Rangers light up Buffalo in laugher

The New York Rangers showed no mercy against the woeful Buffalo Sabres last night, lighting them up for five straight goals –three on the powerplay– en route to their 6-1 win. Discipline was the issue for the Sabres, as they took three penalties in a 1:20 span, and the Rangers scored on all three opportunities. The fourth goal, this one at even strength, chased Michal Neuvirth from the net, but by that point it was too late. The Sabres weren’t beating Henrik Lundqvist for five goals.

Eleven players recorded a point for the Rangers, and four of them recorded two points: Dan Boyle (1-1-2), Derrick Brassard (1-1-2), Rick Nash (1-1-2), and Martin St. Louis (0-2-2). Hank didn’t have to make many difficult saves, but still stopped 24 of Buffalo’s 25 shots for the easy win.

On to the goals:

Rangers 1, Sabres 0

The first powerplay goal came on a familiar play that we’ve seen. Brassard circled from the boards to the slot as MSL gathered the puck at the point and crept to the top of the circle. Brass turned and kept his stick on the ice, and MSL hit him with the hard pass that Brass deflected over Neuvirth.

Rangers 2, Sabres 0

Ryan McDonagh hit J.T. Miller for the zone entry as Miller drew three Sabres to him, including Cody McCormick, who was supposed to be eyeing Chris Kreider. Miller hit Kreider behind McCormick, and Kreider drove to the net and around Neuvirth for the 2-0 lead.

Rangers 3, Sabres 0

The third powerplay goal is just an epic fail. Nash shouldn’t be this open behind the defense.

Rangers 4, Sabres 0

What in the world was Buffalo doing here? You can drive a truck through that passing lane to Boyle.

Rangers 5, Sabres 0

The Rangers trapped Buffalo in their own end for a long shift, and it led to this goal. Carl Hagelin grabbed the puck behind the net and circled to the high slot as Kevin Hayes circled from the high slot to in front of the net. Hags had a clear shooting lane, and Hayes was relatively uncontested in front for the easy deflection.

Sabres 1, Rangers 5

Dan Girardi blocked Drew Stafford’s original shot, but the shot drew Hank out of position and made Girardi stumble a bit. Stafford grabbed the fortuitous bounce back to him, circled behind the net, and stuffed it into the empty net. Such is hockey.

Rangers 6, Sabres 1

Jesper Fast beat Rasmus Ristolainen to the slot as Hayes worked behind the net to get free for a split second for a pretty centering pass. Enroth actually got his pad on this one, but his pad was behind the goal line, so play was called dead as Toronto called down to MSG officials to review the goal.

Fenwick Chart:

U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly. Yea, yea, you ugly.

Shift Chart:

McDonagh and Girardi generally got the Zemgus Girgensons/Tyler Ennis/Matt Moulson line, since they are the most potent offensive line for Buffalo. After the game got ugly, AV stopped matching up and just rolled everyone evenly.

Individual Corsi:

In these charts, you want to be as far to the upper right as possible. It’s a bit surprising that both Stepan and MSL were in the negatives for puck possession though.

Shot Location:

This is pretty embarrassing.

The cupcake part of the schedule is over, and the Rangers took nine of ten. That’s all you can really ask for in a stretch like that. Now the Rangers travel out west to take on the cream of the crop: Anaheim, L.A., and San Jose. They then come back east for the Isles and Bruins. After nine of ten games against non-playoff teams, the Rangers will face five playoff teams in a row.