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The Rangers are back to their winning ways. After winning in Ottawa over the weekend, the Rangers beat the Avalanche and Lightning at home over the last three nights to increase their lead in the Met.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.
1. Through the first 37 games of the season, the Rangers were 26-10-1 and had been atop of the Met since opening night. Their outstanding play through 45 percent of the season had made it so they could play below-.500 hockey for the remainder of the year and still reach the postseason.
They decided to test that theory in the New Year, losing four straight to Montreal, Vancouver, St. Louis and Washington in the opening weeks of January. After back-to-back wins over Washington and Seattle to momentarily right things, they went to the West Coast and put together the absolute opposite performance from their early-season West Coast/Western Canada 5-0 road trip, this time losing four of five. They returned home and avenged their 5-1 loss in Las Vegas by losing at home to the same Golden Knights 5-2. The Rangers had lost 10 of their last 15 and were embarrassed twice in eight days by the reigning champion Golden Knights.
2. For the last six weeks, the Rangers’ contender status has been called into question, and at times, rightfully so. But it was impossible to believe the team that won 18 of its first 23 games was going to continue to win 78 percent of its games over the entire season. The Rangers’ success over the first three months of the season essentially guaranteed them a postseason berth, and the remaining three-plus months would be about getting and hopefully remaining healthy for the postseason.
3. The Rangers last six weeks wasn’t a decline, just part of the normal ebbs and flows of the 82-game season. Even if the Rangers did win 78 percent of the games for the entire season, none of it would matter once the playoffs started. Just like it won’t matter if they win the Met, finish as a 2- or 3-seed or fall to a wild-card berth. The entirety of the 2023-24 season will be evaluated on what happens from Game 83 on.
4. Because of that, the lull of the NHL regular season has set in for teams like the Rangers that know they are going to the playoffs and will spend the remaining third of the season preparing for such. A big part of that preparation will be getting Igor Shesterkin back to playing at the best of his abilities, or like Jonathan Quick called him on Wednesday night, “the best in the world.”
Shesterkin found himself on the bench for the third straight game on Wednesday, and he belonged there, whether it was an organizational plan or not. His recent play warranted him being on the bench. Peter Laviolette recently said, “Shesty is our guy,” but this season Quick has been the guy.
After picking up the win in Ottawa on Saturday, holding the Avalanche to a lone Nathan MacKinnon goal on Monday and then shutting down the Lightning on Wednesday, Quick improved to 14-4-2 on the season.
“When we need him to make a big save, he’s made them,” Jacob Trouba said. “I think everyone here kind of rallies around what he’s doing for us right now.”
5. The last couple of seasons the Rangers needed Vezina-esque goaltending on a nightly basis to have a chance, the same way they needed it for the entire Henrik Lundqivst era. Like Lundqvist for 15 years, if Shesterkin didn’t carry the Rangers to a win, they weren’t going to win. That hasn’t been the case this season with Quick turning back the clock.
“We’re fortunate to have a guy like Jonathan in the stable,” Laviolette said.
“He’s been a rock for us all season,” Jimmy Vesey said. “He just battles and competes and has some swagger in net.”
6. It was Vesey’s two goals (one an empty-netter) that gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead over the Lightning and put Wednesday’s game out of reach in the final minute. But on a night when all of the Rangers’ scoring came from the bottom-six (Brodzinski had the Rangers’ second goal) and Quick was on his game, the first-year Ranger acted as though the result was expected.
“You take what comes and you try to make one save after another,” Quick said. “When we play like we did, it gives us a good chance to win every night.”
7. The Rangers have been winning every night once again. The day after getting embarrassed by Vegas, the Rangers went to Ottawa and found themselves in a 2-0 before scoring seven unanswered goals for a 7-2 win. On Monday night, trailing the Avalanche 1-0 at the Garden late in the third period, Artemi Panarin tied the game and Alexis Lafreniere won it in overtime. Quick was in net for all three wins.
“He’s given us really quality games,” Laviolette said. “Every day he comes to the rink, he’s ready to play. You’re appreciative of everything he does.”
8. The win over the Avalanche was especially encouraging. The Avalanche have beaten the Rangers handily in recent seasons, and the game served as a strong litmus test for the Rangers against the second-best team in the West (points-wise).
“That was a big win against a really good team,” Lafreniere said. “We wanted to play better defense, and I think we did a really good job.”
9. The Rangers have made a habit of blowing multi-goal leads and allowing multiple goals minutes apart this season. Those horrible trends have come to a halt on the three-game winning streak, and holding the Lightning and Avalanche to two goals total in two games is a sign that maybe the Rangers’ team defense has turned a corner.
“We’ve gone over a lot of things on the defensive side,” Vesey said. “We’ve done a good job with two games we can build on.”
10. The Rangers are undefeated in 15 home games when their opponent scores three or fewer goals. Despite their recent “slump” they remain atop the Met, where they have been all season.
Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey!
Rangers Thoughts Presented by Vintage Ice Hockey: Early-Season Success Returns added by Neil Keefe on
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