Cam Talbot and Corey Crawford put on a show for the fans last night, stopping a combined 64 of 65 shots in a classic goaltender duel. Luckily for the New York Rangers, Talbot stopped all 29 of his shots faced, while Crawford stopped 35 of 36. Crawford got beat by Derick Brassard’s slap shot in the first minute of overtime, sending the boys in blue home happy.
The Rangers won the game, but Chicago really took it to them from a possession standpoint. Only one player was a positive possession player last night (Dan Boyle). Three were even at 0 (Derek Stepan, Marc Staal, Martin St. Louis), and the rest were a net negative. However, despite Chicago’s possession dominance, the Rangers actually wound up with more quality chances, really turning it up in the third period.
This wasn’t the best game the Rangers have ever played (I think the games against Detroit and Nashville were better), but it was certainly one of the top-five they’ve played this season.
On to the goal:
Rangers 1, Hawks 0
Brass last man back, no one picks him up.
Brassard started this in the defensive zone by showing patience, circling back, and finding Mats Zuccarello in the neutral zone to get the puck out of danger. Brassard was actually the last man back, so it was critical that this pass got through.
Three to Zucc, no one remembers about Brass.
At this point, Zucc showed tremendous patience, drawing three Hawks to him, including Jonathan Toews and Teuvo Teravainen. Zucc then hits Brassard with the cross-ice pass, and Brassard has a ton of room to maneuver.
Lots of room for Brass.
Brassard collects the pass, skates in, and beats Crawford short side. It was a perfect shot that was needed to beat a goalie that was perfect until that moment.
Fenwick/USAT Chart:
NYR got dominated in the possession game.
As mentioned above, the Rangers were dominated by the Hawks from a possession standpoint. Chicago took it to them in the second and third periods, running away to a 51-42 (55%) advantage by the time the game ended.
Scoring Chances:
Strong third period for NYR.
The Rangers had a very strong third period, getting a lot of quality chances that forced Crawford to stand on his head. That very steep spike around minute 51 coincides with the spike in USAT/Fenwick at the same time.
Individual Corsi/SAT:
Rough game for Klein.
Only Boyle finished as a net positive for the Rangers, and Kevin Klein had a particularly rough game. Funny note about the Hawks: Both of their big deadline pickups were in the negative last night. That’s probably just coincidence though.
Shot Locations:
Not many high quality chances for the Hawks here.
The Rangers did a decent job of limiting the Hawks’ scoring chances from in front. Most of their shot attempts came from the point, which is why they won the possession game but not the scoring chance game and the actual game.
Shift Chart:
Typical AV matchups here.
Alain Vigneault, in typical AV fashion, got Dan Girardi/Ryan McDonagh out against the Toews/Marian Hossa/Kris Versteeg line as much as possible. That’s par for the course for AV. Worth noting: Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller, and James Sheppard were glued to the bench for the final five minutes of regulation and overtime.
The Rangers have now gone 12-2-3 without Henrik Lundqvist, and have done so by picking each other up where there is slack. When the goaltending was shaky, the offense picked it up. Now that the offense is regressing to the mean SH%, the goaltending has been stellar. That’s what you want to see from a team: Different players picking it up when others are struggling.
The Rangers have picked up five of six points against Nashville, Detroit, and Chicago, three of the best teams in the NHL, and they did so without Lundqvist. You can’t really complain about that, and this team isn’t showing signs of slowing down.. The Rangers head to the Nassau Coliseum for a big time showdown against the Isles tomorrow night.
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