AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
The Rangers may have hit rock bottom on Saturday, but at least they rebounded last night against the first place Florida Panthers. The Rangers really controlled the first two periods before letting up a bit in the third with their 2-0 lead. They gave up one and made us all sweat, but held on for the 4-2 win.
The Blueshirts really controlled play in the first two periods, not only limiting shot attempts, but limiting high quality chances for the Panthers. It unraveled a little bit at the end of the second, but you can see how the Rangers really need to stop with that shell they play in the third period. It almost led to a tie game, if not for a disallowed goal for Steven Kampfer. The Rangers got lucky there.
But a win is a win, and this was a much better process win, something we need to see. If the thing we nitpick is the shell, then I’ll take it.
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:
Rangers 1, Panthers 0
Viktor Stalberg stole the puck at center ice, and started the give-and-go with Dominic Moore. Just a brilliant play by Stalberg.
Rangers 2, Panthers 0
A powerplay goal for the Rangers in a 1-3-a setup. Derick Brassard got the puck to Mats Zuccarello in the slot, who went bar-down while falling. What a shot.
Panthers 1, Rangers 2
The Rangers were in their shell again, and it burned them. Reilly Smith hit Vincent Trochek for the zone entry with speed. He dished to Jussi Jokinen and burned Keith Yandle to the net. Dan Girardi went over to Jokinen and couldn’t stop the pass. Trochek had an easy tip-in.
Rangers 3, Panthers 1
As the powerplay expired, Brian Campbell gave the puck away to Kevin Klein, who quickly moved it to Rick Nash. Nash beat Montoya for his first goal in a long time.
Panthers 2, Rangers 3
This was a bit of an odd powerplay goal given up. Dmitry Kulikov got the puck to the net from the point, and it was batted out of midair by Teddy Purcell. That changed the direction of the rebound, which meant Jiri Hudler was wide open for the rebound goal.
Rangers 4, Panthers 2
Tanner Glass gets the empty netter.
Shot Attempts
The Panthers made a run late in the second after the Rangers really controlled the majority of the play. The shell started in the third, and the Panthers really took off from there. But the Rangers woke up a bit, and hopefully that was the moment they realized they can’t shell.
Scoring Chances
This is just a clinic defensively from the Rangers through the first two periods. They allowed eight scoring chances in that span, and just one in the first period. Just a clinic. Then the third happened, but with the shell, that’s expected.
Individual Corsi
You know who had a good game? The fourth line. I know they get slack because “OMG GLASS”, but he had a strong game and got the empty netter. Good for him. Petrovic and Campbell had a rough game. More on that below.
Shot Locations
Much, much better.
Shift Chart
Alain Vigneault really wanted to get his top guys out against Petrovic and Campbell. For the most part he was successful too, as he got his top two lines out there often. What I find to be interesting is that despite that success, the top two lines weren’t overly dominating throughout. This is a major flaw of the individual game Corsi totals, as it doesn’t really balance out for bad shifts or shifts someone is pinned, but I still like looking at them.
This was a bit better process-wise from the Rangers. I’d still love to see them banish the shell, which they appeared to do after seven minutes into the third period. This is a strong win against a potential playoff team, so you take it and hope they can build on it.
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