Up: Puck Luck
Puck luck is part of hockey but it is hard to quantify. Players talk about it frequently in interviews. The majority of the time it’s talked about is after a loss. You hear the same cliche responses in “getting pucks in deep” and about “not getting lucky bounces.” Henrik Lundqvist isn’t the only thing keeping the Rangers in games, they have had an incredible amount of luck this week.
Granted, the Rangers have not had the best of opponents this week. They played the Buffalo Sabres on Monday who currently is 30th overall in the league standings and the Chicago Blackhawks who are in last place in their division. However, during the Winter Classic, the Rangers came up as the luckiest team. The Sabres had many high-quality chances, yet couldn’t put the puck in the net.
The same thing happened against the Chicago Blackhawks. The score could have been a lot worse than five goals if the Blackhawks were able to bury more of their chances. Luck and a goalie doing everything possible to win have been the main reasons as to why the scores have been so close.
The unfortunate thing with luck is that it doesn’t last forever. The Rangers need to work on the things they can control, such as offense possession and playing a strong defensive game if they want to start winning games they deserve to win.