Rangers get a feel-good 6-2 win over the Stars

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Dave has the night off from doing game recaps cause he’s sick, so tonight is a gif-free, points-only night. There were lots of goals and, thankfully, most of them were scored by the home team.

Before we start, I wanted to throw something out there about the Stars’ goalies. To put it as concisely as possible, they’re not good. We spoil ourselves with great goaltending every night, so much so that when our defense lets us down and hangs Hank out to dry, we get angry at him. It’s abnormal. The Stars’ “number one” is Antti Niemi, who took the job from the sieve known as Kari Lehtonen. I personally despise Lehtonen since I failed to drop him last year, but that’s neither here nor there.

Either way, the Stars let in 245 goals last year, with Lehtonen (last year’s #1) posting a save percentage of .903. This year, Lehtonen is posting a .906 and Niemi is slightly better at .913, all with improved defense.

On to the bullets…

• Derek Stepan showed signs of life. I know he is coming back from a bad injury, and I know that I (and several of us fans) can be very critical in general, but you need production from what is lauded as your first line center.
• Stepan had his first point since returning with his goal in the first period. He showed everything that you want to see from the player we know: great vision, great playmaking, and finally taking a shot, something that I wish more players on our team would do.
• One last point on Stepan… he had the teams first short handed goal of the year in the third. What’s better than a shortie?
• On that first goal, Hartford rental Jayson Megna had a great look to get the puck to Rick Nash, whose rebound was ultimately put in the back of the net by Stepan.
• Is this what the Rangers needed the whole time? Perspective from a fresh pair of skates? Megna and Nash were able to feed off of each other on a goal in the third, with some slick passes that, despite not being tape to tape, still wound up effective.
• The Rangers absolutely dominated the first period, not allowing a shot on Lundqvist until 11:41 into the game. The Stars were playing their 7th game in 11 days, so surely their fatigue could be a factor, but it’s really encouraging to see the Rangers play so well against the Western-leading Stars.
• On the Stars.. Jason Demers shoved Derek Stepan into the crossbar aggressively away from the play. It gets gritty in front of the net, and frustration mounts when your team is being dominated, but that’s the type of play that should be penalized 10 times out of 10.
• Also about the Stars — is it just me, or does Johnny Oduya’s beard look sharpie’d on?
• Last point about the Stars in general: Jason Spezza still has the softest hands around. He came through the neutral zone, carrying the puck with three Rangers on him, and still was able to get a scoring play off to John Klingberg. He’s so effortlessly skilled and beautiful to watch.
• The most encouraging sign tonight was Keith Yandle’s goal to go back ahead 18 seconds after Klingberg tied it at 1 in the first. That kind of response was severely lacking in this recent slump.
• Derick Brassard has to stop taking offensive zone penalties. I get that he misses Benoit Pouliot, but he just can’t do it anymore. Someone have a talk with him.
• And, in closing, the Jets were there tonight to cheer on the Rangers….

Nicky!

Or were they there to taunt the Stars? Either way, it was a delightful night overall.

The Rangers are off until Saturday, when they host the league-leading Capitals at 1pm.