Good Morning Rangers fans! After taking a little break from the holiday’s, I’m back with Rangers coverage as we are now officially in the swing of the holiday season. The Rangers kicked off the most wonderful time of the year with a huge win against their Islander rivals as well as an outstanding Thanksgiving Showdown win against the Boston Bruins. The Blueshirts are playing some of the best hockey they’ve played in a while and it appears that things are really clicking for this team. Let’s recap two of what was supposed to be three games this week and take a look at the road ahead this week.
Rangers First New York Team to Win at UBS Arena
In all fairness, the Islanders probably shouldn’t have played this game for reasons that became clear over the weekend. Nevertheless, the Rangers took care of business and came out on top against a very shorthanded New York Islanders team. In the first game for these rivaled opponents at the new UBS Arena, the Rangers flipped on the switch in the second period and took an early lead thanks to a Chris Kreider tip-in on the power play. A sentence I am getting very used to typing this season.
About ¾’s of the way through the second period, it was the fourth line, who without a doubt had their best game of the season that night, stepping up to put the Rangers ahead by two thanks to a tip-in, this time from Kevin Rooney with Goodrow and Reaves picking up assists. Andy Andreoff would find his first of the season off yet another tip-in to bring the Isles within one just about four minutes into the third. The Rangers would answer very soon after, once again from the fourth line when Ryan Reaves pulled off a beautiful toe drag move to feed a backhand pass to Kevin Rooney for his second of the night, giving the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
Barclay Goodrow has certainly found a home on this fourth line which is both good and bad. It’s good in the sense that you want all four lines to have chemistry and be able to contribute for your team, bad in the sense that he’s making around four million dollars a year for the next five years. While that is certainly way more than any fourth liner should be making, he really ties that line together with Rooney and Reaves making it very logical to keep that line intact as long as it continues to work. Not to mention he’s one of the few players on this team that can win face-offs.
About halfway through the third, Chris Kreider scores again for his fifteenth of the season, making it a 4-1 game to give the Rangers the win. The energy certainly picked up in the third when JG Pageau banged up Ryan Lindgren resulting in Adam Fox to show some spunk, as he would go after him following the play. Fox wouldn’t be the only one sticking up for his teammate as Alexis Lafreniere would go after Pageau in the games final two minutes resulting in not only his first NHL fight, but his first fight in his entire hockey career. While that’s certainly not what the Rangers drafted him to do, you have to respect his willingness to drop the gloves and stand up for his teammate. All in all, it wasn’t a perfect game but the Rangers showed up when it mattered and scored more goals then their rivals, on to Boston.
Rangers Win Thanksgiving Showdown, Most Exciting Win in Years?!
For New York and Boston fans alike, the day after Thanksgiving is almost a second holiday. While hockey fans decorate their Christmas trees and feast on last night’s leftovers, two of the league's most storied franchises battle on national television, in hopes for two very significant points. It wasn’t looking good at the start, as it took the Rangers over a period to really get going, however this quickly became one of the most exciting games this team has played in a long time, coming from behind to win 5-2.
The Rangers were flat out dominated in the first period however, thanks to Igor Shesterkin keeping them in it, the game remained scoreless for a while. As we approached the five minute mark of the period, Craig Smith was finally able to beat Igor and give Boston a one goal lead. As a Rangers fan, all you could do was sigh and accept that this was bound to happen the way the team was playing from the start. Thankfully, the Rangers bounced back and showed some life. With six seconds to go in the period, Ryan Strome was able to put one home off a beautiful passing sequence from all five guys on the ice, Artemi Panarin and Dryden Hunt getting assists.
The second period was a little more even to start but about seven minutes in, Patrice Bergeron found the back of the net off a defensive zone breakdown from the Rangers. Almost seven minutes later it was the second line again generating good quality offense. Ryan Lindgren would feed Dryden Hunt in a position he could not miss. Not only would Hunt bury the shot, he would shatter the in net camera in the process. Tie game. The highlight of this period would be Chris Kreider attempting the “Michigan” or “Lacrosse” goal, that had to be reviewed to see if the puck had crossed the line. We talk about how on fire Kreider is this season and the fact that he almost pulled that move off is absolutely insane. Whatever he’s eating, keep feeding him.
To the third we go and the Rangers are taking over this game. About halfway through it was Artemi Panarin scoring off an absolutely perfect feed from Julien Gauthier, who caught a pass from Fox through his legs before saucing the pass across the slot. Gauthier would be right back at it about five minutes later, this time feeding Alexis Lafreniere to make it 4-2. As a Rangers fan, you can’t be anything but thrilled to see that Gauthier is not only getting consistent, significant ice time, but is finally contributing in a way we only hoped would happen. He’s truly stepped up in the absence of Sammy Blais and has found great chemistry with Chytil and Lafreniere.
In the final minute, Jacob Trouba would call game, putting away an empty net shot from the Rangers end of the ice. From there, all the drama would begin as it looked like the two benches were going at it towards the end of the game. Of course, Brad Marchand was the culprit running his mouth on the Bruins side with Kevin Rooney and surprisingly Artemi Panarin on the Rangers end. Then, a scene that will live on repeat in Rangers fans mind for years and years occurred, when Artemi Panarin threw his glove at one of the league's most hated players. Play would stop and both players would be removed from the game to limit any more extra curricular activities from occurring. Later on, Panarin would receive a $5,000 fine from the league, to him and fans alike, it was money well spent. Why Marchand, who allegedly said something along the lines of “No one in your country likes you” regarding Panarin’s leave of absence from last season, didn;t also receive a fine, is beyond me but nevertheless, the Rangers got four points in two big games.
Sunday’s Game Postponed, the Road Ahead
As I mentioned before, the Islanders were very short handed prior to Thanksgiving and probably shouldn’t have even played that first game against the Rangers. This became clear over the weekend when another Islanders player would be placed on the COVID protocol list and the league would postpone Sunday’s game against the Rangers, as well as any Islanders game in the foreseeable future. Very less than ideal but you have to do what has to be done these days. As for the Rangers, they will have a longer than expected time between games as they won’t play again until they face the Flyers on Wednesday night, followed by a back to back at home Friday and Saturday.
The Rangers are doing everything they need to, continuing to compete and win games, solidifying themselves as one of the top teams in their division as well as the league. Unfortunately, two of the other top teams in the league also fall in the Rangers division, making it difficult for them to find themselves any higher than third in the Metro division. Frankly, as long as the distance between them and the Metro team holding the first wildcard spot, they’re right where they need to be.
Chris Feldman
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