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Rangers aim to get back on track with important game against the Panthers
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
After a disappointing California road trip that exposed many of the team’s flaws, the Rangers (40-24-8) enter the home stretch with just 10 games remaining, playing three of the next four games at MSG. They start tonight against the Florida Panthers (40-23-9), who sit in first place in the Atlantic Division.
In their last game out, Henrik Lundqvist kept his team in the game for a long time despite being completely outplayed. The Sharks totaled 52 shots on goal, two times as many shots as the Rangers had, and scored four times. That put the Rangers at 3-4-2 in the last nine games.
And while the Rangers are significantly cooling down, other teams are starting to heat up. The playoff picture in the Metropolitan is very tight. The Rangers currently sit in third place, tied with the Penguins in games played, wins and points. But Pittsburgh have won six straight games and eight of the last 10. The Blueshirts are three points ahead of the Islanders for the first wild card spot, but the Isles have two games in hand. And the Red Wings trail the Rangers by five points with no games in hand for the last Wild Card spot. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers embarrassed by San Jose in final game of road trip; Time for a reality check
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
After faltering late against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, the Rangers (40-23-8) played one of their worst games of the season, getting completely and utterly dominated by the hottest team in the NHL, the San Jose Sharks (39-25-6). New York closed out the road trip with a 4-1 loss at the SAP Center.
Almost everything about this game was terrible. The puck movement from the defense was awful, with the tangent of Girardi and Staal playing decidedly bad tonight. They allowed 52 shots on net. FIFTY TWO! They only had 26 shots on net. There were potentially two extended offensive zone shifts for the Rangers in the entire game. Only the fourth line finished positive in possession, and the team was collectively a -21 Corsi For. Nothing positive came from this game, and the Rangers limped through this road trip with a 1-1-1 record. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers begin crucial California Road trip in Anaheim; Raanta in net
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
After a tough run and four losses in the last six games, the Rangers (39-23-7) begin a crucial road trip on the west coast with a game against the Anaheim Ducks (38-21-9), presenting a chance for them to get rolling as the season comes to a close.
The Rangers have lost back-to-back games for the first time since December 20th, and have lost four of the last six games. Recently they have been out possessed, generating very little scoring chances (8 SOG in last 40 minutes versus Penguins), and relying way too much on goaltending. It’s reminiscent of November and December, when the team was scoring on an extremely high percentage of their shots but allowing too many scoring chances. Eventually it caught up to them and the team went through a massive slump.
This is the last time a team wants to start slumping. Going into the playoffs with momentum and confidence can make the difference between a first round exit and advancing to the second round.
Last season the Rangers swept their California road trip, winning games against the Kings, the Sharks and the Ducks. While they were already playing well before that, the success from that road trip was a turning point in the season and helped propel them to the Presidents’ trophy. A good road trip here could be just what the Rangers need. And with the Islanders and Penguins right at their heels, points are crucial right now.
At the start of the season, the Ducks looked like a disappointment, and they didn’t look like a playoff team. They just snapped a three game skid with a 7-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. But prior to that, they put themselves right back in the playoff race by winning 20 of 23 games (20-2-1) since January 13th. Everyone is playing well, they’re scoring goals again, and they’re a strong team in the Western Conference.
This is the second and final matchup between these two teams this season. The Rangers won the first meeting at MSG in overtime thanks to a goal from Mats Zuccarello, giving New York a 3-2 win. Derick Brassard scored twice and the Rangers were 1-5 on the power play. Henrik Lundqvist made 19 saves for the win.
One of the moves that helped spark the Ducks’ run was trading for David Perron, shipping Carl Hagelin to the Penguins. Both teams have benefitted from the move, but The Ducks have gotten a lot of production out of Perron. In 25 games he’s collected 19 points (8-11-19), which is more than what he had in Pittsburgh in 43 games. He’s fit in really nicely alongside Ryan Getzlaf on the top line and he’s injected some life into the Anaheim lineup.
The Ducks have also seen a lot of growth in one of their better young prospects, Rickard Rakell. The 22 year old Swede has set career highs in goals (18) and points (39), and is one assist shy of tying his career high there as well. Rakell is second on the team in goals and third in points, behind Getzlaf and Corey Perry. He also has six game winning goal and brings a strong, two-way game along with physical play. Rakell will likely skate alongside Perry, who leads the team with 29 goals.
Bruce Boudreau has been starting his goalies in two game stretches, and if that trend continues, John Gibson will start tonight. Frederick Anderson won his last start against the Devils, and is 9-1-1 in his last 11 decisions. But the rookie Gibson has been very good this season, posting a 16-9-3 record along with a .919 save percentage and a 2.23 GAA. He’s lost his last two starts (0-1-1) but has won seven of his last 10 decisions (10-2-1).
For the Rangers, Antti Raanta will be in net against the Ducks, his second career appearance against them. Raanta made 34 saves in his last start, a 4-2 win over Buffalo, and he’s continued to play well as of late. He has allowed two goals or less in four of his last five starts, and the one loss came in that crazy game against the Islanders. Raanta is 8-5-2 with a .912 save percentage and a 2.46 GAA.
While the Rangers are cooling off, Chris Kreider is heating up. At times he has been inconsistent and quiet, but his five goals in the last nine games, including goals in both weekend games, show a move in the right direction. Kreider has also improved in front of the net, and has been much more noticeable on screens, deflections and getting to the dirty areas, which is exactly what the Ranger need from him.
Derick Brassard made his triumphant return to the Rangers lineup on Sunday, scoring a power play goal for the third consecutive game. He leads the team with 25 goals as well as in power play points (8-11-19), where he has formed a formidable pairing with Keith Yandle at the point. Brassard has been reunited with Mats Zuccarello, the team’s leading scorer (22-31-53), and Rick Nash in an attempt to reignite the line that caused so much damage last season.
The Rangers and the Ducks will faceoff at the Honda Center at 10:30 PM. The game will be broadcasted on MSG+.
EXPECTED LINEUP
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Jesper Fast
JT Miller-Eric Staal-Kevin Hayes
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Viktor Stalberg
Ryan McDonagh-Kevin Klein
Keith Yandle-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
Antti Raanta
The Rangers should keep Raanta and Stalberg past this season
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
Jeff Gorton is going to have a lot of decisions to make this offseason, whether it be trading some of the big contracts currently on the team or finding a way to allocate money to all of the free agents. With all of the expiring contracts, that will be some of the hardest decisions he has to make. But two of the players that he should absolutely keep are Antti Raanta and Viktor Stalberg.
Both players were offseason acquisitions, and both have been pretty important members of the Rangers this season. Raanta took over the big void left by Cam Talbot, and Stalberg supplied a much needed presence in the bottom six.
Raanta has been largely solid for the Rangers in his first season here. Gorton traded prospect Ryan Haggerty to the Blackhawks and snatched the Finnish netminder to backup Henrik Lundqvist. Raanta has the same luxuries that Cam Talbot had in his time here, mainly learning from Lundqvist as well as goalie guru Benoit Allaire.
Raanta won four straight games to start the season, allowing five goals in four games, including two games with just one goal allowed as well a one shutout. He lost his next six games, two in overtime, despite playing well in three of those.
A big reason for his losses wound up being irregular playing time as well as injuries. Raanta was bothered by concussion-like symptoms after taking a shot to the mask in a game against the Minnesota Wild. He had a gap of over a month between his two starts, and then back issues forced him to miss nearly another month.
Since getting regular starts, Raanta has been a lot better, and has even stolen some games away lately. He’s won four of his last five starts, allowing two goals or less in all of the wins, and having only one setback against the Islanders. But to be fair, I don’t think many goaltenders would have had success with the defense that was being played in that game.
There’s really no positives out of a player getting injured, but if there was one surrounding Raanta, it’s the fact that he’ll be pretty cheap to re-sign. He hasn’t done enough to get a contract well over a million dollars, and I think it’ll be closer to the value of an entry level contract ($925k). If he’s asking much higher than that, there’s always Magnus Hellberg. But I don’t think it will come to that.
Viktor Stalberg has been one of my favorite offseason acquisitions, and his $1.1 million contract makes it even better. He’s not a prolific goal scorer, but he’s just a really well-rounded player. The best way to explain it is that he’s a poor man’s Chris Kreider. Stalberg has incredible speed that catches player’s off guard, he’s very strong on the forecheck and he has been used effectively in defensive roles and on the penalty kill.
So far, Stalberg has tallied 18 points (8-10-18) in 61 games. And while the numbers don’t look fantastic, Stalberg has been pretty unlucky at times, hitting the goalpost and getting robbed of some other chances. Granted, he doesn’t have the best hands so he doesn’t finish as much as some would expect, but he’s a very solid bottom six player who can stretch as a second liner when needed or if he’s having a good game.
Stalberg has also done a decent job of filling the void left by the departure of Carl Hagelin. Stalberg has a better 5v5 Points/60 rating (1.45 to 1.40) and a better 5v5 Primary Points/60 rating (1.09 to .86) than Carl Hagelin, and his Corsi For% of 47.50 is alright.
For $1.1 million, Stalberg is a bargain. And with a bit more luck and some better finishing, he could hit the 13-15 goal mark in a good year. Because of his versatility, his speed and his ability to produce more, Stalberg should be kept after this season.
Raanta fantastic as Rangers fend off Sabres comeback to avoid back-to-back losses
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Yet again, the Rangers (39-22-6) answered a loss with a win taking down the Buffalo Sabres (27-32-9) by a final score of 4-2, extending their win streak to nine games against the Sabres.
The Rangers have now won 11 straight games immediately following a regulation loss, marking the longest stretch in one season in team history. The last time they lost back-to-back games was December 18 and 20.
This wasn’t the best played game of hockey for Alain Vigneault’s club. In fact, they didn’t play that well at all. The only time where the Rangers dominated play was the first six or seven minutes of the second period. Other than that, they were outplayed by the Sabres for a vast majority of the game. Read the rest of this entry
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