The Rangers earned a point for the eighth straight game, falling 5-4 in overtime to the Canadiens. New York blew not one, not two, not three, but four one-goal leafs before seeing the second point go awry in the extra session. The Blueshirts notched three of four possible points this weekend but are left with a bad taste in their mouth after not getting the second point Sunday.
Game recap
Rangers lines vs. Montreal:
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith
Kreider-Chytil-Kaliyev
Edström-Carrick-Rempe
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Schneider
Quick
Shesterkin
Scratches: Vesey, Jones, Brodzinski
A few thoughts:
1) Jonathan Quick deserved better and should have won his 400th career game. He was ridiculous in parts of the second third, keeping the team in the lead before the defense faltered again. New York sat back too much in the final stanza, with Montreal raising their game to outshoot the Blueshirts 16-6. Quick did all he could to keep the Rangers in the lead and his fine work netted the team a point.
We knew the Canadiens would be loaded for bear after blowing a 3-0 lead and allowing seven unanswered tallies Saturday. They responded Sunday at home to get the extra point and be north of the Rangers by two points in the standings. Eight teams sit within six points for the final two playoff spots with 34-36 games remaining, depending on the team.
2) Scoring from those who had been in a mild slump netted several of the tallies. Alexis Lafreniere notched the first goal of the game in his return, Will Cuylle, who has been a bit invisible, scored his first in 16 games. Mika Zibanejad, stoned twice in the first 65 minutes of the game and once in the shootout Saturday, lit the lamp on the power play, showing patience to net the marker. Chris Kreider potted his 15th of the season as he has shown signs of life recently. All of these should be viewed as positive signs.
3) The team's defense still allowed their opponent too much time and space. Montreal's fourth goal was off a good rush, but with five men back someone had to get Juraj Slafkovsky going to the net and Vincent Trocheck was late. Give Lane Hutson credit for a great rush, but if the team is in better position, the puck gets cleared from the crease. On the game winner, Filip Chytil was cross-checked, uncalled, contributing to him getting back late in the zone. But K'Andre Miller needed to maintain position on Patrik Laine, who beat him to the inside for the goal on what basically was a 2-on-1 down.
4) New York is back in the playoff race but they have no wiggle room based on how tight the race is. Ottawa comes to the Garden on Tuesday, followed by Philadelphia on Thursday and Colorado on Sunday. Ottawa sits in one of the two wild-card spots, 4 points ahead; the Flyers have the same 48 points as the Rangers, with an extra game played. After Colorado, Carolina is in town, making it two straight top-tier opponents to close January after New York faces two who are directly ahead of them in the standings. February brings a road in Boston, followed by a home contest the next day versus Vegas. Boston then comes into MSG and New York closes the pre-4 Nations Cup portion of the schedule home against Pittsburgh, then on the road in Columbus.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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