Category Archives: Game Recaps

Rangers at Blues Recap; Dan Girardi potentially out long term

Bobby Bevilacqua

rangers-vs-blues-10-15

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

The Rangers (1-1-0) traveled to St. Louis to face the Blues (3-0-0) for their first road game last night, and they came out on the wrong end of some puck luck in a 3-2 loss.

Despite completely dominating the game for almost the entire 60 minutes, The Rangers could not score more than two against Carter Hutton, making his debut as a Blue and making some absolutely amazing saves. The Rangers outshot the Blues 35-18, including an incredible 15-0 edge in the third as St. Louis went into full defense mode.

Here are my thoughts and observations from the game; Read the rest of this entry

Rangers open the season with a win over the Islanders; KZB line impresses

Bobby Bevilacqua

rangers-goal-celebration-10-13

Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.

The Rangers (1-0-0) opened the season at Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2007, and they didn’t disappoint, winning a thriller by the score of 5-3 over the rival New York Islanders.

The goals for the Rangers were scored by Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, Brandon Pirri and JT Miller on the empty net. Eleven different Rangers recorded a point, while three players (Kreider, Zibanejad, Buchnevich) each scored two points.

The Rangers outshot the Islanders 39-28, won the faceoff battle 33-31, were 1-5 on the power play and they were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Read the rest of this entry

Rangers fall in overtime to the Flyers

Alexandra Russo

rangers-vs-flyers-10-3

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Despite their most recent hard fought comeback that left them one goal out of a tie game against the Devils Saturday night, the young Rangers have been doing well for themselves. With Lundqvist back in net and McDonagh back on defense, and Stepan and Nash up front, their preseason record fell to 2-1-1.

Lundqvist flashed the pads at the Flyers early into the game, as he showed his excitement to get back to the game and with team he loves. A few minutes later, Buchnevich received a pass from Hayes but was stopped by Mason on the two on one attempt.

Shortly after, the Flyers took a penalty. The Rangers power play, which they desperately want to improve upon, didn’t come up with a goal but had some good looks. Their best chance was a slap shot from the circle that got blocked in front. Read the rest of this entry

Rangers Recap: Observations following the preseason opener

Bobby Bevilacqua

rangers-celebrate-a-goal-zib-kreids-9-27

Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.

The Rangers opened their preseason games with a bang, securing a 5-2 win in a pretty dominant outing over the New York Islanders. There were a lot of positives to take from this game despite it being against a split Islanders squad.

The offseason moves seem to already paying off, and the Rangers played differently than they did last year based on their personnel. For the preseason I won’t be doing goal breakdowns or a period-by-period summary, but instead a bullet list with observations.

  • It’s too early to tell for sure because it’s only been one game, but the team played differently. Last year, speed was noticeably lacking and the team didn’t have an identity. The offseason moves made show that the team is looking for speed and youth. There was a lot of excellent transition, puck movement and breakaways, and I’m excited to see this team come together on the final roster.

Read the rest of this entry

Rangers season comes to a close with 6-3 thrashing in Pittsburgh

Alexandra Russo

Rangers vs penguins Game 5 4-23

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Alain Vigneault said before the game that his team has been there before, and they’ve been successful by staying in the moment. Unfortunately, that success didn’t carry over to this season, as they lost this game, this series, and their season, by the final score of 6-3.

One of the things the Rangers said they needed is the strong presence and scoring of Rick Nash, and he opened up the scoring for his team 1:01 into Game 5. Brady Skjei made a fast pass to Dan Girardi, who took a shot from the point. That got deflected by Nash in front for the early Rangers’ lead.

But the Blueshirts didn’t stop there. They proceeded to harass Murray and were able to get quite a few quality opportunities. Specifically, they had an odd-man rush where Nash made a great pass to Girardi in front of the net, but Murray made a good save to prevent a bigger lead.   Read the rest of this entry