So maybe the competition is at the same level as their own but the New York Rangers are suddenly winning despite a major housecleaning and eviction of high end talent from the forward and blue lines.
On Saturday night, Alexandar Georgiev made 35 saves to pick up his fist career NHL win, 3-2, over the Oilers in Edmonton.
Georgiev’s start spelled Henrik Lundqvist who won two straight while facing more than 50 shots in each game.
 “I made some saves early on, which gave me confidence from the first minute,” Georgiev said. “The boys played really great in front of me. There weren’t that many shots in the first period. It was great.”
Maybe it’s the lack of pressure from above in the front office on Broadway but there is a look of ease on the ice as the Rangers swept a three-game trip through western Canada.
“The goalie made some big saves and our group found a way to win,” Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “It was (a) back-to-back, it was three (games) in four (days), we got in late last night. We hung on there a little bit, but I really liked the way we played, we had good energy, and that first goal gave us even more energy.”
Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider and Paul Carey scored for New York who improved to 30-30-6 and moved within three points of the second wild card spot in the east.
“We’re focusing on hockey and focusing on doing our jobs here and getting ready one game at a time. That’s what we did on this trip, and we’ll go back home and get ready for [the] Winnipeg [Jets],” Vigneault said.
The Oilers dropped to 27-34-4 making last season’s playoff push a distant memory at this point.
“Give credit to them, they defended well,” Connor McDavid said. “Their young D that were in the lineup, they defended well. They were always above guys and their forwards were responsible, and you have to give them credit.”
McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers who were unable to get over the hump in the third despite launching 15 shots on goal.
Nugent-Hopkins returned to the lineup after missing 18 games.
“It was good to get back out there, I got my legs under me after the first couple (of shifts),” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the start we wanted. The second half of the game, we played a lot better. I think we kept things simple for the second half of the game, and it started to work out for us.”
[WATCH:Â All Rangers vs. Oilers highlights]
Cam Talbot made 31 saves in taking the loss.
Talbot was stuck in the net late in the game because of a too many men on the ice call against the Oilers.
“There is one individual who gets assigned to come on for the goaltender,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “That individual left, obviously, light years before he should have. We had a line that replaced a line, and we had one individual who jumped on the ice when the goaltender was still in the crease.”
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