On a night where the New York Rangers had a Centennial celebration, honoring the Blueshirts that played for the team from 1967-1991, the current New York squad rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win 5-4 in overtime. New York went 2-for-2 on the man-advantage, including the game-winner in the extra session by JT Miller (the 16th of his career), while also receiving a penalty shot tally from Artemi Panarin. In addition, the team scored twice in 19 seconds at the end of the first and a pair of tallies in 36 seconds in the second period. New York welcomes Chris Kredier, Jacob Trouba and the Ducks on Monday.
Game recap:
Rangers lines vs. Canadiens:
Sheary-Trocheck-Miller
Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Berard-Laba-Cuylle
Raddysh-Carrick-Chmelař
Gavrikov-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Robertson
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches: Morrow, Brodzinski
LTIR: Fox (upper-body injury), Rempe (upper-body injury), Edström (lower-body injury)
A few thoughts:
1) Centennial Celebration: for me, it was stepping back to when I was a kid seeing all the former Rangers that were at MSG. Twenty-two Rangers alums were recognized on the ice pregame, including Brad Park (please raise his jersey to the rafters already), Dave Maloney and John Davidson.
2) Defense: despite the four goals, a pretty good game by the defense. As noted by Peter Baugh, the Blueshirts led in shot attempts, 75-54, per Natural Stat Trick, and allowed fewer than 20 in each period. Natural Stat Trick credited Montreal with only three five-on-five high-danger chances, all in the first period.
Coach Mike Sullivan and associate coach David Quinn shifted up the blueline during the contest. Urho Vaakanainen, who dressed in place of Scott Morrow, playing for the first time since Nov. 26, moved up to the second pair, which made a big difference. In addition, Vladislav Gavrikov, manning the point on the second power play, made a huge defensive play on the power play where Noah Laba scored, preventing a breakaway. Last, Matthew Robertson notched a pair of assists just by putting shots towards the net, one that missed and one that left a rebound,
3) Power play: New York opted to go again with a five man unit, at least on the first power play unit. Mika Zibanejad played quarterback rather than Panarin, who was on a wing along with Miller, while Vincent Trocheck was on the bumper and Alexis Lafrenière, who replaced Will Cuylle, handled net front duties. This unit did less than nothing on that man advantage,
The second unit scored the first goal. Great work by Gavrikov to prevent the breakaway, then grit and hard work to retain possession. Cuylle and Conor Sheary helped set up the goal by Laba In the OT, the Blueshirts scored on the 4-on-3 to notch the win.
4) Third line: Once again, Brett Berard-Laba-Cuylle did the dirty work to get New York back in the game when down 4-2 in the second. That trio puts on their hard hats and goes to work.
Conor Sheary, who every Rangers’ fan loves to hate, tallied a pair of assists as well and was very solid defensively. In addition, he provides a physical presence to the top line. Sheary has done exactly what the Rangers needed and wanted him to do, even if he is not a perfect fit on that trio.
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