Rangers drop Kings to snap losing streak

The Rangers are currently sitting pretty in a wild card spot, and it’s thanks to the fact that, despite their unfortunate loss to Ottawa the other night (and a real clunker against Dallas, although I’m inclined to write that off as “those happen sometimes”) they keep picking up points where they need them, sometimes against teams they should lose to like the Kings. It was sweet revenge indeed against a team that still leaves a bitter taste in all of our mouths after what happened in 2014.

The Pacific-leading Kings had Marian Gaborik on something of a hot streak with a goal and an assist (insofar as that’s a hot streak – remember that this was a low scoring game), but the Rangers were able to put the Kings away late in the third period with a beauty of a goal from Rick Nash, who is now the all-time leader in game winners for the Rangers (but remember folks, he’s not clutch). Some quick thoughts on the game:

• All of the goals this game were exceptional in their own way. The first one, a Chris Kreider tip-in off a Kevin Shattenkirk shot from the blueline might strike you as relatively average, but here’s why I appreciate it: Shatty gets the shot through almost 9 times out of 10. I’m not even sure how much work Kreider did (not to discount his effort screening the goalie and tying up the Kings in front of the net to create as much chaos as possible) given that it just kind of hit his leg – it was mostly that sick wrister we’re seeing more and more often from Shattenkirk that did the trick. The next two goals I don’t really have to get into, because they speak for themselves in terms of their quality, butI will say this, on Hayes’ goal in particular the Rangers executed a near perfect breakout, and it shows what kind of damage they can do when they’re showing good process. If we begin to see more of that then, Corsi be damned (we’ll get to that in a moment) then the Rangers are going to, at the very least, be very fun to watch.
• To dig into the numbers a little bit I’ve posted two charts below, both all situations (so taking PP chances into consideration) and both via corsica.hockey. The first one is the cumulative shot attempts (Corsi) from the game, which demonstrates that the Rangers, despite a few outbursts, were consistently behind all game. The latter chart however shows how to Just Win Baby – not only did the Rangers get their fair share of the scoring chances throughout the game, but they also totally stifled the Kings from about halfway through the first to halfway through the second. Given how often the Rangers do it themselves, it’s nice to see another team flatline once in a while. This was a game of quality over quantity, and although there’s a lot of evidence and experience to demonstrates that’s not exactly sustainable in the long run, it certainly is exciting to watch.

• One thing I want to highlight, although I’m sure you all noticed because he made you yell at your TV about three times in 30 seconds, is just how good Brady Skjei is looking on the powerplay. It’s not just the scoring chances, although of course those are welcome, it’s more than that. He’s skating confidently, finding open space and making decisive movements to use that space and force defenders into reactionary positioning. He’s distributing the puck excellently, knowing just when the passing lane is open and when it’s closing, and the right reads are crucial on the man advantage. It could be a serious boost to what’s historically been a woeful part of the Rangers’ game – if the Rangers have a stud defenseman quarterbacking the PP in Kevin Shattenkirk on unit one, and then another stud defenseman working PP unit two, opposing teams are going to have a hard time defending, especially when noted triggerman Mika Zibanejad comes back to replace David Desharnais; we’ll have two effective powerplay units capable of lifting the Rangers up in crucial situations.
• If you had to guess, who were the top Rangers last night in terms of scoring chances? Well two out of the four (five overall is Kyle Clifford of the LA Kings) are pretty obvious – Chris Kreider leads the game in xGF% with a monster 84.85 and Kevin Shattenkirk comes in at fourth with another dominant performance of 67.22, but it’s the meat in the sandwich that interests me. I’m going to be honest, I’m not particular high on these two players, and for one of them that’s probably a common opinion but for the other it might be a little bit contrarian. Nick Holden was the second best player of the game with an xGF% of 70.68 and JT Miller was just behind him at 70.09. I’m happy to eat crow on this one – Nick Holden is more than capable of having great games and Miller, despite my wish that he would either pick one between being a power forward or a playmaker, is one of the Rangers’ best forwards. It just goes to show that even when your eyes give you that gut reaction of distaste for a player’s game sometimes you’re just wrong. It’s not so hard to admit of course when you’re wrong about them being good, because those are happy problems to have, but that’s a story for another day.
• Not to completely inundate you all with stats, but Ryan McDonagh had a pretty nice game as well I think, despite playing to a pretty lousy 41.18 CF%. He had a 56.75 xGF%, demonstrating that even though he was on ice for more shots against than shots for, they weren’t particularly good shots against, to the point where he actually was a net positive in favor of the Rangers as far as shot quality goes. On a more qualitative level he had a perfect outlet pass to start the rush that finished in the back of the net courtesy of Kevin Hayes, and he made some nice defensive reads in some tough situations. It’s a nice return to form for the Captain, and if he can elevate his game even further from here (and maybe even find himself on a pairing with Kevin Shattenkirk, although that’s wishful thinking) we’re going to see some great hockey from a great player.

So that’s all of the facts I have folks – it was an nice win typically of the Rangers’ style in terms of quality over quantity. This may not be sustainable over the course of many games, and probably not over the course of a drawn out playoff series, but the Rangers are picking up points where they can and making them count.

If nothing more, it’s damn exciting to see players like Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash embarrass allegedly elite goaltenders like Jonathan Quick (did you notice he got caught looking on Nash’s goal, barely catching it whizz by him?). Despite the discrepancy in rings, I’ll always love beating the Kings.