Henrik Lundqvist came into his Tuesday night game with a 2.27 GAA and .916 SV%. He has had such an all-star career that to some it has been considered a terribly slow start for the former Vezina winner. Tuesday against the Canucks, Lundqvist put on a clinic recording 36 saves, 17 in the first, for a convincing 7-2 victory.
The first period was absolutely dominated by the Canucks as they beat the Rangers to every loose puck, beat their defensemen on the forecheck and pressured their offensemen to give the puck away. Luckily the best player on the ice was wearing #30 for the New York Rangers.
“Guys worked extremely hard,” Lundqvist said. “I think [Dan] Girardi saved a couple goals with some big blocks. As a goalie that gives you a lot of energy. You want to work even harder to be there for them because they’re making big plays in front of you, in front of me, in front of Antti [Raanta]. That’s where it starts. How hard you want to work in your own end and after that good things will happen.”
After facing a barrage of shots from the ferocious Canucks offense, the first goal of the game was a beautiful deflection from Rangers forward J.T Miller from a feed by Mats Zuccarello. The goal would be the first of two for Miller as he recorded his sixth and seventh of the year.
“We’re definitely finding ways right now to put the puck in the net,” Miller explained. “When you do that, it makes it easier on the whole team. We’re getting good goaltending, guys are defending first and we’re finding ways to put pucks in the net. It’s a tough thing to stop.”
Kevin Hayes too would record two goals on the night, scoring his seventh of the year on a point blank clapper from the left hash marks and his eighth of the year on a breakaway from a gutsy breakout by Jesper Fast.
The Canucks got on the board with 40 seconds left in the second period on an innocent shot when Henrik Sedin displayed a textbook screen on Lundqvist, cutting New York’s lead at that point to 3-1.
After giving up a deterring goal to end the second, the Rangers came into the third as a different beast than they were in the first. They scored 42 seconds apart in the opening minutes and took a commanding lead of 5-1.
“There’s no doubt in the first period there we got caught on a couple long shifts in our own end, especially against the Sedin line,” said Vigneault. “We were able to find a way to get through that first period and I thought after that we played much better.”
Markus Granlund of Vancouver scored off a great hand-eye coordinated knock when he was left alone in front of Lundqvist 13:26 into the third.
After much back and forth the Rangers would tally two more, one from Zuccarello and one from Nick Holden.
The win was the Rangers 13th of the year, fourth in a row and their eighth in the last nine.
The game was also the first NHL game for Rangers forward Cristoval “Boo” Nieves who was recalled from Hartford after Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich were ruled out for upper body injuries.
The Rangers next game will be Friday in Columbus at 7pm against the Blue Jackets.
The Canucks will play Thursday in Vancouver against Max Domi and the Arizona Coyotes.
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