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Game 46: NYR 6 CAR 2, Trio with a pair of goals power victory

January 16, 2019, 8:46 AM ET [153 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers rebounded from their nightmare defensive performance against the Blue Jackets to defeat the Hurricanes 6-2. Three different Blueshirts scores a pair of goals a piece while Henrik Lundqvist was stout between the pipes. Ryan Lindgren was solid in his NHL debut, paired with Kevin Shattenkirk. New York faces Chicago on Thursday.

Game recap:


David Quinn Post-Game:



Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Chytil-Strome-Fast
Vesey-Nieves-Namestnikov
McLeod-Howden-Buchnevich

Kevin Hayes missed his seventh straight game with a nagging upper-body injury, but is expected to practice Wednesday and is a possibility to return to the lineup Thursday against the Blackhawks. Once/if that happens, I would guess Ryan Strome moves down a line, though Quinn move him to wing, pushing down Jesper Fast. If Strome is shunted down a line, I could see Brett Howden sitting a game.

Skjei-McQuaid
Staal-DeAngelo
Lindgren-Shattenkirk

Lundqvist

Neal Pionk missed his second game in the past three and is expected to be out through the bye week and All-Star break with a lower-body injury that the defenseman has played through “for a while,” according to Quinn. Frederik Claesson will miss 1-3 weeks with his shoulder injury while Adam McQuaid was able to play through his upper-body injury and returned after blocking a shot during the game.

Hockey Game Chart:



Think the Rangers like facing Carolina:






Mika Zibanejad is having a pretty big year relatively quietly. I know there has been some talk that New York should deal Zib and keep Hayes. But at $5.3 million with the potential to blossom into a true first line center, I am all for keeping Zib in red, white and blue and seeing what happens.




Buchnevich, who had two goals after finally seeing first line power play duty, could be line for a move from the fourth line. Wonder if he and Fast swap spots, then we would see Buch with Chytil and possibly Hayes on Thursday. More in Buch from Larry Brooks below:




From the Rangers post game notes: “Three different Rangers registered two goals in tonight’s game (Tony DeAngelo, Pavel Buchnevich, and Mika Zibanejad). Prior to tonight’s game, the last time the Blueshirts had three players each post a multi-goal game in the same contest was on Dec. 22, 1996 vs. Florida (Mark Messier, Alexei Kovalev, and Niklas Sundstrom).” Sundstrom is one of those Rangers who I really thought was going to have a heck of a career. I was a big fan of his, and while he had some moments, he didn’t pan out into the player I thought he could be.

Power Play:
Quinn scrapped the five forwards and when with four and one with DeAngelo seeing time in the second unit. For large stretches, the five man unit was: Buch-Zucc-CK20-'Kirk-Zib. The puck and player movement was so much better last night than in the recent past.

Faceoffs:
If there is an area of material concern, this is it. New York won just 37% of the draws last night, continuing their issues between the dots. As mentioned the other day, this is where Hayes is greatly missed.

Balanced scoring:
Zib, Buchnevich and DeAngelo, who was good on both sides of the ice last night, each scored two goals, Mats Zuccarello, raising his trade value and if you listen to what Quinn said in the post-game, is in a much better mental space after expressing his feeling and emotions about possibly leaving New York to Larry Brooks, had three assists and Chris Kreider and Boo Nieves each had two assists for New York. Like what I am seeing from Boo, who needs to stay in the lineup.

Lindgren, in his debut played 15:22, including 1:05 on the penalty kill, while paired with Kevin Shattenkirk, and had one shot on goal, three hits and three blocked shots. The 20-year-old was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Monday. Lindgren played a solid steady game, and even though he was on ice for the goals against, he acquitted himself fairly well.

Brooks wrote in the Post today, “Rangers need young players to be more than just prospects.” A portion of the column was devoted to Buchnevich, whose development as a scorer would go a long way to helping facilitate a quicker rebuild. The talent is there, unlocking it so it’s consistentky shown and the round edges are sanded off are the major challengers. That’s on Quinn and the coaching staff but also on Buch to be self-introspective, incorporate the teachings and lessons he is receiving and translating those to performance on the ice. So far, that has not been he has case, but management better be careful before discarding him for pennies on the dollar in any sort of trade.

I know. Patience is the byword. And I believe in it. I believe it is going to take time for the young guns — not one of them a top-five pick — to develop, and I believe in not placing undue expectations and pressure on even the best and the brightest in the pipeline. But once in a while, or maybe even just once, wouldn’t you like to see one of the yoots burst onto the big stage and unexpectedly claim it?

The B&D Program (Build & Develop; what else?) is well underway on Broadway, and that is unambiguously good news. But devising and even carrying through the strategy were always going to be the easy parts of this necessary reboot following a half-dozen years in which the future was sacrificed in order to try to put a consistently very good team over the top. The tough parts are, a) Choosing the correct young players; b) Developing them correctly; and, c) Did I mention, choosing the correct young players?

The accountability — hard practices punctuated by whistles and loud, sharp commands (or rebukes); in-game benchings of marquee guys, most recently of Chris Kreider in Brooklyn on Saturday following a bonehead offensive-zone penalty; and targeted healthy scratches — ushered in by David Quinn have been welcomed and hailed. But while the first-year NHL head coach has presided over a significant culture change whereby the Rangers no longer reflexively turn the other cheek, Quinn has not been able to transform finesse players into grinders. Scorpions being scorpions, and all that.

And again, neither has the coach been able to coax more out of Buchnevich than did his predecessor behind the bench. No. 89’s pair of goals against Carolina equaled his production in the 15 games he had played since returning on Dec. 14 after missing five weeks with a broken thumb. Maybe this was a start for the talented winger with uncommon skill, but there have been teases before. So we’ll wait before rushing to judgment.

The Blueshirts still drool over the 23-year-old’s talent. They aren’t rushing to conclusions, either. But they are nearing a need-to-know moment on Buchnevich, who is a pending restricted free agent and will certainly draw interest as the Feb. 25 trade deadline approaches. They need to know there is more to Buchnevich than the chance to be 10 years older a decade from now.


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