Click here to read my column on Mats Zuccarello.
Click here for the boxscore with links to the game summary, etc.
Thoughts:
1) The eight wins in a row are great, piling up all these points, great too. But the bigger picture is that Saturday’s 2-1 shootout win is one of those games that can have ramifications down the road. The type of game that galvanizes a team. The type of win that you don’t just bury with all the other ones — Calgary, Columbus, even St. Louis. This is one you remember. You put as mental checkmark next to it. The Rangers came together a little bit, around two guys who have struggled, two popular guys.
2) And maybe, just maybe, this is a spark that gets Chris Kreider back to being the power forward he should be. It wasn’t a Gordie Howe hat trick — a goal, a fight, a tremendous defensive play. Nor was it the fight of the year. But For a guy who sat out 17 minutes in solitary, he sure had his prints all over this game, didn’t he? When a guy like Derek Stepan — an alternate captain whose been clobbered before (cough, cough, Brandon Prust) — gets clobbered like that, on a dirty, illegal shot to the head, there needs to be a response. Kreider didn’t hesitate. And though Alain Vigneault barely endorsed it, Kreider’s teammates surely did. You can take that to the bank.
3) And I’m not even saying that fight won the game, or changed the game. It just means so much to a team. Plus, Kreider so badly needed to have one of those games where he’s a major factor. I thought his game had been coming along, but very slowly. The power-play goal he scored, toughing it out in front moments after being hobbled by a Keith Yandle shot off the foot, was bigger for his confidence than it was for the outcome. The defensive play he made, using that speed on the backcheck to snuff out an Ottawa chance in that crazy overtime, gave the Rangers a chance to get the second point. This team, which can’t lose, will be so much better if this is the Kreider they get the rest of the way.
4) Before we get to Dan Boyle, or the shootout, or Henrik Lundqvist or anything else, let’s discuss this headshot. The NHL Department of Player Safety reaps what it sows. They allow these predatory headshots, so these headshots become rampant. It’s completely out of control now. And I don’t think there’s a chance Zack Smith gets suspended because the NHLDPS has shown it will jump through flaming hoops to not suspend, that it will examine on a microscopic level to find any point of contact that precedes the headshot. Which then gives the perp a free headshot. Touch the jersey on the way to the head, and you can do anything you want to the head. I’m also not blaming this entirely on the NHLDPS, because it’s the GMs and governors and players union who set standards for punishment (or lack thereof) and for rule enforcement (stop laughing, there are actually rules). Does anybody really want to stop the headshots? Answer: No.
5) Still, our fine, exemplary on-ice officials not only botched the call on Smith, but might have botched the instigator penalty, too, since Smith had his gloves off before Kreider got there. Play on. Clowns in stripes. I thought only Chris Neil got non-call treatment like that. Click here to see the assault. And here for another angle.What a freakin’ joke the NHL is.
6) Now, about that shootout. What a crappy way to decide a hockey game. Crappy as it is, it’s less crappy for the winning team and would have totally stunk to lose that game in the post-hockey contest. I will say that the 3-on-3 is somewhat better, in that it actually involves some hockey, some team play, etc. But that thing is completely random. The better team in OT is not going to win more than 50 percent of OTs. There’s just too much luck involved. A post, a blocked shot, anything at all, can go the other way and end the game. Total crapshoot.
7) That said, it’s pretty cool that Dan Boyle won the game, or at least got the bonus point. Not because it’s his hometown, but because he needed it more than anybody, and his little piece of success here can be another feel-good thing to come out of this game for his teammates. Nobody is going to pretend he’s been good, especially him. This year has been really difficult for him, and it can’t ever be easy to see your skills erode. But he cares, and it was a cool move for AV to put him out there in his hometown and a nicer touch by his teammates to give him the hat after the game. Says a lot about the kind of guys they have on that team.
8) Boyle, remember, had that bizarre shootout goal wiped out by video replay last year, when the Rangers had to come back out of their lockerroom, after celebrating the win, and lost in Pittsburgh. Boyle also scored a shootout goal in the preseason this year in Boston, a shootout in which Mats Zuccarello also scored, as he did yesterday. What is hard for me to believe is that Jeff Malcolm was in goal for the Rangers in that shootout, having replaced Lundqvist halfway through regulation.
9) Every night, the Rangers have the better goalie, and that said a lot in this game, when Craig Anderson was pretty fabulous and the first goalie in four games to not get the hook against the Rangers. Here’s an eye-popping stat from the NYR: Lundqvist has played 130:27 with Rangers up by one or tied in the third period, with a GAA of 0.45, and a save percentage of .986 (73 for 74). Holy moly. Mike Hoffman surely saw Lundqvist in his sleep last night. Lundqvist’s daily Five-Bells save was against Hoffman, whom he robbed three times, including late in the third. Lundqvist also made a magnificent save on Kyle Turris early third at 1-1. Lundqvist gave up a 5-on-2 goal, and nothing else … with a little help from the pipes, one of them by Hoffman in OT.
10) The power play strikes again. Interesting start with Kreider, Kevin Hayes and Oscar Lindberg. Kreider, on one leg after taking the Keith Yandle shot, deflected the Hayes shot after a good strong play by Lindberg to keep that play going, and a good pass by Yandle to Hayes. Off the Pouliot by Milan Michalek. (Newcomes, a Pouliot=offensive zone penalty).
11) I thought Yandle was noticably better in this game, which had a pretty great pace early, and hunkered down late. He and Boyle were both quite good in the OT, where you have to go for it. Bottom line: If Yandle makes the power play go, you live with anything else. Sometimes he’s as advertised. Sometimes he isn’t.
12) I don’t get Kevin Klein getting two shifts in OT. I mean, unless you aim is to get to the shootout. And Kevin Hayes holding the puck there and holding it and holding it … that’s just begging for an odd-man rush the other way.
13) Ottawa’s lone goal was just a bad decision by a guy known for making good decisions. Stepan’s pass behind was behind Ryan McDonagh, who then blew a tire, for a 5-on-2 break on the power play for the Senators 1-1 goal by Erik Karlsson. The play that led to Jesper Fast’s penalty in the first place was, apparently, offside. At least according to Pat Leonard, who’s got better eyes than me.
14) How about that early shift, Boyle and Marc Staal both deep in the offensive zone with Kreider and J.T. Miller on the ice — a lethal combo the Rangers survived. Those four, plus Stepan, were also on the ice for that rapid-fire series of saves Lundqvist had to make at 1-1. And Miller somehow yanked that shot through the crease behind Anderson, with an empty net.
14) But I thought that line, overall, had a ton of jump. Miller’s been strong. Stepan too.
15) Zuccarello, who brings it every night now, had 1:45 shift, staying on after the power play. Had the big hit on Turris in third. Then after being kept off the scoresheet, snapped a shootout goal over Anderson’s glove — when everybody thought he’d go to his signature super-slo-mo move.
16) Karlsson’s much better defensively, even if he is the ultimate risk-taker. Used his speed to catch Hayes from behind on the breakaway in third. Still getting better and a serious weapon in today’s up-tempo NHL. I still wouldn’t give him a Norris Trophy vote, but I’d take him on my team in a heartbeat.
17) Almost-Daily Nash-O-Meter. He was a step late getting back on the 5 on 2 goal and ticked off about it. Made really some good PK plays later. Hit a post in OT. Played a really strong game with the puck. I think Brassard’s compete level has been raised recently, too.
18) Backtracking, The NHL suspended Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog for two games for his hit on Brad Marchand. How is the Landeskog hit different than Teflon Chris Neil’s on Brian Boyle in the 2012 playoffs? Answer: It isn’t. How is it different than Smith on Stepan? It isn’t.
19) Is it just me, or have the Rangers been a little bit nastier the last couple of games?
20) Good for Dominic Moore getting back into the lineup after two healthy scratches, and playing in his 700th NHL game. But what was he doing when he peeled away from Stone, who hit the crossbar in the first.
21) Why didn’t Ottawa use the future Hall of Famer, the Cheeseburger?
22) I still miss Teddy Roosevelt. If he was still there, I think the Senators would have more than their five regulation/OT wins.
23) No idea what Steve Valiquette and Anson Carter were babbling about that the Rangers had to kill off Kreider’s penalty. There was no power play on that incident. Smith was given two for interference. And calling Toronto a “trap game?” Have they paid attention to this team at all the last four-plus years? These Rangers might lose sometimes (they might, right?). But they don’t take teams for granted. Their focus is one of their best assets.
24) The best moment of the whole day was the playing of the French national anthem. If you missed it, click here. Goosebumps. Major goosebumps.
25) These things are getting longer and taking longer write, aren’t they?
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My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Chris Kreider.
2. Henrik Lundqvist.
3. Dan Boyle.
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Your poll vote for Three Rangers Stars:
1. Chris Kreider.
2. Henrik Lundqvist.
3. Mats Zuccarello.
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