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Rangers rally to pull out 4-3 shootout win in uneven game versus Habs |
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The Rangers, in their first game after four days off, pulled out a 4-3 shootout win. To say the team was rusty early and brutal defensively throughout is actually being kind. Turnovers galore and neutral - own zone coverage that was bad at best were on display, especially early. But the power play came up big, Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, Artemi Panarin had three helpers, Jacob Trouba was a beast and Igor Shesterkin had a good last 45 minutes and shootout to notch the win. New York faces Buffalo on Saturday ans Pittsburgh, who blew a 3-1 lead to the Isles and lost in overtime, on Sunday.
Game recap:
Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Tarasenko
Panarin-Trocheck-Kane
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Brodzinski
Mikkola-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Harpur-Schneider
A few thoughts:
1) Ryan Lindgren - the adage you don’t know what you have until it’s gone certainly applies here. We all knew Lindgren was important. But each time he sits and misses a game, his value is magnified.
The Niko Mikkola-Adam Fox pairing hasn’t worked. Fox has looked horrific since Lindgren went down. In addition, he and Mikkola have showed no chemistry or ability to read each other’s game. In addition, Fox had a bad turnover that resulted in the first goal and made a brutal read on the 2-on-1 leading to the short handed good against. Getting Lindgren back hopefully allows Fox to rediscover his game and enables Mikkola to skate with Braden Schneider, where he is better suited.
Keep this in mind though when Lindgren’c contract ends next year. He will be in line for a significant raise. Those who say he might be the expendable one when we look at the blue line and contacts need to recalibrate their thinking
2) Kane - we can’t call what he had the Gordie Howe hat trick but it needs name. An assist on the team’s first PPG. A horrible turnover on the man advantage that lead to a 2-on-1 and short handed goal against. A stick tap to Igor to apologize. Then redemption with a power play goal to tie the game. Kane had a little of everything last night.
As a squad, can we please stop the backhanded blind passes across the blue line that leads to turnovers. In addition, no consistency - other than it being poor - against the Canadiens’ transition rush along with some confusion in the defensive zone. It’s great the offense can score, but if they don’t shore things up defensively, which was to be the focus this past week in practice, they aren’t going anywhere.
3) Power play - the new combinations resulted in two effective units. The puck, and more important, player movement was very good. Offensively, the group looked fine. Just stop with the no look passes that leads to turnovers and odd man rushes against.
Lafreniere-Panarin-Trocheck-Kane-Fox
Kreider-Zibanejad-Chytil-Tarasenko-Trouba
4) Lafrenière, who scored the first goal of the game, as Arthur Staple noted, is the Rangers’ hottest scorer of late; he’s up to nine goals in his past 18 games after scoring five in his first 45 this season. And his second game in a row with a power-play goal was also his second straight with a deft, mid-air tip as the net-front guy, a side of Lafrenière we haven’t seen as a Ranger. Primarily because he’s gotten about six seconds of power-play time, give or take. Laf is up to 14 tallies, putting him in sight of the career/high he scored last season.
While Laf has been good, as I noted the other day, the Kid Line hasn’t. Yesterday, they were woof bad. That unit was on for the Canadiens’ first two goals and were the three worst forwards from an advanced metrics and eye test. The problem is, with the lines as currently constituted, even though a shake up might be needed, what can coach Gerard Gallant do. The top six is pretty set and the Kids would be misplaced on the fourth line. Gallant basically has to run that unit out and hope they find their way.
5) Trouba really was Super yesterday. The last week, possibly aided by the additional ice tike received due to New York playing with less than a full lineup, Trouba has looked like the player we saw down the stretch and in the playoffs last season.
Trouba scored a big goal early in the second to tie the game at two. Assisted on Kane’s first Rangers goal on the power play, after switching with Fox, who saw time on both units. Was his usual physical self, blocking three shots while dishing out a pair of hits. Trouba played a team-high 23:59 and got stick on stick to deny a rebound chance in overtime on the Montreal power play to keep the game tied. All in all, a very solid game.
6) As Staple noted, Shesterkin was good late in a tie game, especially in OT, and had a perfect shootout, but the Canadiens’ second goal was tough to watch — Shesterkin staring down a two-on-one with Trouba playing pass, but Shesterkin made himself small and Alex Belzile went high stick side and beat Shesterkin clean. A good shot by Belzile but Igor didn’t come out to cut down the angle or make life difficult for him.
Igor got better as the game wore on, despite getting beat on Josh Anderson’s short handed goal after the Kane turnover. He stoned Anderson on a breakaway later in the game and was much more aggressive in coming out to cut down angles. That’s the Igor we are used to seeing.
Due to his recent slump, Shesterkin is down to a .908 save percentage this season and has allowed at least three goals in nine of his past 11 starts. Not Shesterkin-like, even if we were spoiled by his play last season. But if Igor plays as he did in the third period and overtime, New York will be in good shape.
7) Chris Kreider missed a few shifts after seemingly injuring his knee on an attempted check, he came back and had a good chance on a quasi breakaway and played the rest of the game. Hopefully no lingering effects.
Game notes:
Panarin has 19 three-assist games with New York, which ranks fifth in Rangers history. Brian Leetch had three assists 37 times with New York, followed by Andy Bathgate (26), Rod Gilbert (25) and Mark Messier (21). … Panarin joined Wayne Gretzky and Peter Stastny as the only undrafted players to reach 70 points in at least seven of their first eight seasons
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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