The Rangers kicked off their homestand in fine fashion, with a 3-2 win over the Stars on Friday. The contest was in doubt until late in the third when Rick Nash sent the Garden faithful home happy, beating Kari Lehtonen to give the Blueshirts the win. New York gets right back at it Sunday facing a divisional rival, the Flyers, at MSG.
Game Highlights:
I want to touch on a few things I wrote the past few blogs and supplement it with a few bits of information.
Physical Play: To me, and I agree with Pat Leonard, the game turned on a few hits in the second period. The first was by Daniel Carcillo on Ryan Garbutt with 7:35 to play in the second, followed by Michael Del Zotto's check on Antoine Roussel. From Carcillo, you expect it, from Del Zotto, he has been taking the body more lately.
B2B76 (Brian) put it best in the blog comments - I think Carcillo's like ALMOST all these agitator/tough guy types, you HATE them when they are on the other team but when you see them game in/game out they're good character guys & even have some skill. If Carcillo can stay on the straight and narrow and not go over the edge, he provides a physical component the Rangers have lacked most of the year, especially now with Derek Dorsett out. When Dorsett comes back, the Rangers can mix-and-match the bottom six, using both against more physical teams and one against more skilled ones.
Michael Del Zotto: I have talked a lot, maybe too much about Del Zotto, but it's interesting to see two different perspectives on just yesterday's game in the paper. The first is from Steve Zipay, the second from Larry Brooks, but the real interesting part is if you don't read the full part online, a good piece of the meaning and context is lost. I added in the full quote at the bottom.
Zipay - Michael Del Zotto, who entered the game with an assist in each of the previous three games, did not get a point in 14:47 but blocked three shots and delivered three hits. That included the loudest check of the night, when he lowered the boom on Antoine Roussel along the boards in the second period.
Brooks - Del Zotto, likely being showcased for a deal but who seems to have more value on the blue line than as a trade chip, played 14:47 on the third pair with John Moore, but just 9:17 after the first period.
Quote: “I think Michael is coming offensively with his ability to find the seam on his passes and generate opportunities,… Vigneault said before the game. “Defensively the last couple of games he has been able tighten up. He’s had issues there for quite a few games,… the coach said. “That pair is generally on against the other teams’ third and fourth lines so they have to be on the plus-side of chances.…
You know I think MDZ has gotten somewhat of a raw deal and been criticized too much. Zipay gave the facts, Brooks put his own spin on it. However, if you look into what Brooks said and analyze it, you will see what he said needs further embellishment. MDZ played 5:30 in the first and 9:17 the next two period for 14:47. If he played 5:30 per period the last two, he would have ended up at 16:30 rather than 14:47, the difference of 16:30 and 14:47 is 1:43, about 51 seconds or one shift per period. In essence, it's not as if he had minutes cut substantially, and with AV usually relying on the top-four, so it's not surprising to see MDZ have fewer minutes than those four and he also played a minute more than John Moore. I might have thought he would have seen even more minutes given how much Marc Staal and Anton Stralman struggled the first two periods, especially on Eakin's goal and were caught pinching on the second, but they rebounded enough to both play slightly under 19 minutes.
Power Play: What Brooks wrote about the PP is true and a big reason for the current hot streak: "For years and years, the power play has been an anchor. Now, it has emerged as a singular strength, 5-for-13 in the last four games, 9-for-25 in the last nine and 13-for-42 over the last dozen matches, keyed by the Brassard-Zuccarello-Pouliot combination up front that has emerged as the top unit with Brad Richards and Ryan McDonagh at the points.
In each of the last two years, the Rangers ranked 23d in the NHL at 15.7-percent. The year before that, the Blueshirts were 18th at 16.9. Now, the Rangers are sixth overall in the NHL at 21.4-percent. The Rangers haven’t had a success rate that high since the 1996-97 team (with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Brian Leetch) clocked in at 22.0."
Scott Arniel has done a wonderful job with the PP and I have to give AV some credit for mixing-and-matching to find the right pairings. Now that they have it, hopefully the group gets even more-and-more comfortable and dangerous together. Brassard got his first goal in 11 games, taking punishment in front to score the tying marker. Brad Richards notched his second assist of the game on the play, giving him back-to-back games with multiple points enabling him to take the team lead with 33 points. I don't have to say another word on Zuccarello, save for, please lock him up now and try and save a bit a cash in doing so rather than waiting. Third period dominance: I wrote Friday "the 6-2-1 record is a good portion due to them outscoring opponents 11-4 in the final frame, whereas in the first two stanzas, the Rangers and their opponent each scored 16 goals." That proved to be prescient, as the Rangers scored the lone goal in the third period, which propelled them to the win.
JT Miller - I wrote Friday: "Miller, who seemed to have a clear spot when Derek Dorsett got injured, is now getting squeezed out by the addition of Carcillo, so he is the extra forward. If he will remain in that state for a while and not get back in the lineup, then it makes sense to send him back down to Hartford and let him get top-six minutes again." Miller was sent down Friday night after the game so he could play Saturday and Sunday, but he may be back Tuesday. The Rangers do get some minuscule cap savings by sending down and then bring him up and they are playing the schedule game, so as long as he doesn't miss any action with Hartford and get stagnant, I am fine with them calling him back up to be with the parent club.
Nash - the top line of Kreider-Stepan-Nash struggled most of the night, but came up big late. Each one of them made a key play on the goal to result in the marker. You would like to see your top line have more dominance throughout the game, but the key is for that top trio to make a play when necessary, which proved to be the case Friday.
To me, the more important part, even besides the goal, is where it came from. Nash went into the dirty zone, an area he appeared to be reluctant to venture into until recently. Maybe now he is fully healthy or at least feels that way, which has given him the impetus and drive to go in front, where he can use his size to create opportunities and score goals. Now that Nash has the willingness and desire coupled with actually going to that dirty area, the impact of which could be huge moving forward.
Back with more before the Flyers' game.