Henrik Lundqvist. Period. That’s all there is to this game. His sixth shutout of the season. His sub 2.00 GAA. His absurd save percentage. The chant at the end of the game was not “HEN-RIK” it was “MVP”. And he may get it. And the Vezina. Without him, the Rangers are nowhere near 86 points. Let’s get to those bullets:

First Period:

  • The refs appeared to be letting a lot go, or just missing calls. There were a lot of blown holding/hooking/interference calls on both ends.
  • Michael Del Zotto made a great play to keep the puck out of the Rangers net. After an odd bounce off Stralman, a Patrick Elias shot hit the crossbar, and MDZ swiped it in mid air out of the zone.
  • Right after that crossbar/MDZ save, the Rangers hit a post. First time in a while I’ve seen both teams hit the post on consecutive shots.
  • Carl Hagelin breaks the Devils trap single-handedly. Speed kills.
  • Short, quick passes break the trap too. The Rangers did that very well as well.
  • Another thing that breaks the trap: dump and chase. That is, it generally does when Martin Brodeur can’t handle the puck, or when the defense stops setting picks on the Rangers.
  • A product of the trap: eight total shots on goal in the first, four by each team.
  • How about that class act Eric Boulton? Picking a fight with Marian Gaborik after the Hagelin goal. Real tough guy there.
  • Speaking of that Hagelin goal, what a beaut. Stuffed it short side and caught Marty off the post after some great pressure and forechecking by everyone on the ice.

Second Period:

  • Henrik Lundqvist made a fantastic save on Adam Henrique (I think it was Henrique). Just so calm in net and moves side to side so fluidly. The only person that can unseat Hank from the Hart is Evgeny Malkin.
  • When Anton Volchenkov laid on the puck in the crease, it wasn’t a penalty. The rule states that a hand must cover the puck for a penalty shot. His hand never touched the puck.
  • Funny chain of events that led to the David Clarkson misconduct penalty. Clarkson harassed Brandon Dubinsky because Dubi was harassing Ilya Kovalchuk because Boulton was harassing Gaborik earlier.
  • The powerplay that came from the Dainius Zubrus was a good powerplay, even if it didn’t result in a goal. There were solid opportunities and the puck was moving well.
  • Brandon Prust didn’t want to fight Boulton. But yet Boulton decided to throw punches before Prust could even drop his second glove and his stick. Real class act there.
  • The game was starting to get ugly before this, but the refs made an odd call to take both Clarkson and Mike Rupp off the ice on the ensuing face off.
  • And then as soon as Clarkson is out of the box, he drops the gloves with Dubi after pulling a classless move by leaving his feet to hit Dubi. For those keeping track, that’s 19 PIMs for Clarkson through two.
  • Ryan McDonagh had another amazing game, but that was one epic turnover to Patrick Elias. Then that was another epic turnover two seconds later by Elias. Nice pass.

Third Period:

  • As good as that first powerplay was, was as bad as that second powerplay was. Ouch.
  • What an effort by Gaborik on that steal, spin o rama and attempted pass. Great effort. Trade him.
  • Brodeur flops more than a NBA center, doesn’t he?
  • Kovalchuk, meet McDonagh. Kovalchuk, meet boards.
  • Man, the Devils just don’t like to play in the third period. They were trying and they still barely managed shots on net. Their only legitimate chance was a Henrique shot that went high.
  • Kovalchuk, meet Lundqvist’s glove.
  • Hagelin is a beast. The only thing that could have slowed him down was blocking a shot with his ankle. It didn’t. Great effort to get past the Marek Zidlicky hook, get the puck to Ryan Callahan, with the easy tap in goal to the empty net.
  • Another game, another Henrik Lundqvist shutout. Ho hum.

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