In Los Angeles Thursday night, the New York Rangers revisited the arena of their Stanley Cup Final loss last season and there didn’t seem to be many demons for them face down.
Despite the Kings jumping to a quick 2-0 lead, the Rangers stayed with their game and eventually posted a 4-3 win over the reigning champs.
“This is an important stretch for our team here,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “We’re playing well in all three zones, and we’re trying to get as many points as we can here. There’s no revenge here in this game. We can’t change the past. We can only learn from it, and we’re trying to be a better team this year.”
There may have been some nerves for the Blueshirts coming into the game and backup netminder Cam Talbot seemed a bit slow in the first period as he was beaten by Tanner Pearson and Justin Williams in the first six minutes of the game.
But after that Talbot settled down and the Rangers took over.
“We seem to be in a funk,” Williams said. “I think, especially with killing penalties. It’s not from a lack of trying. Guys are working as hard as they can. Throughout the season sometimes there are ups and downs. That is a down for us now.”
You might have thought the Rangers would be the ones in the funk.
“It was a little weird to walk into the building, to be honest with you,” the Rangers’ Derick Brassard said. “But I think after a couple of minutes in the dressing room, you kind of forget about it. Before the road trip, I think the guys were looking forward to coming here and measuring yourself against the best teams in the League. There’s nothing better than California, they say. We’re having a lot of fun right now and that’s a really good thing.”
New York took control of the game in the second period when they scored three unanswered goals and then settled into their defensive scheme.
Speed was the key to the reversal in the game.
“I think speed is very dangerous around the League,” Brassard said. “It’s pretty hard to contain. A lot of times, if you try to contain [it], you’re going to take penalties. That was our bread-and-butter last year. It’s not anything different this year. We did the same thing in Anaheim [a 4-1 win on Wednesday]; we used our speed. We’ve got a couple of guys who can move up front, and they’re pretty hard to handle.”
While the Kings are big and fast, the Rangers showed off their best feature in the middle frame.
“We had trouble keeping up with a fast team,” Kings coach Sutter said. “There’s two ways of neutralizing speed: be fast yourself and slow them down. Even the [Jeff] Carter line [with Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson], we couldn’t handle it.”
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