Boo Nieves had three assists and Pavel Buchnevich had a pair of goals in the Rangers big win over the Arizona Coyotes last night. It seems odd to call a win in October over a winless team a “big” win, but the Rangers desperately needed points, and they got them. It was against the Yotes, so it’s not exactly a turnaround game, but it’s a start.

The Rangers didn’t play down to their competition. That’s perhaps the big thing. Having 12F/6D instead of whatever Alain Vigneault was doing before also helped. They weren’t perfect. But I was optimistic after the win against Nashville. Maybe I should be optimistic after this one. Maybe. Just maybe. They figured stuff out.

On to the goals:

Rangers 1, Yotes 0

Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad team up to force Derek Stepan into the turnover in the neutral zone. Zibanejad got it to Mats Zuccarello, who made a great pass to Kreider for the easy finish.

Rangers 2, Yotes 0

This is a shot a goalie needs to stop. But it’s Pavel Buchnevich, so yay!

Rangers 2, Yotes 1

Bad giveaway by Kevin Shattenkirk, Leads to a pair of Royal Road passes, with Anthony Duclair finishing. Just not a good look by Shatty there.

Rangers 3, Yotes 1

Boo Nieves fought off a pair of defenders and then one-handed a backhand pass to Michael Grabner alone in front. Grabner deked around Hill for the goal.

Rangers 4, Yotes 1

Nieves got his third assist on this goal. What a debut. Hill misplayed the puck badly, and gave the puck to Nieves. Nieves to Buch, who missed wide, but got his own rebound and tucked it in.

Rangers 4, Yotes 2

Clayton Keller sure is good. On the powerplay, Keller tried a cross ice pass that Nick Holden blocked (good play, by the way), but it went right back to Keller as Ondrej Pavelec was moving for the pass. Keller put the puck in the empty net.

Rangesr 5, Yotes 2

Grabner empty netter.

Score Adjusted Corsi

The Rangers throughly controlled this game. It’s nice to see good process, but remember it’s the winless Coyotes. Grain of salt. But something to build on.

Scoring Chances (not score adjusted)

Making a stipulation here that these scoring chance charts are not score adjusted. Again the Rangers controlled, but not as much. They really clamped down defensively on quality chances after the first period.

Shift Chart

Here’s the shift chart. Nothing crazy to point out here. Weird to see normal shifts after what felt like a lifetime of 11F/7D deployments. It’s kind of refreshing.

The Rangers got a much needed two points last night, but it was against a Coyotes team that is on pace for 8 points this season. Perhaps this is something they can build on. It was good process and good results. The Rangers need another two points over the weekend to stay relevant. Build on it. I’m optimistic.

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