The Rangers improved to 2-0 in their West Coast trip and 4-2 on the season with a 3-1 win over the Flames. New York wasn’t as good as they were in Seattle and struggled the first 15 or so minutes before finding their game. A pair of goals in the second, both coming on the man-advantage, carried the Blueshirts to the victory, their first in Calgary since 2018. The Rangers are in Edmonton to take on the Oilers on Thursday.
A few thoughts:
1) Igor Shesterkin - after giving up a goal 1:15 in the game following a bad neutral zone pass by Filip Chytil and poor communication by Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren in their own zone behind the net, Igor shut the door the rest of the game. His body language following the tally raised some concerns for me. But, one of his best qualities is his mental strength, which was apparent by how he rebounded after the score.
Shesterkin stopped 23 of 24 shots, with two big saves in the third with New York nursing a 3-1 lead and having taken their foot off the gas pedal. Calgary controlled play in the third, but were limited in terms of the number of high-danger chances thanks to solid defense. In addition, Igor was aided by 24 blocked shots, led by five from Nick Bonino, who has been an another excellent signing (yes, we all know so far Blake Wheeler has not). I expect Shesterkin to be between the pipes again Thursday.
2) Special teams - this so where the game was won. The man-advantage went 2-for-5 with two of the chances coming in the final two minutes of the game, so those can be tossed out a bit. The Rangers have now cashed in on six of 19 PP opportunities this season for a 31.6% conversion rate. In addition, and maybe almost or more important, New York went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, which is just at 80% for the season, but you can see signs of improvement.
The second unit, see below, notched the first goal and PPG of the game, with Alexis Lafrenière deflecting a point shot from Erik Gustafsson with Will Cuylle also serving as a net front presence. New York’s first unit tallied the second PPG, this time on a deflection from, who else, Chris Kreider, off a point shot by Artemi Panarin, with the assist extending his point streak to six games. Calgary’s defensive box gave the Rangers a ton of room if top, creating angles and shooting lanes, leading to the goals.
PP1- Fox, Panarin, Trocheck, Zibanejad and Kreider
PP2- Gustafsson, Chytil, Cuylle, Kakko and Lafrenière
3) Gustafsson was viewed as a steal when he signed a cheap, one-year deal with the Blueshirts. To date, thag has been the case. Besides the assist, he tallied the fourth goal of the game, which came 4-on-4, giving him a pair of goals and as many assists. Defensively, Gustafsson still leaves a lot to be desired but he has been mildly better than I expected. But if there will be an area of concerns, it’s on that end of the ice, which will be a major key if New York makes the playoffs. Filip Chytil had the primary assist on Gustafsson’s tally and a second assist on Laf’s goal giving him five helpers the past two games.
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