Another eventful weekend in Rangerstown as the Blueshirts wrap up their West Coast road trip, picking up three of four possible points and made another trade to gear up for this year's playoff run. While not as. groundbreaking as the Tarasenko trade, the Rangers make a significant move, bringing back a familiar face to the Rangers organization. This will be Tyler Motte's second tour with the New York Rangers as he was picked up at last year's trade deadline, becoming a big part of the Rangers run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Chris Drury and the Rangers front office wanted to resign Motte in the offseason but given the ongoing Cap complications, they had to let him go, resulting in the Ottawa Senators picking him up.
As the Rangers are expected to make another serious playoff run this season, it became quite clear that they were interested in bringing Tyler Motte back, especially once Ottawa made it known they were going to be shopping him. Prior to the trade breaking ground, it was being rumored that the asking price for Motte was going to be more than it was last season when the Rangers were able to acquire him for a fourth round pick. Naturally, the assumption was a higher draft pick would be the asking price but as it turns out, this ended up being more of a good ole fashioned hockey trade as the official trade call was announced as:
NYR acquire Forward Tyler Motte from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Forward Julien Gauthier and a conditional seventh round pick. The conditions of the trade, being that it becomes a sixth if the Rangers win a playoff series. Since the Rangers have Winnipeg's sixth round pick in addition to their own, it will be the lower of the two picks. (So hopefully, the trade will end up being a sixth and Gauthier for Motte)
Tyler Motte may only have nine points in 38 games with the Senators this season but as fans know from his post deadline contributions last season, his presence is bigger than what goes on the scoresheet. He's a great two way player that can kill penalties, bring a presence to the fourth line and do just about anything in many different roles. He's a guy that can play any position and if needed can move up and down the line up. What truly makes this year different from last is the Rangers now have options with similar players. They likely aren't done making moves but barring anything drastic, the chances of them bringing in another top-six forward is pretty slim. Realistically, if they are to make another move, it'll be for another fourth line center/wing (hopefully Nick Bjugstad). If that does indeed become the case, the Rangers will have Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Motte, whichever player they hopefully acquire next AND Jimmy Vesey to all kind of rotate through the fourth line and second line right wing spot based on what's working and who's hot.
As for Julien Gauthier, it's a shame to lose him but realistically, after the game in Calgary Saturday Night, it became pretty clear that Gerard Gallant doesn't really trust him nor Jake Leschyshyn when the game is on the line. And if that's the case, there's no reason to keep him around, especially for a playoff run. Despite the recent distrust, Gauthier has honestly had a bit of a career year and while many fans like myself probably hoped he grew into a consistent role with the Blueshirt's, he now has a great opportunity to keep developing as an NHL regular with the Ottawa Senators. As for the draft pick, it's a pretty insignificant loss. As I said, it should hopefully turn into a sixth round pick and the Rangers had two to begin with so no reason to lose sleep over that, making this trade an all around win for the Rangers.
Now before we get into previewing tonight's action, let's quickly recap the weekend action and praise the fact that there are no more post 9 p.m. puck drops this season.
Back to Back Comeback's Result in NYR Win and OT Loss
Two games in a row, the Rangers we're down significantly early in play and either came back to win, or came back to force overtime. Let's start with the Oilers as the Rangers we're down 3-0 twelve minutes into the game. Chris Kreider stopped the bleeding with a power play goal but Leon Draisaitl capitalized on Edmonton's own power play with about a minute and a half to go in the first. Certainly not an ideal start for the Rangers who going into this game were on a six game winning streak.
In a quieter second period, Kreider was able to convert again, this time on the penalty kill to bring the Rangers within two. As the game went on, the Rangers became more and more involved in this one which built up to a dominant third period. Outshooting the Oilers 10-2 in the third, Alexis Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad were able to tie things up with a couple of huge goals, Zibanejad's coming on the power play. For what it's worth, Alexis Lafreniere has been incredible since returning from the All-Star break and wouldn't be done for the night after his goal that made it 3-4.
The game would require extra time and after a scoreless break of 3-on-3 hockey, the game would be decided in a shootout. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kaapo Kakko both scored on their respective team's first attempt in the shootout. Four scoreless rounds of the shootout followed before it was Lafreniere scoring on an eerily similar move that Kakko was able to beat Jack Campbell with at the beginning of the shootout. Far from a perfect game but the Rangers once again exemplified that No Quit mantra and kept the streak going with one more stop in Calgary ahead of them before returning home.
Streak Comes to an End in Calgary
Within a span of 24 hours, the Rangers pulled off a big comeback to extend their winning streak to seven, boarded a plane to get from one part of Alberta to another, and geared up to do it all over again in the second half of a back to back. The fact that they were able to get a point out of this one can be considered good enough given the context. Things were not looking good as it only took 46 seconds for the Flames to put up a 2-0 lead on the Blueshirts. On top of home ice advantage, the Flames had the advantage of fresh legs and took charge of that opportunity right from puck drop. Not the best goals in the world for Halak to give up but he certainly made up for it as he had a great rest of the game that undoubtedly kept the Rangers in this one.
Through almost 40 minutes of play, the Rangers were being out-shot 22-15 and were really struggling to generate any form of offense. They had one borderline disastrous power play opportunity but just couldn't find a way to get anything going. Finally, thank's to a beautiful pass from Vincent Trocheck, Vladimir Tarasenko put one away for his 12th of the season to cut the Flames lead in half. Panarin would collect his 47th assist of the season on the play as those three are showed some pretty nice chemistry on the play. The Flames would take a 2-1 lead into the second but the Rangers were definitely showing signs of life and all of a sudden, had twenty minutes to keep a big winning streak alive.
Despite continuing to be out-shot by the Flames, the Rangers were able to get on the board once again thanks to a power play goal from... Alexis Lafreniere. That is now back to back games where Lafreniere has come up huge with incredibly opportune time goals, this one to tie the game up at 2. On top of that, the Rangers have already been getting a bit of a resurgence from their top power play unit but with this goal, have gotten their second power play unit going as well. The teams would keep the score locked in at 2-2 which led to another night of bonus OT hockey. Not long into it, Artemi Panarin was called for kind of an unnecessary penalty which ended up giving Mikael Backlund a power play goal to end it for the Flames.
The Rangers fall short in OT by the score of 3-2 but again, the fact that they were able to pick up three of four possible points on a pretty taxing road trip, along with the seven game win streak, it's hard to really be too critical of them dropping this one. Which brings us too..,
Rangers Game Day vs. Winnipeg Jets 2/20/23
The Rangers are back home at the Garden, joined by old friend Tyler Motte and will host the Winnipeg Jets for their second meeting of the season. Motte is expected to join the team today and will play tonight, likely jumping right into Julien Gauthier's spot on the fourth line. The Rangers last saw the Jets very early in the season where they lost 4-1 in Winnipeg for the Jets season opener. Lots has changed since then for the Rangers as well as the Jets who currently sit as the second place team in the Central Division. It's come as a bit of a surprise, as there were a lot of internal issues that led to belief the Jets could be facing a bit of a retool but nevertheless, they have been one of the better team's in the West all season long.
The Rangers will have the same advantage the Flames did on Saturday as Winnipeg is entering the second half of a back to back after losing to the Devils last night over in Newark. They are in the heart of their own road trip as they took on the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday and will head to Long Island for Wednesday Night hockey following tonight's outing. The Jets have only played four games since the All-Star break, giving them a record of 2-2, currently on a two game losing streak. They will look to snap out of it against the Rangers tonight as to not extend the streak any longer as New York will look to get right back on track after their first loss in seven games.
As mentioned before, expect Motte to slot right into the lineup in place of Julien Gauthier, expecting the lines to look something along the lines of:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Tarasenko
Panarin - Trocheck - Vesey
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Motte - Leschyschyn. - Goodrow
Lindgren - Fox
Miller -Trouba
Mikkola - Schneider
Althought, I wouldn't be surprised if Gallant opted to move Tarasenko to that second line with Trocheck and Panarin as they looked pretty strong together in that game in Calgary. Vesey has spent a good portion of the season playing with Kreibanejad and could very well move up if Gallant liked that chemistry. Expect Shesterkin to go up against Jets backup David Rittich as Hellebuyck got the nod last night against the Devils. The Jets don't let up a ton of goals as they are the fourth best team in the league with goals against. They also rank fourth on the penalty kill which will be a nice challenge for the Rangers power play units who have been looking good as of late. Expect a great matchup tonight with Tyler Motte being the main storyline on the Rangers side.
Chris Feldman
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