A brief look into last night’s win

Credit: AP / Mark J. Terrill

The Rangers beat the Kings 3-0 last night, in a game that I did not watch. West coast games are rough. So I asked people who did watch, and basically came up with one overall summary. The Rangers started slow, but looked good in the first. Antti Raanta bailed them out in the second. Then they sat back on a lead in the third. Basically par for the course for the Rangers.

I’m not going to analyze a game that I didn’t watch. It’s unfair to me and to you. So instead I’m taking a different approach. I’m going to use last night’s individual game score to try to predict who is coming out of the lineup for Kevin Klein tonight.

https://twitter.com/TomUrtzJr/status/846005663243341825

Well clearly Raanta is sitting. After all, Henrik Lundqvist is back. Typical Alain Vigneault though, swapping out the best player from the previous win. Such a classic AV move.

Of all the defensemen, Brendan Smith appeared to have the strongest game on the third pair with Brady Skjei. Not surprising. Smith is a solid if unspectacular defenseman, and Skjei is pretty good himself.

But sticking with what we know about AV and his tendency to swap out the best player from the previous win, it means Smith is going to sit. He was on his off-side anyway, so may as well get a right handed shot in there. Flawless logic.

In all seriousness though, I’m guessing AV starts resting some of his defensemen with Klein back. I’d honestly sit Ryan McDonagh for a few games. He could probably use a game off here and there before the playoffs. Nick Holden and Marc Staal likely get games off too.

Regarding game score, I’d be worried about Girardi. By all accounts, him and McDonagh had a rough game. I’m not panicking yet. I will only panic for Game One if the pairs, despite relative ineffectiveness, remain the same. Until then, as Justin said, just sit and watch with no stress.