The New York Rangers won a matinee at the Garden against a flat New Jersey Devils team with a roster that fans should get used to. It’s the team that will play the rest of the season.
It was finally confirmed this morning that Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello and Adam McQuaid would be sitting out this game. That confirmed what everyone has known for weeks, that all three are about to be traded. That meant that the team the Rangers fielded will be team we will be watching, unless some NHL talent comes the other way in these imminent deals.
Jimmy Vesey was elevated to the top like (the ZVK line?) and responded by scoring a goal. Vlad Namestnikov saw heavy minutes as did Ryan Strome who scored two goals. The Rangers went with the seven defensemen lineup with Brendan Smith the extra man. Boo Nieves and Connor Brickley were the fourth liners and saw about seven minutes of ice time each.
The Rangers ran over an unusually flat New Jersey Devils team. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period as the Devils showed nothing. Perhaps they were down from losing Ben Lovejoy, traded to Dallas just before the game. They were coming off a convincing 4-0 shutout win over the Senators with Cory Schneider finally rounding back into form, but for New Jersey, this was a bad game.
The good news was that the Rangers lineup without Hayes, Zuccarello and McQuaid, was solid. In fact, they were much better than the Rangers team that lost to Minnesota on Thursday when all three players did play. The encouraging fact is that this is a better Rangers team than the one that was gutted last season. The post-deadline Rangers were often a ragged bunch and the skill level was lacking. This team is much better.
They were led by the top line and that is the biggest difference. The Zibanejad line didn’t lose a step with Vesey replacing Zuccarello and all three players were outstanding. The question of whether Vesey can keep it us has not been answered, but he will have the opportunity.
It was positive to see this rejiggered New York Rangers team be as dominant as they were against the Devils. A much bigger test will be Sunday’s match in Washington. Washington was spanked by Buffalo 5-2 on Saturday so they will be looking for a comeback.