15-10-5
What a difference a week and a ton of panicking can do. Four wins in a row: Blues, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and the Devils last night. That is legit competition right there. The game against Vegas was the best, a sound 5-1 clobbering. The others were closer games and were much more trying.
The Devils game was a rivalry match for the ages. Before this season the Rangers had beaten the Devils 9 out of 10 games. They’ve been terrible for a while. Last year they were good but injuries plagued them the entire season. In the first go this season the Devils won after the Rangers gave up an early 2 goal lead. This time, the Rangers did the same to the Devils and won in overtime. There’s been a rivalry between these two teams for ages but the competition level hasn’t been there so the big targets were moved to the Penguins, Capitals, and the Islanders.
The drive to win has been reinjected into the team. The lines have been shifted-even midgame to try to fix match-ups and effort-and it seems to be working. Gallant is making better choices and giving more players opportunities Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil have all scored. Braden Schneider is making tremendous strides, he’s coming up like K’Andre Miller has been. Scoring depth has been a problem and that’s improved this week.
Goodrow is playing with Panarin and Zibanejad, Trocheck with Chytil, Vesey with Kreider. These new pairings with the “kids” getting more time together and a part is diversifying the lines and making it much harder for teams to counter. I think predictability (and terrible aim) has been a problem.
The Power Play and Penalty Kill units are working again and that’s an integral part to winning. All of these good things need to keep improving. This is probably the most hopeful the fan base has been all season. Toronto is next on Thursday and that’s another big test. Besting Vegas, St Louis, and New Jersey gives a lot of confidence going up against another top team. That confidence was at an all time low during the losing streak and having this momentum should help a lot.
The big problem remains turnovers. Trouba in particular stands out for this. Panarin has been getting better but the dumb high risk cross ice passes at the worst times are still confounding to watch time and time again. More diciplin on this is needed.
After Toronto, it’s Philly and Chicago on the weekend. Those are easy games, but only if the Rangers don’t fall into their lackadaisical trap. They have to show up for every 60 minutes. All of these points are adding up and making a difference. Losing to the bottom teams has to stop in order to make the playoffs. The remainder of the week is very important.