Alright folks. This was a wild one, but the Rangers “found a way to get it done,” so this Suit is pleased. But you guys know where I stand on the Rangers play as of late, so we thought we’d let one of our readers take this one.

Tonight’s recap comes from Justin (aka Keeps in the comments), who had a great post this weekend on advanced goalie stats. Here’s what Justin had to say.

Positives:

·      The power play: this one is going to go under both the positive and negatives.  On the positive side, the two PP goals were key tonight, and they were both results of hard work and getting the puck to the front of the net.  Cally was particularly effective in his role down low yet again.

·      The Rangers did a nice job tonight of getting the puck deep and using the wall to create chances.  Carl Hagelin was especially explosive getting to the front of the net off his work from behind the net.

·      The Rangers have had quite a few games this season where they have had difficulty penetrating the middle of the ice.  They did a much better job tonight with all 4 goals coming from high priced real estate either in the slot or in front of the net.

·      While it was a completely different defensive game than the airtight affair against the Flyers, overall the defense continued to play well.  McDonaugh continues to blossom and kept Crosby under control for the most part all night.  The D seemed a little more passive tonight, focusing on the passing lanes and keeping guys to the outside rather than the intense pressure they used on the Flyers.

·      Stepan continues to show unbelievable patience with the puck.  Gaborik is going to be a happy camper when he looks at his numbers at the end of the year.
·      Hank was his usual brilliant self.  Only 24 saves tonight, but a couple were absolute beauties.

Negatives:

·      Del Zotto had another Jekyll and Hyde kind of game.  At the beginning of the night I was praising him for making the short, simple breakout passes and avoiding the homerun passes that have burned him in the past.  As the game wore on, I noticed him making more and more mistakes.  He did make a nice play throwing the puck off the glass on Mitchell’s goal though.

·      The 5-on-3 was atrocious.  The Rangers continued to pass the puck around the perimeter and did not feel compelled to shoot the puck at all.  They also tried the thread-the-needle lateral pass that was clearly not there.  I know they won’t believe me, but it’s fine to take shots from the point/high slot on a 5-on-3 and hope for a screen/deflection/rebound.

·      Probably a little nit-picky, but Girardi got a little too cute on the Pen’s third goal.  He should be clearing that out off the boards, not trying to settle it down to make a play.

·      The officiating obviously got a little frustrating at times, but ultimately it evened out, and I didn’t think it handicapped the Rangers too much anyway.

Random thoughts:

·      I know this game is a probably a bad example to cite, but I disagree with the Suit on Marc-Andre Fleury.  The guy is one of the best movement goalies in the NHL and I thought this game could have been quite the blow-out had he not come up with some of the saves he did tonight.  Obviously 4 goals in not ideal, but I didn’t think any of them were soft and he made an insane save on Gabby before he buried the power play tally.

·      Oh and I am jealous of all of you who got to watch the game on MSG and didn’t have to suffer through the Versus crew for this one.

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