The Rangers put forth a very solid effort to defeat the Knights 2-1 on Saturday. New York got a power-play goal from Vincent Trocheck and even-strength tally from Adam Edström to notch the victory. Igor Shesterkin was solid between the pipes, making 28 saves, many of them late in the second and third periods as Vegas somewhat tilted the ice. The Blueshirts are off until Tuesday when they face the Avalanche in Colorado followed by a game in Utah on Thursday.
Game recap:
Rangers lineup vs. Knights:
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith
Kaliyev-Carrick-VeseyEdström-Brodzinski-Rempe
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches:
Healthy: Jones, Groulx
Injured: Chytil (upper body, day to day)
IR: Kreider (upper-body injury)
A few thoughts:
1) Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck - both players have raised their game. Zib, who also took out Trocheck's mid-section with his shot that Trocheck was able to find the puck and beat Ilya Samsonov, has points in six straight games. But that tells only part of the story. Mika has looked far more engaged than he did earlier in the season. His play on the late penalty kill evidenced that, as he disrupted Shea Theodore while playing the top of the diamond, preventing any real shot opportunity. GM Chris Drury still might deal Zib if a trade for JT Miller presents itself, less so for Elias Pettersson.
Trocheck has four goals and two assists during his current four-game point streak. What I really like seeing is that he is playing with an edge again. That seemed to be lacking for a bit, but pain in the rear end Vinnie T has been highly noticeable. When the Rangers get improved play from their two top centers, it's no surprise that the team overall plays better.
2) Defensive focus ; Arthur Staple put it well: "They’re contesting pucks all over the defensive zone. They’re up the ice, disrupting plays in the offensive zone at five-on-five, as they did an awful lot in the first period Saturday. Even when there’s pushback, as Vegas had in the second and third, the passivity and confusion that marked the long stretch of awfulness is gone, replaced by some fight."
New York built off what we saw against New Jersey. Their effort and focus on defense was much better. Vegas carried play for stretches of the second and third, but the Rangers didn't crater. They continued to push back and fight and not just cede time and space. Their play through the neutral zone was also improved, as their gap control was far better.
Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren have both been closer to what we saw the past few seasons. K'Andre Miller has meshed well with Will Borgen, whose physical play has been evident. Urho Vaakanainen has been fine on the third line while Braden Schneider was engaged physically, but I still want to see more.
I purposely avoided broadly discussing the officiating, which was brutal. The penalty on Troechek was weak while the myriad of picks and interference by Vegas nit called was pretty staggering. But we have seen this before, including in the Devils' game where Jesper Bratt's pick on Nick Paul went uncalled, which helped lead to Paul's trip and Stefan Noesen's overtime game-winner.
3) Fourth line magic - Edström-Jonny Brodzinski-Matt Rempe combined for the game-winner. The play was started by good defense by Borgen, freeing the puck with a reverse check. Rempe went cross-ice wide to Brodzinski, who was able to corral the puck and put a shot that was going wide to the front of the net. Edstrom's reach and turn enabled him to backhand deflect the puck past Samsonov. Good effort all the way around and Edström has become a staple in the lineup while Brodzinski is helping make up for the absences of Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil.
4) Moving forward - the Rangers are now even at 20-20-2 and are least back in Wild Card contention. New York's road forward won't be easy, as any cushion of wiggle room was lost during the 4-15-0 streak. Drury still could either tear down, augment or do both by moving contracts on players they don't plan to extend while bringing in players on better deals or those who fit the scheme better.
We all know what Kaapo Kakko is doing in Seattle. His play has taken a major step forward while he skates in the top-six. New York's third line with Will Cuylle-Chytil-Kakko at times was more like the team's first trio based on how well they played together. But we never saw this Kakko. Part of that might have been due to comfort. Part of that may have been confidence begetting confidence and the same when you struggle, that each difficulty piled on top of the other, pushing his confidence further down. The trade can't be fully evaluated until we see what happens with Borgen, the picks New York acquired and what type of contract Kakko gets, the latter because it might be way more than Drury would pay.
Contests against Colorado and Utah will be good tests. Same with Columbus at home followed by Montreal. If the Blueshirts continue to win, our mindset may be to try and make the playoffs. A losing streak, then the inverse will apply.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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