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AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

The Rangers managed to sneak away on Super Bowl Sunday with a win against the lowly Flames, but they made us sweat. Strong first and third periods sandwiched a poor second. A strong offensive performance was overshadowed by poor defense again. No gifs for this game, but bullet points are fun too!

  • I missed the first period, but I saw the replays of the goals. The Rangers have this habit of getting in front of shots from the point that they should be avoiding, and not trying to block. Nick Holden was victimized on this one. He tried to get out of the way, but it still hit his hip and went by Hank.
  • That said, Hank goofed on handling the puck before the shot by Dougie Hamilton. He tried to make a play and failed. Aside from that though, he was solid.
  • Rick Nash cleaned up the garbage in front for his goal. He’s been a man on a mission this season. His contract is always going to be a polarizing topic of conversation, but he’s been great this season.

  • That second period was sloppy by both teams. Yeesh. The Rangers were bleeding shots to Calgary, definitely not a good thing.
  • Nash made a helluva a deflection as the clock expired in the second. It was clear that the clock expired, thus no goal. But wow what a deflection.
  • What a pass by Brady Skjei to set up the Michael Grabner goal. Wow. Also, if I told you in August that Grabner would have 23 goals in the beginning of February, you would have laughed at me. But here we are.
  • But then Skjei turned it over at the blue line, which led to the Troy Brouwer goal. That was a little lucky, as Johnny Gaudreau’s shot got deflected right to Brouwer’s stick. Hank stood no shot.
  • Didn’t expect Pavel Buchnevich to drop the gloves, but he did. And he drew a game misconduct on Kris Versteeg because his jersey wasn’t tied down. That’s a first. Never actually seen that before. I’ve seen the jersey not tied down, but never actually seen the penalty enforced.
  • What a shot by Chris Kreider. Wow. He used Dennis Wideman as a screen and just roofed it. Perfect.
  • On that play – that’s the exact reason why I don’t want the Rangers to target a guy like Wideman. Watching him back skate was cringe worthy. Minimal lateral movement. He’s another Klein/Girardi that will get burned by anyone with speed.
  • Jesper Fast’s goal was a thing of beauty. J.T. Miller in on the forecheck, Grabner got a little tip on net, then Miller collected the loose puck and fed Fast in front. Beautiful.
  • The Mikael Backlund goal was all on Dan Girardi. That was a terrible giveaway. Yikes.

The offense continues to carry the Rangers, while the defense continues to try to sabotage the team (I jest). But this game is another in a long list of games that show us the team will only go as far as the offense carries them.

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