Rangers 4, Hurricanes 3.
Click here to read my game story from lohud.com.
Click here for the boxscore with links to the game summary, etc.
Click here for Alain Vigneault’s post-game press conference video.
Thoughts:
1) First of all, apologies for the issues on the blog since late Saturday/early Sunday. I was ticked because I thought I wrote a really good, biting, review of that fine, outstanding performance vs. Philadelphia Saturday. Spent about four hours on it. Oh, well. And there could still be a hiccup today as they try to put the blog back together again, with all the posts that disappeared since the Boston game review. Fingers crossed. Thanks for hanging in there. Sorry.
2) My God, that’s a bad team on the other side last night, and the Rangers gave them plenty of space and time. Plenty. Carolina doesn’t even skate hard until there’s a scoring chance. Awful. But Cam Ward? P.U.
3) So it was really difficult to tell whether this was much better, or better at all, than the Boston or Philadelphia games. I’m gonna say it wasn’t. But it would have been a disaster to lose, and they didn’t lose. So there’s that.
4) Henrik Lundqvist, who normally makes the best points, made the best point. They needed to hold a lead, as unsightly as it was, because of what had happened so much lately. They needed to have a good third. Well, it wasn’t particularly good, but they didn’t let it get away. So there’s that, too.
5) Lundqvist, who plans on shaving the Movember mustache that was a lucky charm early in the month, and not so much later, said, “I felt like the finish was more important than the start. If you look at our games lately, that’s where it’s been decided, the last five, managing the puck and being smart. It seemed tonight, yeah, we had a great start, but they came back and it was a good test for us to play out the last five minutes.”
6) “It’s sports,” Lundqvist also said. “You feel great, you feel like you’re on top of the world and then you lose three games and you start wondering and thinking about your game and what we can do better instead of just focusing on the process here – what we need to do to win, or how to have a great period. Then you take it step by step. That’s what you need to do. You need to break it down and believe in what we have here in our system. A win is always big. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s always something you can build off of and feel good about.”
7) So they left the Garden and got ready for their first-ever trip to Brooklyn Wednesday, feeling better. Again, I can only imagine what it would be like for them had they lost this one. And I don’t even have to imagine, because I know 100 percent, what it would have been like with you guys here. Holy moly.
8) Right off the hop, the Rangers get a power play, and it looked like some sort of set play. Dan Boyle, the point man, moves up to the wing on the wall, Mats Zuccarello at the right point, but actually just to the right and above the left circle, looking for a quick shot if Derick Brassard can win the draw cleanly back to Ryan McDonagh. Well, Brassard won it – amazing what a difference that makes — but not cleanly, Boyle jumps in and helps get it back to the top of the circle, Zuccarello steps in front of McDonagh and whips it through the planned Rick Nash screen. Ward never saw it. 1-0.
9) Ward should have flung his helmet off to get his usual stoppage.
10) Before I forget, there’s probably some concern about Kevin Klein’s abdominal strain. Those things were once a lot more frequent in hockey, but they were often very serious, sometimes requiring surgery. I have no information whatsoever that this is serious, and the Rangers have to be hoping it isn’t. Because even though I thought Klein finally hit a rough patch vs. Boston and Philly, he’s been about their most consistent D-man. And with Derek Stepan out 4-6 weeks with two broken ribs, the Rangers don’t need another injury.
11) Of course, this probably means Dylan McIlrath and Boyle play in Brooklyn, and McIlrath playing against that team could be kind of fun. I want to see how he handles the Islanders’ speed, though. More on him later.
12) Boyle had a second power-play assist, a beaut, finding Oscar Lindberg in the slot for a one-timer and his ninth – can he really get 20 as a rookie? Boyle, I thought, defended pretty well, and competed all night. Yeah, his night wasn’t perfect, but none of the defensemen really shined (shone?) in this game. Especially Keith Yandle and Dan Girardi. Yikes. At least Girardi was physical. He squished Brad Malone in center ice in the second period.
13) But getting back to the power play – that’s the first two-PPG game this season, first since last February, and despite that, the numbers are actually pretty good. I know, when they have bad ones, they are really bad. But realistically, 25 percent is pretty good in the NHL. The Rangers are at 30 percent the last six games (6-for-20), and 26.5 percent (13-for-49) the last 19 games. Part of their problem is that they don’t draw a lot of penalties.
14) On the other hand, they take a lot of penalties, and that’s become a habit, and it certainly hasn’t helped with all the other difficulties they’ve had, and it won’t help with two of their top PK guys (Stepan and Klein) out.
15) Some of the main culprits include Lindberg, and the Rangers’ No. 1 line. In fact, throughout this difficult stretch of games, the Brassard line has been woeful defensively and has taken a lot of penalties. St. Zuccarello really has been bad in his own end. Everybody loves it when Zuccarello plays tough, but that selfish exchange with cottony-soft Jean-Michael Liles late in the third period could have resulted in a Carolina power play, easily, especially with the unknown that is our fine NHL officials and their vastly different interpretations of the rulebook. No discipline at all.
16) BTW, that might be the craziest stat in the league so far, that the Hurricanes have the worst power play, by far, with just 10 PPGs all season, and yet defenseman Justin Faulk is tied for the NHL lead with eight. Guy has a gun and a quick release; cranked one off the post last night. His name is up there, tied with Jamie Benn, and ahead of Patrick Kane (7), Evgeni Malkin and Steven Stamkos (6 each).
17) Jeff Skinner, the figure skater or ballerina or whatever he was, took a little run at Chris Kreider in the first and nearly got killed, then got a Kreider fist to the back of the helmet and folded over. Kreider was a bit better. And he had the goal – his first point in seven games – just a Cam Ward gift. Jesper Fast caused the turnover and Kreider got to the puck before the two Canes, and did the smart thing. Fire it at the net from a bad angle. Ward cheated and lost. Should have flung off his helmet on that one, too.
18) Daily Nash-O-Meter: Nash set the early screen on the PPG by Zuccarello. Had a short-handed burst and wrister stopped by Ward’s logo. Had another breakaway shot miss the net. I thought he was much more forceful, and better defensively, than he had been recently.
19) Lundqvist made those two saves in tight with Marc Staal and Girardi sliding along the ice and out of the play. Gave up another stinker, five-hole, to Victor Rask. Had some moments, and made enough saves to win, but he hasn’t been as good as he was earlier, and he couldn’t possibly be that good for the whole season.
20) On the goal by Jordan Staal, Brassard, Zuccarello, Girardi and Yandle all stood around and watched. That came after Nash, on the rush the other way, got tripped up and slid into the end boards. So he was late getting to the bench for a change and the Hurricanes basically had a 5-on-4 for the goal. Nash was jawing at the official on his way to the bench. Can’t blame him. But it was yet another in a long string, an avalanche really, of uncontested goals in these last five, six, seven games or so.
21) Tough to say anything bad about the power play after it scored two goals. But that fourth opportunity had layers of odor on it.
22) So the Rangers had four goals on 12 shots. But Kevin Hayes breaks 2-on-1, the Canes give him the shot and he won’t take it, instead trying to dangle and make some sort of Forsberg-ian shootout move. Got to shoot on that guy in that spot. Game could have been over, right after the Lundqvist stinker turned it into a 4-2 game. What happens when Hayes just dangles and plays Carmelo Keep-Away? It slows down the offense, gets his teammates standing still, and more often than not results in no shot and a turnover. A turnover, with flat-footed teammates.
23) But Hayes cashed in the Rangers’ first Jack-in-the-Box goal in a while. After Faulk – and his ridiculous numbers – hit the post and the Rangers barely survived Hayes’ lazy penalty, and Girardi’s clearing try hit Dominic Moore, and with the Rangers’ PK out of gas, Fast finally cleared it. Hayes jumped out of the box stole Ward’s pass at blue line, and set up Brassard for a one-time dunk. Brassard read it perfectly, too, hanging back when he saw Hayes rushing to keep the puck in. Ward really should have flung off his helmet on that one.
24) Those Staals. Are they related? I wasn’t watching the telecast.
25) Some thoughts from my Philly review, for anybody other than the eight people who saw it before it disappeared: Good thing the Rangers banked all those points early. But you could see a correction was coming. I didn’t think the Rangers would get this bad this quickly, but when you take shortcuts and your goalie is a human being instead of a superhero, you’re in trouble. Even spectacular goaltending can’t paint over graffiti forever. I thought, and still think, the Rangers will play better than they did during the 13-1-2 streak. They probably won’t get that type of results for that long a stretch again, but they will play better hockey than they did for that month and a half.
26) McIlrath’s hit on Schultz, which may have resulted in a concussion, reminded me of the Dion Phaneuf hit on Michael Sauer. I’m pretty sure McIlrath his him in the chest, and that he may have been injured on the whiplash, or when he hit the ice. So Schenn reacts and gets a beating. Schultz left the ice. Rangers get a power play Wow. Consistency by NHL officials. How about that? As we live and breathe.
27) I think the kid needs to play, if not full-time, more often than he has. Got to be extremely difficult for him to jump on a moving train every two or three weeks. Did he have a bunch of defensive hiccups Saturday? Yup. Quite a few, but no more than Dan Boyle regularly produces, or Keith Yandle, or even Dan Girardi early in the season and again recently. Was McIlrath fairly effective at other times? Yes again. But mostly, what he’s done these last two games is an element you need, and a piece of the puzzle that makes the rest of the players feel a little bit bigger, a little safer. Again, he doesn’t deter everything. Nobody does. He was on the ice during the Beleskey hit and didn’t prevent that. But there needs to be a reaction sometimes. McIlrath did that Friday. There has to be an initiator sometimes. McIlrath did that Saturday. On the other hand, maybe Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck are a little bit quieter Wednesday if he’s in the lineup. The Rangers felt Martin wanted no part of Tanner Glass last year.
28) And there’s not a chance AV would or should make the decision based on this, but the fans are starting to be crazy about this kid, and will be. Plus, it’s time. It’s just time to find out if he’s going to be an NHL player. I think he will be somewhere. He’s already better than Luke Schenn (but so am I). Can he be an NHL player on this team? Gotta find out.
29) Saw Steve Smith, the Carolina assistant coach, scouting on Saturday, and then again on the bench last night. His is one of my favorite stories in hockey. For those too young to remember (or too old to remember, like me), Smith, as a young player, accidentally scored a goal into his own net, in a second-round Game 7 loss to blood-rival Calgary, costing the Edmonton dynasty a probable run of five Stanley Cups in a row. The next year, the Oilers won again, and when Wayne Gretzky hoisted the Cup, the first player he handed it to was Smith. Goose bumps.
30) Maybe the Rangers are better off in a quiet building. Because it was a silent night Monday, after the place was actually fairly loud for the Montreal and Philadelphia debacles.
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My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Derick Brassard.
2. Dan Boyle.
3. Oscar Lindberg.
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Kenny Albert’s Three Rangers Stars:
1. Derick Brassard.
2. Mats Zuccarello.
3. Henrik Lundqvist.
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Your poll vote for Three Rangers Stars:
1. Tie, Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello
3. Oscar Lindberg.
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