yankee Stadium. They have played five of their six against the California powerhouses. Now there’s a nine-game homestand. Time to make hay'. Couldn't agree with him more, the team has to start playing better at MSG and get out of the win one, lose one pattern. Saturday would be a perfect time to do it against a division rival and one the Rangers have struggled to beat all season.