Blog Archives

Thrilling third period leads to a big Rangers win; Brassard tallies five points

Bobby Bevilacqua

Dylan McIlrath and Jesper Fast celebrate 1-25

Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.

Well, that was exciting.

After a lackluster performance against the Senators on Sunday afternoon, the Rangers (27-16-5) came back with a much better effort and a fantastic offensive performance, downing the Buffalo Sabres (19-26-4) by a final score of 6-3 in the last game for the Blueshirts before the All-Star Break.

After some tight checking, competitive hockey in the first two periods, everything opened up in the third period, where a combined six goals were scored, four of them coming in a span of less than five minutes. Read the rest of this entry

Rangers need rebound win in matchup against Buffalo; Lunqvist and AV infuriated

Bobby Bevilacqua

rangers vs sabres 3-14

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Let’s face it, the Rangers (26-16-5) stunk last night.

After two very strong and promising performances by the team against Vancouver and the Hurricanes, Vigneault’s squad came out almost entirely flat, barely pressuring Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson and showing a lack of effort. It’s not often that you can criticize the Rangers’ effort, but it wasn’t there last night.

That led Henrik Lundqvist to question his team’s preparation in his postgame interview when questioned about the topic. Read the rest of this entry

The Problem with the Process

John Dundon

Jeff Gorton and Glen Sather

Photo courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images.

The New York Rangers have managed to stay in the cup conversation despite organizational failures, past and present.

The Blueshirts started out the year strong but wound up limping past the half way mark of the season sporting a modest 26-16-5 record. One cannot but help wonder what the main underlying cause is for the team’s decline in play could possibly be. Not because they are hard-pressed to find issues, which have been plentiful and even overwhelming thus far through the 2015-2016 campaign.

It’s surprising though given the fact that right around this time last season, the Rangers took off. They dominated the league, even in the wake of losing Henrik Lundqvist for an extended period due to a freakish neck injury. Cam Talbot had replaced and even duplicated the edge that Lundqvist gave the Rangers night in and out. The Rangers finished the season on a tear and made a trip to game 7 of the conference final, where injuries eventually caught up to them in a humbling 2-0 loss on home ice. While the decline may be a surprise to some it didn’t sneak up on people who have looked at and made a point of the organizations failures, especially dating back to the offseason after that heartbreaking 4-1 Stanley Cup Final defeat. Read the rest of this entry

Vigneault finally used Yandle properly, and the Rangers were a better team because of it

Bobby Bevilacqua

keith yandle full body 12-6

Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.

 

When the Rangers fell apart against the Capitals on Sunday, a lot went wrong. The defensive coverage was bad, there were guys open in front of the net, the penalty kill was poor, and there were turnovers. I could go on and on. Needless to say, it was a bad performance from a Rangers team that had been playing much better, even in their losses.

Heading into yesterday’s game, I expected the Rangers to win against a pretty bad Vancouver team that was missing their best player (Henrik Sedin) and because they’ve been alternating wins and losses for a few weeks now. And although they ran into a red-hot Ryan Miller, who stood on his head all night long, they managed to get a win.

If you just looked at the box core, you wouldn’t realize that this was total and utter domination by the Rangers. At even strength, the Rangers led in shot attempts by a massive margin, finishing as a +35 on the night (70-35). They had 36 scoring chances and 17 high danger scoring chances. And they had 49 shots on goal, which isn’t including the six times that they hit the post in the game. If it wasn’t for Ryan Miller, and if they had a bit more luck, this could have easily been a 5+ goal night for New York. Read the rest of this entry

Rangers win overtime thriller against Vancouver; Stepan and Zuccarello break goal droughts

Bobby Bevilacqua

Rangers celebrate a goal 1-19

Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.

What started out as a very frustrating night turned into elation for the Rangers (25-16-5) when JT Miller gave the Rangers a 3-2 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks (19-17-11).

It was truly amazing that the Rangers didn’t score a lot more goals. They finished with 49 shots on goal, hit the goal post or crossbar six times, and faced Ryan Miller, who brought his A-game. But despite the frustrating sequence of events for the first 50 minutes or so, the Rangers battled back and earned the two points.

This was easily the team’s best offensive performance of the season, and you could argue that it was one of their better defensive performances too. The Rangers had 49 shots on goal, even more scoring chances that were blocked or went wide, and they only allowed 20 shots on goal for Lundqvist. They truly deserved the win and got it. Read the rest of this entry