The Rangers clearly are gassed and are banged up. But they found a way to dig deep and pick up a victory, 7-4 against the Penguins. New York was led up front by Artemi Panarin, who tallied five points, on the blueline by K'Andre Miller and Adam Fox, and in net by Jonathan Quick, who came up huge when needed. No rest for the weary as the Blueshirts face the Islanders at home today at 1PM, completing their six games in nine days schedule. (By the ways, thanks Toronto with the help of the the officials for finding a way to blow a two-goal lead in last few minutes against Carolina, sheesh)
A few thoughts:
1) Lineup: the team is operating on fumes. It's why I thought Chad Ruhwedel might get in, especially against his former team. Same with Adam Edstrom, who was just promoted Friday but was sent down this morning. With the quick turnaround and the need for fresh legs, sit Erik Gustafson and start Ruhwedel, as Zac Jones has been more than solid, though it sounds like no changes to be made. I would have inserted Edstrom for Jonny Brodzinski to get a bigger body in the lineup in what will be a physical game but I guess the Rangers opted against it.
2) Panarin - I mean we are running out of the superlatives at this point. I know this all will be washed away by what he does in the playoffs, but let's just enjoy what he is doing. Panarin's five points gave him 93 points on the year. He’s three shy of tying his career high and on pace to blow past the 100-point threshold.
Panarin notched two goals, the first on a ridiculous feed from Vincent Trocheck, and three assists. He just missed the hat trick on his shot at the empty net. Panarin is playing at a ridiculously high level and should get some Hart Trophy consideration.
It is Panarin's fifth career five-point game and first since Feb. 11, 2023 at Carolina.
Artemi Panarin records his 90th point of the season with a goal. He becomes the first player in team history to notch the feat four times and is also the first to do so in three consecutive seasons. #NYR
3) Congrats to Chris Kreider on Game #800. His empty net goal gave CK20, 298 tallies in his career. I do believe when all is said and done, he will pass Rod Gilbert for most goals in Rangers franchise history.
800 games of showing us all exactly what it means to be a Blueshirt.
4) The team defense, as was noted by Peter Baugh and Vince Mercogliano, which had been sharp while allowing one combined goal in the first three games of this grueling stretch, has tapered off in the last two. They coughed up six goals in Thursday's loss in Tampa and looked loose again at times against the Pens, who out-shot the Rangers, 38-28, while generating 19 high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Contests against Tampa and Pittsburgh were almost fire-wagon or pond hockey. The D structure was horrible as was the gap control and containment and decision making. This was noted by Peter Laviolette in his post-game comments and has to be much better moving forward.
"They got behind us too much and had some chances in our zone, so there's things that we can tighten up," Laviolette said. "There were too many odd-man rushes for me."
5) Miller, who notched the 100th point of his career, partnered with Braden Schneider as Jacob Trouba recovers from a lower-body injury, was noticeable again both offensively and defensively throughout the game. For all the rightful discussion that Miller had regressed since his breakout two seasons again, lately, we have seen that Miller, not the one from earlier in the season. His strong game started early when he poked a puck away on a Penguins’ two-on-one rush and was completed by his goal later in the game.
Fox was his usual fine self, though he was banged up, as he was hobbled blocking a shot. Poor decision to try and keep the puck in the zone up in the third rather than making the smart, cautious play. But he is usually very good in those situations, so it's hard to blame him.
6) Power play - the Rangers entered Saturday having registered power-play goals in only six of their last 20 games, going 11-for-66 (16.7%) in that span. This is why Larry Brooks and others suggested the other day making changes. But after scoring all three goals 5x5 in the first period, they converted both of their second-period opportunities to turn the game in their favor.
7) Quick was brilliant. He made 34 saves, several of them spectacular, amongst the 15 stops he had in the third period. Pittsburgh came in waves, pinning the Rangers in their own end, and Quick was there to stone them when needed.
With the win, Quick is now 15-5-2 with a .916 save percentage this season. Saturday's represented career win No. 390 moved him past Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek for 16th in NHL history. In addition, Quick now one win from tying Ryan Miller for most ever by an American, a mark he should hopefully top before the end of the season, with 400 wins coming next year.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»