A pair of red-hot teams meet Tuesday at MSG with the Rangers taking on the Capitals. New York comes in having won a season-high six straight and are 8-2 in their last 10. Washington, who beat Florida on Monday, has won three straight and is 7-1-2 in their last 10, riding the fine play of Braden Holby. The Capitals, by virtue of two overtime losses in their two extra games compared to NY, are two points ahead of the Rangers for third in the Metro Division.
The Rangers fine play lately is directly attributable to their improved defensive coverage. The mistakes that haunted this team in the defensive zone have been cleaned up. In addition, all five skaters on the ice are in sync in their own zone, as opposed to the dysfunctional play that existed earlier in the year. Forwards are covering the slot, defensemen are pushing the opponents out wide and if there is a breakdown, Henrik Lundqvist or Cam Talbot is there to make a save.
Offensively, it's been a mixed bag. There has been signs of cohesive play and pressure put on the opponents, but the end result has been sporadic at best. If we look at the six-game win streak, we see good and bad. In the win over Pittsburgh, the Rangers carried play but the one rare defensive lapse in this stretch resulted in two goals in 24 seconds before Kevin Klein came to the rescue. New York dominated the first 40 minutes against Vancouver to cruise to the victory before allowing Edmonton to dictate the style of play in a 2-0 snoozer of a win. The Calgary game ebbed and flowed, as New York carried play early, allowed the Flames to be the better team in the second before rebounding in the third. The home-and-home sweep of Carolina was frustrating only because New York dominated action, but in the first game, Klein bailed them out and in the second, they were unable to break through.
As we see, offense may come and go but defense is constant. The good news is that if they play as they did against Carolina, you figure eventually they will bak through. Of course, we said that a lot under Tortorella but this looks to be a more offensively talented team than that. Chris Kreider, Martin St. Louis and Mats Zuccarello have alternated hot and cold stretches, with more of the latter than we would expect, and for the Rangers to stay hot and take that next step, one or all three have to find their stride,
Nash-Brassard-Zucc Kreider-Stepan-St. Louis Hagelin-Hayes-Miller Glass-Moore-Fast
McDonagh-Girardi Boyle-Staal Hunwick-Klein
(As a side note, quite happy with my $2.9 million fifth defenseman, who has been a godsend. Let's put it this way, would you prefer Michael Del Zotto there? Klein has moved up to the second line when needed, scored timely goals and been solid in his own end, unsure how much more we would need to see)
Lundqvist
For Washington, it still begins and ends with Alexander Ovechkin, but that's not the whole story. Nicklas Backstrom is having another big year while Marcus Johansson, despite some inconsistent play, has proven to be a nice third wheel on the top line. Mike Green, who once again missed time with an injury, returned 10 days ago and seems to have found his game. As mentioned above, Holtby has been a big reason for the team's success and having Barry Trotz as his coach along with Mitch Korn, the Predators' former goalie coach now on board in the Nation's Capital, bodes well for future success by him.