New York Rangers: About Last Night 10/20/14

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Man, what a great overall effort given by a team that had struggled in their previous four contests. The New York Rangers were looking to move on completely from their sluggish start and get back on track. I guess you could say that this game was a good place to start.

After a shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, the Rangers needed a follow up win to gain their confidence back. With a tough San Jose Sharks team coming to visit, they knew that they needed to be at their best, and they were.

Rick Nash is absolutely on fire. He has seven goals and eight points on the season, ranking number one and two in the league, respectively. This is the player that Rangers’ fans missed so much during the playoffs last year. He is driving the net and taking shots, which is what the Rangers brought him here to do. Last spring, he would not even think about driving to the middle. He would simply stay to the outside and take low percentage shots that had almost no chance of going in, and it showed his level of confidence was not very high. Now, with a fresh start to the season, you can see him playing with a lot of confidence. He is taking more shots and more chances at the net and, most importantly, scoring big goals. If he can keep this up, the Rangers will be a very tough team to deal with.

Henrik Lundqvist looks like his old self again. After an impressive 29 save effort against Carolina, he followed it up with an even better 33 save shutout against an even tougher Sharks team that had scored 20 goals through its first five games. Lundqvist is know for getting off to a slow start with the rest of the team, but now, it looks like he has shaken off the summer rust. During the first period, with San Jose on power play, Lundqvist made a few key stops (with a little help from Matt Hunwick) to keep the Sharks off the board. This certainly is a big step for Lundqvist, as looks to work his way back to Vezina-level form. However, if he keeps this play up, he may already be there.

Oh yeah, and some congratulations are in order! Rookie Kevin Hayes scored his first NHL goal in the third period to give the Rangers a commanding 4-0 lead. There is no better place to score your first NHL goal than in Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous arena. With that being said, Hayes could have gotten his goal sooner in this game. In the second period, Hayes made a great rush up the ice and pulled the puck back to avoid a poke check. Instead of letting the shot go, he double pumped, waited, and his shot was deflected into goaltender Alex Stalock. He ended up making up for it, but that’s the kind of indecision that the coaching staff does not like. In his defense, he is a young kid and it will take some time for him to fully understand the game at this level. However, while he is still centering Rick Nash and Chris Kreider on the first line, I don’t think that will take too long.