rangers lightning jesper fast

The Rangers played with one of the Stanley Cup favorites last night, and outplayed them for the majority of the game. The Bolts came out firing in the first period, completely dominating the Blueshirts from puck drop to the first horn. After that, it was all Rangers. The Blueshirts have no quit in their game, coming back from 2-0 and 3-1 leads to tie the game in the second before playing a scoreless third and getting themselves a point.

The Blueshirts lost in overtime thanks to a pick play by Nikita Kucherov, giving Victor Hedman open space for the goal. But it was still a fun game to watch and a strong game by the Rangers.

Brendan Lemieux played well in his debut. He’s certainly a very strong skater with some agitator to his game. If he drives possession and offense while playing this way, it’s going to be a good situation for the Rangers. He doesn’t need to be a top-six guy if he can be a great bottom-six guy.

Bolts 1, Rangers 0

Neal Pionk took the initial shot in the midsection and was clearly shaken up. In the time it took him to recover, he lost Tyler Johnson, who was all alone in front to take the Nikita Kucherov pass and roof it. That was a little rough luck for Pionk, but it was also his turnover 30 seconds prior that allowed the Lightning to keep the zone.

Bolts 2, Rangers 0

Some more bad luck, as Vlad Namestnikov took a shot off the ankle and was struggling to keep up, thus left the PK in shambles for the shift. Kucherov’s shot/pass was partially stopped, and Pionk was unable to tie up JT Miller in front, who had the easy tap in.

Bolts 2, Rangers 1

This is nothing short of a phenomenal finish by Mika Zibanejad.

Bolts 3, Rangers 1

Steven Stamkos made a nice move to lose Chris Kreider at the blue line and take the puck deep on the powerplay. Dan Girardi, who was low, drifted back and away from Brady Skjei, opening a passing lane for Stamkos. Girardi finished.

Bolts 3, Rangers 2

Vesey took the bouncing puck around Victor Hedman and just lowered the shoulder to outmuscle the defenseman and take it around Andrei Vasilevsky for the goal.

Rangers 3, Bolts 3

The Bolts had all five guys below the dots, but none picked up Boo Nieves, who took the Ryan Strome pass and put it off Vasilevsky, of the post, off Vasilevsky’s skate, and then in.

Bolts 4, Rangers 3

That’s a blatant pick play by Kucherov, but he had just passed the puck so I’m guessing that’s why there was no call.

Shot Heatmap

The Rangers owned the Lightning in the 2nd and 3rd periods, but that 1st period was so bad it still gave the Bolts the possession edge for the game. However both teams generated a ton of shots from right in front. There was a lot of back and forth here. It’s worth noting that the Rangers actually had more legitimate scoring chances than Tampa.

The Rangers now enter a stretch where they play every other night for quite some time, basically until the end of the season. They have one back-to-back with two days off after in March, followed by a three day off stretch immediately after. Then it’s back to every other day until the last two games of the year, which are back-to-back. It’s the home stretch of the tank, folks. Remember it will only get worse before it gets better.

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