The Rangers were far from at their best but did just enough right to eke out a 4-3 win over the Canucks on Wednesday. New York's victory was their fourth in their last five games, and improved their mark to 18-4-3 in their last 25. Two bad turnovers lead to a pair of goals, but the Kid Line was solid again, Chris Kreider notched his 250th regular season goal as a Ranger while the K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba pairing had a big night carrying the Blueshirts to the win. Seattle is in town Friday and the Rangers play at the Hurricanes on Saturday.
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1)
Kid Line - Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko were the best line again. Chytil scored another goal, while Alexis Lafreniere added one thanks to dirty work in front while Kakko potted another assist, though shanked what might have been a goal on a wide-open one-timer. Keep the tro together.
The goal was Chytil’s 11th since Jan. 3, which is tied for the third most in the NHL over that span. His current five-game scoring tear also has tied his career-long streak, which he set Nov. 12-21, 2018. Kakko set up the goal with his forecheck and pass to Chytil, who deked and beat Spencer Martin, Lafreniere notched his tally thanks to going to the dirty area in front of the net as Trouba’s slapper from the top of the zone deflected off Lafreniere and in the net.
As I have said a lot recently, Chytil's contract price is rising daily. Larry Brooks wrote a good column on this, highlighting how Dylan Cozens' new deal - seven years at a $7.1 mil AAV - really puts the team in a bind. The way Chytil has played the last month plus coupled with what we saw in the playoffs could make a Cozens comp, despite the difference in age and overall production, more realistic than what we might like to admit. Brooks lays out the impediments to that type of deal, based on $ already committed and future deals for Miller and Lafreniere this year looming with Kakko, Schneider and Lindgren up the following year, meaning that GM Chris Drury more than has his work cut out for him with none of the first three locked up right now.
The Rangers have seven forwards (Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, Kaapo Kakko, Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey), five defensemen (Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, Braden Schneider and Ben Harpur) and one goaltender (Igor Shesterkin) under contract next season for a cap hit of approximately $66.739 million
Under next season’s projected $83.5 million cap, that will leave Drury with approximately $16.761 million to add an additional six forwards, two defensemen and a backup goaltender. That includes signing pending restricted free agents Chytil, Miller and Alexis Lafreniere. Depending on the state of negotiations, those three youngsters may eat close to all of that $16-plus million.
Chytil is the only one of the Rangers’ three marquee pending restricted free agents who holds arbitration rights. He is also just two years away from unrestricted free agency, meaning that the Rangers would not be able to save a little by bridging the Czech. Unless, that is, the idea is to usher Chytil onto the open market. If not, the Blueshirts are going to have to buy out the first three or four years of his free agency if it becomes a five-year or six-year deal.
Chtyil leads the Rangers with 14 goals at five-on-five and is eighth in the NHL (among players with at least 500 minutes) in five-on-five goals-per-60:00 at 1.57.
2)
Blueline - I thought Miller (three assists) and Trouba (two assists) had a pretty solid game. Not perfect in every aspect but solid overall. The one blip was the Canucks' final goal, which is a lesson in playing until you hear the whistle as an icing was expected and not called.
“Troubs and I both looked at each other thinking it was icing,” said K’Andre Miller, who had three assists for the first three-point night of his career. “Next thing you know, their guys are taking the puck and putting it in the back of the net. That’s just being ready for everything at any situation. We weren’t really prepared to that puck, but stuff happens in the game you can’t control.”
Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren were okay, though Lindgren had a brutal turnover leading to Vancouver's second goal. Ben Harpur and Braden Schneider each had rough games. That pairing and the fourth line were in the ice for the Canucks' first goal, which was created by the Blueshirts backing up and ceding the blue line and offensive zone to Quinn Hughes leading to the tally. Harpur was basically benched in the second period, as he was on for just three shifts and 3:19 of ice time. I still think a third-pair, left-handed blueliner is needed and wonder if we see Libor Hajek, who was a healthy scratch for the 21st game in a row Wednesday, for one game in the back-to-back this weekend, maybe versus Seattle.
3)
Fourth line - Will Cuylle-Jake Leschyshyn-Sammy Blais all saw minimal ice with the first just under eight minutes and Blais the high man at 8:07. With the team winning, I think coach Gerard Gallant will keep this unit together a little while longer. That said, Julien Gauthier sat for a second straight contest while Vitali Kravtsov sat for the fourth consecutive game Wednesday. With back-to-back games this weekend, I would not be shocked if either or both got back in for one of the contests. The lack of impact so far - which are the key two words, as they have not played together for that long - by the bottom trio is why I think New York will target this area at the deadline. This could be accomplished by adding a top-nine winger and moving Barclay Goodrow to 4C or adding a true fourth line player.
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