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Game 65: WAS 3 NYR 2 S/O, Georgiev impressive again in loss, Kravtsov |
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The Rangers facing the Capitals for the second straight Sunday once again gave the defending champs all they could handle before falling 3-2 in a shootout. Ryan Strome, who has been more than solid since getting moved from wing to center, and Pavel Buchnevich, whose play has picked up since his benching tallied New York's goals. Buch's coming after a tremendous feed from Filip Chytil while falling down. Alexandar Georgiev was brilliant between the pipes, stopping 37 shots while stoning Alex Ovechkin several times throughout the contest, including on an overtime breakaway. The Blueshirts, who have now lost four straight, are in Dallas on Thursday.
Game recap:
David Quinn Post-Game:
Lines:
20 Kreider - 93 Zibanejad - 26 Vesey
90 Namestnikov - 16 Strome - 17 Fast
48 Lemieux - 50 Andersson - 89 Buchnevich
42 Smith - 21 Howden - 72 Chytil
18 Staal - 77 DeAngelo
76 Skjei - 22 Shattenkirk
43 Hajek - 44 Pionk
40 Georgiev
30 Lundqvist
Recognition for strong effort and how hard this team works. This only bodes well for the future when more talent is on the squad. Hopefully next season:
5v5 play, rough day for top line:
Game-winner in shootout:
Rule No. 25.4 states, "A goal will be awarded when a goalkeeper attempts to stop a penalty shot by throwing his stick or any other object at the player taking the shot or by dislodging the goal." That ruling should have been on the ice, but none of the officials got it right initially, so Toronto had to make the call. Georgiev was beaten on Ovie's move, so why not take the chance and hope you get lucky.
As we look to the future, the kids will hopefully be alright, As Carp wrote: they were all on the ice together for the first time, all the Baby Rangers: Filip Chytil (age 19), Brett Howden (20), Lias Andersson (20), Libor Hajek (just turned 21), Brendan Lemieux (22), Alexandar Georgiev (23), Neal Pionk and Tony DeAngelo (23), and Pavel Buchnevich (23). Let’s not forget that “veteran” defenseman Brady Skjei is just 24, and that the Rangers’ best skater and leading scorer, Mika Zibanejad, is 25." That's 11 of the 20 who dressed yesterday. Add in Strome who is 25 and if you augment that with a top-six scoring winger/center and blueliner, the future may in fact truly be bright.
I really have liked what I have seen from Georgiev. He was spectacular when needed, solid throughout, including positioning and rebound control. Georgiev has earned the additional playing time has has received, far exceeding Henrik Lundqvist the past month or so. we all have installed Igor Shestyorkin as the goalie of the future, but maybe Georgiev is the one. Now, we have seen what happened with Cam Talbot and Antti Raanta here and after they moved on, with Talbot having one great year and each received contract extensions. So I am not ready to indoctrinate Georgiev as the next one but it's not to be impressed by what we have seen. In addition, Lundqvist is a free agent after 2020-21, which is when the Seattle expansion draft will take place. If Shestyorkin has come over by then, New York will have to protect either him or Georgiev, making the decision on when to bring Shestyorkin over and how to use him even more critical.
I think Carp pointed this out: Zibanejad is still doing so many things so well, and Vesey has certainly been good on his line. But Zibanejad just isn’t getting the same quality of offensive chances minus Zuccarello (Kreider was also moved off that line). This was an aspect we might have overlooked when Zucc was moved, but we all know just how creative he can be in the offensive zone. While this is from Brooks: Chytil opened the game on the fourth line with Andersson and Brendan Smith but took most of his late turns on a remodeled unit featuring Brett Howden, who played fairly well in his return to the lineup after missing 15 games with an injury, and Kreider as his linemates.
More Brooks: Brendan Lemieux, who struggled, was dropped to the fourth line and got just 8:02 of ice (2:20 in the second and 1:52 in the third) after logging 15:24 and 12:28, respectively, in his first two games as a Ranger. It was noticeable that Lemieux, who had a golden opportunity in the second denied by Braden Holtby, was on the pine. Andersson, also dropped to the fourth line in a switch with Howden, played 9:16 (2:16 in the third), but I did think he was good on the penalty kill. Quinn may mix-and-match again for Thursday in an attempt to get Zib going and also to see who meshes well together.
From the NY Post: Quinn opened with the same defense pairs as on Friday against Montreal, with Marc Staal teamed with Tony DeAngelo, Libor Hajek with Neal Pionk and Brady Skjei with Shattenkirk. But the coach flipped Skjei and Hajek early in the first period so he could match up better (in theory) against the Caps’ top two lines centered by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom. Hajek didn't look out of place while 'Kirk missed several minutes getting stitches after taking a deflected puck to the mouth, replaced by Brendan Smith, who slid back to defense. The defense was under pressure much of the game, but we could see those alignments Thursday.
Vitali Kravtsov:
Bring him to Hartford on an PTO, then have him play nine games in New York, thereby not burning year one of his ELC avoiding the need to protect him in the expansion draft.
Official announcement on Joey Keane signing his ELC. As said in the blog, now get Teumo Renaunen inked.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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