The New York Rangers followed up that debacle –albeit a two point debacle—in Toronto with a strong showing in Colorado last night, defeating the Avalanche by a score of 6-3. Kevin Hayes stole the show with a highlight reel goal and a snazzy assist, but it was an overall strong team effort that resulted in the win.
Cam Talbot was strong, out dueling Semyon Varlamov and making several (14) key saves when the Avs brought everything in the third period. But the Rangers, who allowed the Avs to tie the game with some fairly sloppy play, didn’t panic. They scored three straight late in the third to come up with the win. It was pretty through two, and pretty for the last ten minutes, but the Rangers were bad to start the third. But hey, it’s two points.
On to the goals:
Rangers 1, Avs 0
The Avs made a really bad line change here, and Dan Boyle recognized it, joined the rush with Hayes, and put a nifty little move on Varlamov for the goal.
Rangers 2, Avs 0
Wow Hayes.
Avs 1, Rangers 2
Landeskog behind a tired Klein.
The line of Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, and Martin St. Louis got caught in the defensive zone for a long shift. This shouldn’t be a surprise, that line has really struggled. They got caught running around, not covering their respective men, and then collapsing into a low zone collapse instead of overloading like Alain Vigneault prefers. Eventually, Gabriel Landeskog got behind Kevin Klein and had a rebound go off his shoulder and into the net. Sometimes, you make your own luck.
Rangers 3, Avs 1
That’s a big passing lane and seam for Zucc.
Mats Zuccarello started this goal with a solid defensive zone play to chip the puck off the boards to Derick Brassard to start the rush. Brass got the puck to Rick Nash as Zucc joined the rush as the fourth man in. Nash found a seam to get the puck to Zucc, who had oodles of room and just roofed it over Varlamov.
Avs 2, Rangers 3
Flying the zone, not anticipating the MSL turnover.
MSL turned the puck over in the defensive zone, and it resulted directly in this goal. Max Talbot picked up the puck and fired it on net from the slot. Talbot (Cam) made the save, but Jarome Iginla was there for the rebound.
Avs 3, Rangers 3
Sigh.
Tanner Glass got caught following the puck here, and it allowed Iginla to get the puck across to Jan Hejda with room. His initial shot was blocked by Dan Girardi, but he got his own rebound and beat a moving Talbot to tie the game.
Rangers 4, Avs 3
This line had a great game.
This line has been unreal. J.T. Miller drove to the net, drawing defensive attention and opening the passing lane to Carl Hagelin in the slot. Hayes put the puck right on his tape, and while his initial shot was blocked, he got his own rebound for the lead.
Rangers 5, Avs 3
This was an unreal goal by Nash. He’s so strong.
Rangers 6, Avs 3
Ryan McDonagh powerplay empty netter.
Fenwick Chart:
Reason one why not to turtle.
That is one long, straight line for the Rangers to start the third period. Before that, they had a huge possession advantage, but they simply turtled and allowed the Avs back in it. This is why turtling stinks.
Scoring Chances:
Reason two why not to turtle.
If anything this shows how great Talbot was in the third period. The Avs had a ton of great scoring chances after the Rangers played dead. Again, stop turtling.
Individual Corsi:
The kids are alright.
How good was that Miller, Hayes, Haglin line? Wow. And how bad was that Stepan, Kreider, MSL line? Wow in a bad way. Honestly, I know I’ve been saying Hags is the odd man out, but if MSL keeps playing like this, there’s no way the Rangers can re-sign him, which makes him the odd man out. I’ll probably have to eat my words on this one.
Shot Locations:
Reason three why not to turtle.
Most of these quality shot attempts from the slot for the Avs came in the third period, and Talbot got a lot of them. This isn’t a typical Rangers defensive scheme, you expect fewer high quality attempts.
Shift Chart:
Typical AV matchups.
AV didn’t have the benefit of last change, so he matched up when he could, mostly against the Landeskog/ROR/MacKinnon line. Klein and Staal got the Iginla line, and honestly that’s all the Avs really have to offer offensively.
The Rangers really needed to make sure they won this game, as it was a game against a non-playoff team when the Isles and Penguins both won. It also shows that the Rangers can win with Cam Talbot in net, who is 3-1-1 since taking over for Henrik Lundqvist.
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