Rangers hang on for dear life, squeak by Leafs

Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images

The Rangers landed in Toronto at 3am after Wednesday’s loss to Chicago, meaning the team was exhausted heading into last night’s game. It showed on the ice, as the Leafs were all over a very sluggish Rangers club all night. Antti Raanta was the difference maker, as he stood tall all night. He made several great stops throughout the game. The heroics came from J.T. Miller, who had three assists, including being the primary catalyst for the second and third goals.

The Rangers came away with the win after some third period dramatics, but the story of the game will be the Leo Komarov hit on Ryan McDonagh (gifs here). This was a clear headshot with intent to injure, and McDonagh –who just returned from a concussion suffered at the hands of Wayne Simmonds– did not return to the game for “precautionary reasons.” Knowing the NHL, he will get a slap on the wrist.

As always, you can view the full videos on our video page here. All GIFs are on nyrgifs.com, filtered under the date of the game. On to the goals:

Leafs 1, Rangers 0

This is just some bad luck. Martin Marincin took an innocent wrist shot from the point that deflected off Dan Girardi’s elbow, right to P.A. Parenteau for the goal. Not much that can be done here. This was reviewed for a kicking motion, and they said it was a goal.

Rangers 1, Leafs 1

The Rangers capitalized on the 5-on-3, with Keith Yandle faking a wrist shot to freeze the PK and Jonathan Bernier, before dishing across to Derick Brassard. Brass ripped a one-timer and beat Bernier clean.

Rangers 2, Leafs 1

J.T. Miller did it again. He forced the turnover at the blue line, collected the puck, then fired a perfect backhand to Brassard in the slot. Bernier made a great save on Brassard, but Mats Zuccarello was there for the rebound. It looked like Bernier got this too, but the puck was over the line when Bernier kicked it out.

Leafs 2, Rangers 2

Mike Babcock pulled Bernier with 2:30 left in the game, and it paid off. Raanta made a great save on the initial attempt, but it forced him out of position. The Leafs swarmed, and eventually the puck got over the goal line with some help from Colin Greening.

Rangers 3, Leafs 2

Miller forced Morgan Reilly into a turnover at the goal line, and then made a beautiful backhand pass to Zucc. Zucc got it to Derek Stepan, who fired it into the empty net.

Rangers 4, Leafs 2

Brass empty netter.

Shot Attempts

Yikes. This is not good. The Leafs should not be a team that controls the play like this.

Scoring Chances

See above, not the best showing for the Rangers.

Individual Corsi

A full team effort of yuck.

Shot Locations

Raanta stood tall. That’s a lot of s’s in close.

Shift Chart

The fourth line usage is peculiar. They didn’t play much, at least Glass and Paille didn’t, throughout the game. They got shifts right after a bunch of Leafs powerplays, which again is peculiar, and then they got two shifts at the end of the game to defend the lead. I just don’t get it.

The Rangers managed a win, getting two much needed points. It wasn’t pretty, and it appears to be an outlier from their recent play. Of course, that means they will need to play better on Sunday when they take the ice again. Sometimes, fatigue happens though. Hopefully that’s all it was.