The Rangers played a complete game on the road, upping their performance in the second and third periods, to defeat the Bruins 5-2 in Boston. New York received a dominant effort from Artemi Panarin, who notched a hat trick, with a strong outing from Jonathan Quick between the pipes. The Blueshirts face the Panthers at home Saturday night at 8pm in an ABC televised game.
Game recap:
Rangers lineup vs. Bruins:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Roslovic
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Wennberg-Kakko
Rempe-Goodrow-Vesey
A few thoughts:
1) Panarin: I keep saying it might be impossible for Panarin to be any better and yet, he seems to keep raining his game. Yesterday, he had a four-point night, which included his third hat trick of the season, establishing new career highs with 41 goals and 98 total points. But it’s not just the tallying of numbers but when and how he gets them.
As Vince Mercogliano noted, in hitting those milestones, the 32-year-old forward placed himself in elite company, becoming the first Blueshirt to score 40 or more goals while registering 50 or more assists since Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06. Panarin now sits just two points shy of his first 100-point season and is in the upper tier of superstates on the league.
You can argue that the first two goals were due to lucky bounces, and you would be right to a certain extent. But Panarin seems to be in the right place at the right time. More important, he has become aggressive in the offensive end, shooting more rather than peeling back at the blue line to look for a pass.
Panarin has increasingly hot of late, with 30 points in his last 17 games. That hot streak has kept New York in first place, though Carolina remains just two points behind in the division. Panarin will likely finish between 4-6 in the Hart Trophy race.
2) Quick was brilliant when he needed to be while only making 24 saves. He was especially strong in the first period. Quick made two huge stops before Jake DeBrusk’s goal and then stoned Brad Marchand with a pad save to keep the score tied at one. The Rangers D was better in the second third period but Quick’s work early was a major factor in the win. The end result was the 38-year-old's 391st career win, moving him into a tie with Ryan Miller for most in NHL history by an American-born goalie.
3) Kreider: for the second straight time, Kreider rode the pine for a long stretch on the second period. As Mercogliano noted, Kreider was limited to only four even-strength shifts in the second period and finished with lower-than-usual 14:46 TOI (he averages 18:55), with coach Peter Laviolette preferring to double down on Panarin as often as he feasibly could. Kreider, though would respond with a motivated third period helping to key the win. He played a key role in Adam’s Fox goal to give the Rangers the lead and also had a hand in Zib’s empty netter.
We complain that Mika Zibanejad and Kreider are not scoring enough, and that’s accurate. But we sometimes lose focus of the yeoman’s work they do defensively. The Kreider-Zibanejad-Jack Roslovic line allowed zero shots and zero scoring chances. They logged many of their minutes against Bruins' top scorer, David Pastrnak, who was held without a point and finished with a negative-three rating. Let that paragraph sink in. Yes, we want the offense, but not at the expense of allowing the opposition to outscore them when they are on the ice.
4) Defense - Braden Schneider had a huge game and his confidence is growing daily. He and K’Andre Miller were very good. Quietly, Jack Ruhwedel was very effective paired with Zac Jones, who has shown he belongs. Fox is Fox and Erik Gustafsson played an effective.
New York limited Boston to 12 combined shots in the final 40 minutes − six in each period − and only two high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. Other than the games against Tampa and Pittsburgh, the Rangers have been very good defensively the last few weeks. Maintaining this level will be key the final month of the season and beyond.
5) Matt Rempe was noticeable but in control in his limited shifts. If he came play like this and not go over the edge, I think Laviolette will have no choice but to keep him in the lineup. As he maintains his effectiveness without going over the edge, his ice time could rise.
6) Standings - The win left the Rangers (46-20-4) one point back of the Bruins (41-15-15) for the No. 1 overall seed in the Eastern Conference with a game in hand. Carolina remains two points back with both teams have 12 games remaining. Florida, who comes in Saturday, is at 94 points with one game in hand.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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