In Ottawa, the visiting New York Rangers entered their game with the Senators on Wednesday night gripping their sticks tighter than I have n two years. Rightfully so, playing mediocre hockey in a competitive division will do that.
On Wednesday, Ryan Lindgren collected three assists for the Rangers in a 3-1 win.
“He’s a character guy,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said of Lindgren. “He blocks shots, he does everything for us. I think he’s got five assists in his last [three] games, so he’s been great for us all year.”
Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves in the New York win, it was his first victory of the season after going 0-5-1.
“It takes everybody. You saw it tonight,” Halak said. “It takes everybody to win a game in this league. There are no easy games anymore.”
The Rangers improved to 11-9-4.
“It’s great for our team, but it’s also great for him to get that first win after playing the way he played,” Gallant said. “He was outstanding. He made some key saves at key times for us and gave us a chance to win tonight.”
The Rangers took the dreaded 2-0 lead in the game on a goal from Jimmy Vesey in the fist period, and a strike from Barclay Goodrow  in the second period.
“You want your players there (goal crease),” Gallant said. “You talk about it, you watch games every night and that’s where 90 percent of the goals are scored from, the blue paint area. We had guys going there, we had a couple deflections and a couple of rebounds, so hopefully that will carry over.”
New York may have gotten a little tighter in the second when the Senators’ Shane Pinto scored to cut the lead to 2-1.
“It’s something that we’ve been stressing probably for the last month, just getting to the net,” Goodrow said. “Obviously we’ve been struggling to score some goals, and when that’s happening it’s usually because we’re trying to get too pretty, too cute. We’re making the extra pass without getting pucks to the net. All three goals are a result of getting pucks to the net.”
Ottawa dropped to 8-13-1.
“I just didn’t think we were hard enough in our zone,” Pinto said. “Just a couple soft goals in front of [Talbot] and we kind of left him out to dry there. We’ve got to turn the page.”
Like many teams in the NHL, the Rangers are no strangers to blowing big leads this season.
“Offensively, we had chances to shoot where we didn’t shoot,” Senators coach D.J Smith said. “Maybe we were too cute. In a 2-1 game, you’re passing up some Grade A looks, and now it’s 3-1 and you’re squeezing it.”
Chris Kreider came to the rescue in the third when he tipped home a shot/pass from Lindgren for a 3-1 advantage midway through the final frame.
Cam Talbot made 32 saves in the Sens loss.
“Give the Rangers credit, they’re a good hockey team too,” Talbot said. “They were just able to find ways with some of those point shots to squeeze them through on redirects. Other than that, I thought it was a pretty even game.”
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