Takeaways from a big win over Tampa

The New York Rangers put on an outstanding performance in beating the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. It was a tremendous effort by the entire team and a well deserved victory.

There are lot of  reasons to be happy about the New York Rangers 4-1 thrashing of the defending President’s Trophy winners.   The Rangers fielded an incredibly young team and the kids came through.   Here are some takeaways from the game.

Most observers credited Coach David Quinn’s “calling out” the team after Sunday’s loss to the Bruins.  Don’t forget that Henrik Lundqvist also questioned the teams’ effort.   The players themselves said that they were embarrassed by their performance on Sunday. I’m the first person to admit that I am wrong and if Quinn’s tough love strategy produced this effort, then good for him.

The benching of Marc Staal had to have a huge impact on the teams’ collective psyche.  Staal is a team leader, a co-captain and seasoned veteran.  It was the first healthy scratching in his career.  When Quinn benched Staal, it sent a message to the younger players.  The message was that it wasn’t just the kids who messed up on Sunday, it was a veteran Ranger as well. There’s no doubt that Staal would have participated in the Dan Girardi ceremony so it was even more significant.

The addition of Filip Chytil and Ryan Lindgren to the lineup was important.  Chytil played like a man possessed the entire game.  His game winning goal wasn’t pretty, it came about because of his effort.  Lindgren is the kind of player that Quinn just loves.  He’s tough and brings that “grit” to the game.  It’s going to be tough to keep him out of the lineup.

Kaapo Kakko played his best game as a Ranger.  While his goal was a puck that ricocheted off Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brayden Coburn, it was a goal scorer’s goal. He didn’t panic with the puck, made his move towards the net and fired an accurate shot.  He needs to play on the top power play unit if the Rangers want him to succeed.   After he scored, he seemed to have an injection of confidence you could see in his puckhandling.  He had a team leading five shots.

Artemi Panarin creates time and space for his teammates.  He’s always dangerous with the puck and he continued his point-a-game scoring pace. He was stoned by Vasilevskiy on this play.

Injuries played a role in this game.  Knowing that they were without Mika Zibanejad for the game had to have an impact on the players going into the game.  It’s different from losing a top player during a game.  Knowing going in, the team knew that they needed to have a good game to make up for his loss.

Tampa injuries helped the Rangers.  The Lightning lost Victor Hedman and Pat Maroon in the first period.  While Maroon wasn’t a huge loss, Hedman is one of the best defensemen in the NHL and his departure hurt.  Being down two players for the final two periods took a toll on Tampa as well.

Adam Fox continues to demonstrate why his role will continue to grow with this team.  If you pay attention to his game and watch him closely, it’s impressive.  He has been lauded for his intelligence and vision, it’s totally obvious if you focus on him.   He is something special and could step into the top power play unit right now.

Whether it was Quinn or Lindy Ruff, the pairing of Fox and Lindgren was inspired.  Pairing two rookies with all of 14 NHL games between them might have been seen as folly, but they played together on the U.S. National team and their pairing was seamless.   They were on the ice in the third period when it was a one goal game.

For what it’s worth, Micheal Haley’s first period fight did have an impact.  It fired up the fans and sent a message.  This was a perfect example of the “grit” players stepping up and playing that game, leaving the finesse players to do their stuff.

The fourth line had some excellent shifts. That said, Brendan Smith whiffed on at least two sterling scoring opportunities. In a close game like this (and it was close) you cannot afford to miss on those kinds of plays.  They were fortunate in this case.

Brady Skjei played his most dynamic game of the season.  Teamed with Anthony DeAngelo, he was an offensive threat and authored several rushes into the Tampa zone. Of the duo, he was more active offensively. Skjei needs to keep doing that.

While we can extol the Rangers effort and revel in a 4-1 final score, it’s important to remember that it was a 1-1 game with seven minutes left in the third period.  The goaltenders were excellent on both ends and Alexandar Georgiev kept the Blueshirts in this game, especially in the third period.

Believe it or not, this was the first time this season that the Rangers actually outshot the opposition.  The final total was 42-30.  It was the second time this season that they have topped the 40 shot mark.

The Rangers won the special teams battle going 1-4 on the power play and stopping Tampa on their two man advantages.  Staying out of the penalty box was important.  The Lightning had five shots on their two PPs’ while the Rangers had seven shots on their four PP’s.  They didn’t get a shot on goal during a 20 second five on three advantage in the second period.

If Zibanejad is back for Saturday’s game it will present some interesting questions for Quinn.  It would make sense for Chytil to play again with Kreider and Buchnevich. That would leave a top line of ZIbanejad, Panarin and Fast. That would drop Ryan Strome and Kakko to the third line.  What Quinn does with Howden and Andersson will be the question.

The win on NBCSN reversed a trend. Going into the game, the Rangers had lost nine of their last 13 games on national television.

While Tampa was a challenge, they have been stumbling along this season just above .500.  Saturday, the Rangers play the Nashville Predators who are tied for first place in the Central Division and have lost only three out of 12 games in regulation.   They’ve won four games in a row and are 6-1-1 at home.  How the Blueshirts follow up this effort will be a true test of the capabilities of this young team.