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| Chris Trotman/Getty Images |
Today was a game you must win. The team needed the win for the playoff
standings, to end the six game losing streak and because you have to take
advantage of team’s when they are depleted like the Penguins were. The fact that they got the win should allow
Rangers fans to take a deep breath and stop looking for the safety raft for at
least a day. Give an immense amount of
credit to the team for battling back and not folding when they went down two
goals early because it would have been easy while riding a six game losing
streak to do just that. There are a lot
of positives to take from the game from the battle back to the offense scoring
five goals, and most importantly the special teams. To get three goals from the previously
horrific power play is a huge bonus for this club, and to combine it with some
huge penalty kills and you find the reason they won the game today.
The Rangers could not have played any worse in the
first five minutes of this game if they tried.
Just 2:06 into the game, Engelland would end up putting the Penguins on
the board when the Rangers blew a goal mouth scramble in which Steve Eminger
lost his stick and ended up having the shot, which would have gone wide, go off
him into the net while Henrik Lundqvist was down.
The Rangers got a power play following the goal, but
as the man advantage was ending the puck came around the boards and Ryan
McDonagh failed to keep the puck in.
Pascal Dupuis sent the puck ahead to Jordan Staal and while the Rangers
actually had a three men back to defend the two attackers, Nick Johnson beat Ryan
McDonagh to the spot inside and finished off the goal. The shot deflected off Lundqvist shoulder and
he probably should have stopped it, but it was 2-0 Penguins just 5:06 into the
game.
John Tortorella called a timeout following the second
goal and instead of blowing up at the team, he remained calm. Luckily for the Rangers they responded quickly
with a goal from Brian Boyle just 37 seconds later. Boyle won the offensive zone draw back to
Marc Staal, Staal let go a wrist shot that was heading just wide, but Boyle
having charged the net deflected it by Marc-Andre Fleury.
Just over two minutes later Kris Letang was goaded
into a penalty by Sean Avery. Half-way through
that power play the Rangers tied it up when Ryan Callahan tipped Dan Girardi’s
point shot into the net. That was be the
final tally of an up and down first period.
After falling down 2-0 in the first 5:06, the Rangers managed to get back
to even in the next 4:14.
The Rangers played a phenomenal second period as they
turned that 2-2 tie after one into a 5-2 lead by the time the middle period was
over. Just 1:34 into the period Vinny
Prospal would take a beautiful feed from Brandon Dubinsky to score his second of the season. Marian Gaborik was a key player on the goal
as well because his presence in front forced Brooks Orpik to play him and left
Prospal all alone on the back post.
The team received a four minute power play midway
through the period after Brett Sterling’s high stick drew blood from the nose
of Ryan Callahan. On that advantage
Callahan got his second goal of the game with a slapper above the left
circle. The key play on this goal was
not the shot by Callahan or the screen by Dubinsky, but the play by Marc Staal
at the point to not only keep the puck in the zone, but feed Callahan in a
position to give it a blast.
The
previously woeful power play struck for the third time in the game, later in
the period, when Callahan did not play fancy,
but just fired the bad angle shot and it led to a rebound in the slot and Artem
Anisimov who buried the Rangers fifth goal of the game and third on the power
play.
The third period saw the team come out flat giving up
an early penalty by Callahan, which led to a Brett Sterling goal to cut the
Rangers’ lead to 5-3. The tense nature
of the proceedings picked up midway through the period when Michael Sauer took
a double minor for high sticking on Tyler Kennedy. Luckily for the Blueshirts the penalty kill came
through again as it did when Dubinsky took his double minor earlier in the game
and it ended in a 5-3 victory.
- Ryan Callahan bounced back after playing two sub-par games and was huge today. Not just the two goals, but he was back to playing Callahan hockey all over the ice.
- Brian Boyle played his best game in three weeks. He had more jump in his stride, was more physical in battles and went to the net.
- As good as Callahan was, the best player on the ice for the Rangers today, in my view, was Marc Staal. Staal was everywhere today. He joined the rush, he pinched, was huge on the power play with the keep in, had two assists and anchored the penalty kill. Oh yea, and he played 29:51 of ice time. Cannot say enough about Staal today.
- Marian Gaborik was much less visible to me today compared to the Atlanta game. He had a few chances, but was not skating with the same explosion and watching him miss the empty net to close the game said all you need to know about where he is in terms of finishing.
- Wojtek Wolski was injured in the first period and tried to play a couple shifts during the second, but eventually shut it down for the night.
- The win was Henrik Lundqvist's 199th of his career.
- Steve Eminger only got 4:08 of ice time in the game, including zero shifts from the middle of the second period on, so expect him to be back in the press-box on Thursday.
