New York Rangers Aren’t Singing the Blues Tonight

The New York Rangers win again to make it seven.

First Period: The first proved to be why these two teams both came off shut-outs in their last games. In their first match up this season and with their stats mirroring the New York Rangers, the St. Louis Blues were out for a win. This was bound to be a good game.

The Rangers opened the scoring with a ridiculous pass from Rick Nash to Mats Zuccarello who popped it up to Derick Brassard in front of the net. Blues goalie, Jake Allen, had no idea where the puck was when Brass delivered the puck to the back of the net.

Mats Zuccarello scored a beauty of a second goal in the short span of two minutes and 18 seconds. I think it’s safe to say Zucc is a key player on the line he has been on.

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Next up was Kevin Hayes with a five-hole goal off a pass from Viktor Stalberg and Oscar Lindberg. Blues’ Allen was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots. He was replaced by backup goal tender, Brian Elliot.

The St. Louis Blues finally got one on the board off a mistake from Henrik Lundqvist as he was having trouble handling the puck. After that goal, Henrik appeared rattled nearly missing a couple shots that could have easily tied up the game. Glad to see the end of the period before any more mistakes were made.

Second Period: This was the Blues’ chance to tie it up as they scored their second goal off a pass from Lundqvist. Coming far out of the net to pass it to a fellow blue-shirt it was quickly turned over and converted into a Blues goal. Twice during the period, Lundqvist played the puck which turned over to a Blues scoring chance.

Then a long distance goal by J.T. Miller put the Rangers up 4-2 and gave us this beautiful insight to the relationship between a player and his stick.

JT

The first penalty of the game was called against the New York Rangers at 12:30 of the second. This allowed the Blues to score again closing the gap by one goal.

Third Period: The period begins and shortly after the Rangers get their first power play of the game. Which provides captain Ryan McDonagh the perfect opportunity to score. Rangers are once again up by two at this point.

Not long after, they get another power play opportunity but didn’t have the same luck.

The Blues pull their goalie for an extra attacker but it didn’t prove to give them control of the puck like they expected. The New York Rangers had a couple of scoring opportunities when finally it happened. An empty net goal for Dan Girardi gave the Rangers a 6-3 lead with less than two minutes to go in the game, sealing the win for the night.

Three Stars Of The Game

First Star: Mats Zuccarello

Second Star: Derek Stepan

Third Star: Rick Nash

Overall it was a great game. A few mistakes caused the Blues to keep the game close but fortunately that didn’t keep the New York Rangers from winning. The boys in blue are clearly at the top of their game right now. Winning nine out of the last ten games. Seven of those being home games. Let’s keep the winning streak going Rangers!