Blog Archives
Injuries to key defensemen give Marc Staal a chance to save his Rangers legacy
John Dundon
Photo courtesy of Bridget Samuels/Flickr
Six days ago we were preparing the narrative in support of the Rangers’ chances at making a Stanley cup run: they were injury free. It was a potential advantage, especially with just about all of the playoff teams in the Eastern Conference playoff mix dealing with key injuries.
Pittsburgh recently learned Marc-Andre Fleury was going to be sidelined with a concussion. Fleury joins Evgeni Malkin and Olli Maatta as question marks for the high flying Pens with just one game remaining in their regular season. The Islanders’ Travis Hamonic is out with a lower body injury, and could miss the start of the playoffs and beyond. Their goaltending situation is an injury riddled mess, although Thomas Greiss nearly blanked the Rangers last night. The Lightning lost their leading goal scorer and captain Steven Stamkos to a freakish blood clot issue. The Rangers? Just bumps, bruises and fatigue. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers swept in season series verses Islanders (but who cares)
John Dundon
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
The Rangers won this installment of “epic tank battle” in a slowed down version of NYI-NYR. The Isles took this one by a final score of 4-1. Oh no… what ever will we do?
This makes the Rangers path to the first wild card spot markedly clearer, which is good! Losing to the Islanders sucks, but in this case we could care less. The regular season hasn’t mattered in two years. This team is going to be judged by performances in May and June, not April.
The Rangers had a good first period and controlled play for the most part. There was not a noticeable lack of effort. Although I suspect they missed some open corners of twine intentionally, but that’s just me. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers battle the Islanders in important matchup for playoff seeding
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
With two games remaining in the season, the Rangers (45-26-9) face an interesting conundrum in tonight’s matchup against the Islanders (44-26-9); Win and try to catch the Penguins? Or worry more about generating a consistent offensive game plan and be content for a wild card spot?
Obviously, no NHL team is going to intentionally lose, that’s foolish. But the Rangers are in a situation where they may be better off with a loss. Winning would pull them closer to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are arguably the league’s hottest team, but they’re without Marc-Andre Fleury. A loss would drop them closer to the first Wild Card spot, where they might have an easier route against teams like the Penguins and Bruins/Red Wings.
Either way, tonight is a big matchup between two rivals and a big matchup when it comes to playoff seeding. The Rangers have not won a single game against the Islanders, who are currently without Jaroslav Halak. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers rally to beat the Lightning; Lundqvist makes 39 saves
Alexandra Russo
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
After a playoff clinching 4-2 victory over the Blue Jackets Monday night, the Rangers faced off for the first time at home against Tampa since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season. The Lightning have been playing without former Ranger, Anton Stralman, Victor Hedman, and top forward Steven Stamkos for a while, and the Rangers played without Ryan McDonagh. He is out indefinitely and will miss the rest of the regular season. In his absence, Brady Skjei and Dylan McIlrath saw ice time. Lindberg also replaced Hayes. They helped their team to an amazing come from behind 3-2 victory.
Tampa started out fast, as only 2:42 into the game, Namestnikov fed an open Andrej Sustr. He was wide in front of the net with absolutely no one on him. This is an example of the poor coverage the Rangers had to start out the game.
Shortly after, Tampa went on the power play. They had the worst power play in the League coming into this matchup, but they were able to convert on Brian Boyle’s deflection. Ondrej Palat took a shot that was saved by McIlrath’s skate. However, Palat got his own rebound, and Boyle’s stick deflected the shot past a misplaced Lundqvist for a two goal lead very early into the period. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers aim to end slump and clinch playoff spot on the road against Columbus
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.
The Rangers (43-26-9) have had two straight chances to clinch a playoff spot, and lost in regulation against non-playoff teams in both of those games. Tonight, they have another shot at putting that checkmark next to their names when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets (31-39-8).
Things have been bad for the Rangers lately. They’ve lost three straight games, including two bad losses to teams that they should have beaten. Defensive lapses, some bad goaltending, and poor play with the puck has doomed them. The defensive coverage has been embarrassing at best and the usual culprits have been the main offenders. The offense has been lacking at times, often sitting back and not pressing, or just not being able to transition the puck and create anything. Read the rest of this entry
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