10-4-3

A solid four-win streak that ended with a 2-1 loss to Toronto.

A few days off from the beating Calgary dished out worked well. Talking and working on the issues that are a problem made the team play more like a team. There was a tangible difference from game to game. Much better vision on the ice, fewer high risk plays for no benefit, more shots on goal. Face-off wins even went up. Points were scored and dished out over more players. Kappo Kakko now has two goals and an assist, Hunt and Gautier have their first goals. Chytil is back on the ice and is playing well. Blais suffered a season-ending ACL tear, which damages the depth of the team exposing the need for a really good RW even more (the bungling of Vitali Kravtsov looks even worse now).

Toronto was a big test and it was a good game. Toronto was just the better team for more minutes. The Rangers had a bad first period, picked it up in the 2nd, and had a really strong 3rd. Toronto is currently a tough nut to crack, one of the highest face-off percentages and top special teams. Both proved to be advantages in Thursday’s game.

In the NHL you can’t play well for 20-30 minutes. You have to show up for all 60 and avoid penalties. Buffalo is next and that is an expected Rangers win. It’ll be a disaster if they don’t and they can’t take Buffalo’s bad record for granted, they’ve upset a few teams this season and are ready to pounce on any team that doesn’t show up at puck drop.

The nagging problem at RW is going to be an issue likely until a trade is made. Or maybe change the first line, switching Kreider to RW and pulling Lafrenière up to LW and Goodrow to the second line. It was tried for a little while but I don’t think the amount of time given in this experiment was reasonable as Laffy could simply need more time to be able to take off. With his talent, it feels like he should be given that space and confidence to progress. It could make a huge difference.