Timing is everything in life and hockey. Early in the season the New York Rangers could not find a win and had issues scoring and defending.
Certainly the opposition was better than they but that seems to have reversed itself these last few games.
The teams that were at or near the top of the divisions have settled back and the Rangers have improved their play enough to make a strong difference.
That was the case Saturday afternoon on Broadway when the Rangers got two goals from Rick Nash in a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as the Rangers won their sixth straight and improved to 9-7-2 to become relevant again.
“We’re fast for sure, and I would say simple,” Nash said. “We get ourselves in trouble when we don’t get pucks deep and then turn it over to the neutral zone. When we keep it simple, that’s when it seems we’re at our best.”
One thing that has fueled the Rangers’ success is their power play; yes they do have a power play after all.
Nash and Pavel Buchnevich each struck off nifty passes down low on the power play.
“We just really competed on forward battles,” Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “They’ve got some size on that team and skill and they were coming up with it a little more during the second period. It was the reason why we couldn’t get to our offensive game, but it was great to see our power play come through in the second, and ultimately in the third period we really did a good job.”
Michael Grabner sealed it late with an empty-netter from the neutral zone.
“I think it’s important we realize that we’re happy we have a six-game winning streak but we’re still not in a great spot. We had to do this to get back in the race, and I think now we just need to continue to push ourselves,” Lundqvist said of the Rangers’ standing in the ;adder. “It’s going to be a pretty tight race this year if you look around the League. [There are] one or two teams above everyone right now, but it’s [going to] be a really tight race, and you have to grab points where you can, and right now we’re feeling it, so we have to make the most of it.”
The Oilers got their goals from Jesse Puljujarvi and Connor McDavid.
“The difference was the two power plays in the second period,” Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “Overall, I think we still stuck with it and had our chances but it came down to just the two power-play goals.”
That may be true but the Oilers also failed to cover anyone down low and the Rangers’ goals on the power play were off feeds across the slot to players deep near the crease.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Rangers highlights]
Cam Talbot made 30 saves in the loss.
“We should be able to get one of those two penalty kills, in my opinion, and that’s probably the difference. They were able to get two quick ones on the power play to set you back, and they do such a great job in the neutral zone of clogging things up, it’s hard to come back from behind against them,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said after the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.