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New York Rangers vs Dallas Stars: Another must win game

By Steve Paulus

DALLAS, TEXAS - MARCH 05: Roman Polak #45 of the Dallas Stars and Esa Lindell #23 of the Dallas Stars fight against Filip Chytil #72 of the New York Rangers, Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers and Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers in the third period at American Airlines Center on March 05, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TEXAS - MARCH 05: Roman Polak #45 of the Dallas Stars and Esa Lindell #23 of the Dallas Stars fight against Filip Chytil #72 of the New York Rangers, Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers and Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers in the third period at American Airlines Center on March 05, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers tends net (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers tends net (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

About the Rangers

How important is this game?  The Rangers sit three points out of the last wild card spot behind  Carolina, the Islanders and the Panthers and five points behind the Blue Jackets.  The Blueshirts have two games in hand on Columbus, one on Florida and have played one more game than Carolina and the Islanders.  With only 14 games left this season, they have to win.

This will be Igor Shesterkin’s first career start against the Stars.  He has started three games on the road this season and has won all three allowing only five goals for a goals against average of 2.07.  He’s coming off the worst start of his 11-game career, allowing five goals, the first time he has given up more than three in a game.

Artemi Panarin was held scoreless in the Devils game, the second time in the last three that he hasn’t gotten a point.  He has been scoreless in two straight games only three times this season and two consecutive games without a point is his season high.

Meanwhile, Mika ZIbanejad continues to be a scoring machine. He has scored 32 goals in his last 37 games.  He joins Andy Bathgate and Jean Ratelle as the only players in franchise history to score ten goals in 11 games.

Zibanejad is tied for first in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin in goals per game (.71), fifth in goals scored (39),  seventh in points per game (1.31),  third in power plays goals (15) and  fourth in shooting percentage (19.7%).  All of this despite missing 13 games with an injury.

When David Quinn says that the defense has failed in recent games, he isn’t kidding. The Rangers had played twelve straight games without allowing more than three goals in any game.  Over the last five games, they have allowed 24 goals though that total include three empty netters.

If the Blueshirts want to right their  defense, the offensively challenged Stars are a good team to start against.   However, they did allow five goals to Dallas in their 5-3 loss on February 3. Stephen Johns scored his first goal in almost to injury ridden years.  Corey Perry scored his first goal in 25 games. That night,  Joe Pavelski scored twice against the Blueshirts after scoring two goals in his previous 19 games.  The Rangers do NOT want to be the cure for the Dallas scoring woes.

The Rangers have won nine of their last ten road games, improving their road record to 18-12-2, the 11th best road record in the league.  This is reminiscent of the Ranger teams of the mid-2010’s that played better on the road than at home.  In 2016-17 they won 28 on the road compared to 21 at home, in 2014-15 they won 28 road games and 25 homes games and 2013-14 they had 25 road wins and 20 home wins.

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