Rangers Recap: Happy New Year indeed!

The Rangers won a game! The Bruins gave it their all, but Jonathan Quick stood tall as the Rangers clung to a greasy 2-1 win. Quick stole the show, but the Rangers had some solid looks that Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman kept out, making this a borderline goalie duel. The Bruins had many Grade A chances, but between Quick and their season long inability to score consistently, the Rangers were able to hold on.

With Igor Shesterkin on IR, Quick stepped up and had a vintage Quick game. At nearly 39 years old, what he’s accomplished is truly the work of miracles by Benoit Allaire and Jeff Malcolm. With Igor’s earliest return late next week, Quick will have to carry the load for the next few games, possibly even playing both games in the back-to-back this weekend. Louis Domingue came up last year and played a great game against the Minnesota Wild, so he might be an option too.

The Rangers lineup is in a sort of limbo right now as the team is turning the roster over a bit to some of the youth in the system, and boy are they better for it. Brett Berard is a gem. Every time he’s on the ice, we get Mats Zuccarello feels. A small guy with an high motor, high hockey IQ, great shot, and doesn’t take anything from anyone, he’s got that Zucc mentality in him.

Berard scored the eventual game winner on a 2-on-1, choosing to shoot instead of deferring, showed a level of confidence that is sorely lacking on the Rangers right now. It’s tough to say what kind of NHL role is best going to fit Berard as he gets older, but there is no way he should ever touch AHL ice for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of the future, a lot has been said of Mika Zibanejad and his steep decline. However, he played a great game last night, hopefully the first of many. He crashed the net multiple times on rushes with Kreider and Smith, and got rewarded with the opening goal, snapping a 9 game goalless drought. This was probably the best game he has played all year. His future is uncertain, but last night was as good as it gets with Zibanejad.

January is set to be a busy month for the Rangers, and they started it off properly with a solid, if unspectacular, win against a playoff team. It wasn’t perfect, and at times it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win. Sometimes, you just need to see one in the win column to build something.