Rangers Review: Beating the Blues

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Rangers ride team D and goalie play to victory

The New York Rangers, thanks to better defense and strong play in net from Dylan Garand, defeated the St. Louis Blues by a 3-1 count at MSG on Tuesday. Once again, the penalty kill might have been the best aspect of the Blueshirts’ overall game. New York faces Philly on Thursday to end their current home stand. 

Rangers lines vs. Blues:

Dorofeyev-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Perreault
Tolvanen-Cuylle-Bjorkstrand
Chmelař-Laba-Rempe

Gavrikov-Fox
Pettersson-Schneider
Smits-Morrow

Garand
Reimer

Scratches: Durzi (undisclosed injury), Glendening, Robertson
IR: Sýkora (lower-body), Korpisalo (lower-body)
LTIR: Shesterkin (lower-body), Veleno (lower-body)

Key Takeaways:

1) Penalty kill – six-for-six, nearly all the shorthanded situations created by stick infractions, which coach Mike Sullivan discussed in his post-game presser. Sooner or later, those unneeded penalties will eventually come back to haunt you. Cleaning up that aspect will be a key moving forward to limit goals against. 

2) Lines: Will Cuylle started his first game at center. Cuylle got better as the game wore on, though I am not sure if this is a truly viable option moving forward. He logged 18:19 in ice time, though a large portion of those minutes came in special teams. 

Cuylle’s line skated 9:15 at even strength, with New York leading 10-8 in shot attempts and 4-3 in shots, per Natural Star Trick. They scored a goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand, created by Cuylle’s long reach resulting in a turnover at the offensive blue line. Defensively, despite that unit being pinned deep at times, they didn’t have any glaring fax pas during the contest.

Jaroslav Chmelař-Noah Laba-Matt Rempe brought speed, energy and a solid forecheck in their minutes. Overall, they were on the ice for around 8:30 together with Laba seeing a large portion of his 14:16 of ice time shorthanded. Rempe was effective taking the body and in the forecheck, avoiding any silly penalties which have hurt him in the past.

3) Defense: The unit improved as the game went on after Garand bailed them out early. Fox and Gavrikov are Fox and Gavrikov, and if you know, you know. The key is the other two pairings. 

Alberts Smits and Scott Morrow were fairly solid as a third pair. Morrow, despite sitting out the first 14 games of the season, has played well in the last two contests, replacing the injured Sean Durzi. I thought Morrow was better than Smits, which could create some interesting decisions for Sullivan when Durzi returns. 

Marcus Pettersson and Braden Schneider were fairly good as well. Schneider’s well-documented struggles have rightfully called for his benching. Durzi’s eventual return will force someone to the bench, and it’s not as if the team doesn’t have several options, as I noted above. 

4) Power play – two keys yesterday. 1) Fox at the point on both units. 2) The second unit outplayed the first. JT Miller, moved down to the second unit for Gabe Perreault, who had a goal rightfully overturned on a distinct kicking motion, was impactful on that unit. While they didn’t score, they showed much better chemistry and creativity that the normal first unit, resulting in Sullivan starting them once on the man-advantage.

Fox surprisingly stayed out when the units changed. As Sullivan said, the key will be how much energy he has expended prior to and during the power play. Fox’s ability to keep pucks in the zone and his cerebral style of play make him a perfect option for that role while Durzi is sidelined, maybe longer. 

5) Garand; the word thrown around for him is resilient. He was strong throughout the contest, making key saves throughout, especially early on. For the second time this season, Garand lost a shutout with less than a minute to go. This one occurred after he made the first save but the scramble to get in position for the follow up rebound shot he knocked in with his right pad.

Garand showed a quick glove and reflects. One area he needs to clean up is rebounds and rebound control. But he has given the team a strong chance to win nightly while starting 11 games in a row, which is unheard of these days.