Game recap: Rangers dominate Bruins 6-2 as fans cheer them on
The New York Rangers played in front of live fans for the first time this season and it made a world of difference. They rode the emotional boost they got from a very vocal crowd of 1,800 fans and thoroughly beat the Boston Bruins 6-2.
Despite missing some vital pieces of their puzzle, the entire team put together an excellent effort, outshooting, outhitting and outplaying the slumping Bruins. It was a pretty inspiring performance against the team in first place in the East and it renews playoff hopes.
The team got a huge boost before warmups when it was announced that K’Andre Miller would be able to play. In just a month, he has become an indispensable part of this team and his return to the lineup changed the face of the Blueshirt defense.
Everything worked for the Rangers. They scored a power play goal, killed all of their penalties and got balanced scoring from all four lines. The Bruins are in a relative freefall, losing four of five and they have allowed 11 goals in their last four periods.
The most significant factor for the Rangers was their physical play. Though the final number of hits was 32-28 for the Rangers, they came out hitting early with 11 hits in the first eight minutes of the game and 17 in the first period. The physical play put the Bruins on their heels from the get go, something David Quinn has been talking about for over two years, but it was the quality of physical play that mattered.
Quinn explained, “We weren’t running around looking for a hit…overall, it was probably our most physical approach. It’s not about big hits…most people aren’t going to recognize the subtle practicalities of this game. On 50/50 pucks if you’re reaching as opposed to thinking I’m going to get physical with the opponent, you’re going to be in trouble… out intentions on the 50/50 puck battles was we were going to get into people.”
In the end, Quinn gave a lot of credit to the fans. “I don’t think any of us expected the impact they would make. They were incredibly loud and passionate…they had an impact tonight…we can’t thank our fans enough.”
🚨RANGERS FANS BACK AT THE GARDEN🚨 pic.twitter.com/MsDxZRQFIn
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) February 26, 2021
Adam Fox has much the same to say, with his parents in the crowd. “It sounded like 20,000 not 2,000.” Ryan Strome said he got a chill hearing the fans during the national anthem.
They have to hope that they get that same boost on Sunday.
About the game
The game got off to a chippy start in the first minute when Brad Marchand tried to mix it up with Adam Fox behind the Ranger net. He took of his gloves, but Fox avoided him and just skated away. It was the kind of discipline the Rangers were going to show most of this game.
The Blueshirts came out hitting with a focus they didn’t have on Wednesday against the Flyers. You can tell if the team is going to play well by how they do on faceoffs and the Rangers won six of the first seven draws.
It was an evenly played first period with both teams getting some opportunities, but neither Georgiev nor Rask had to be spectacular. The Rangers had the better of the chances with Lafrenière almost scoring while crashing the net on a feed from Zibanejad. Strome was stopped on the doorstep at the 11 minute mark.
It all changed at 13:16 when Julien Gauthier thought he scored his second goal of the season.
It was a power move as the winger carried the puck into the zone, made a quick turn and fired the puck at the net. Rask was screened by Di Giuseppe and Howden and the Rangers had the first goal of the game. After the game, scoring was changed and Di Giuseppe was credited with the goal, his first of the season.
Right after Lafrenière hit the crossbar off a backhand shot, K’Andre Miller took a holding penalty and the Rangers had to kill the first power play of the game. The Rangers did well, allowing only two of seven shot attempts to get through to Georgeiv.
The period ended with the Rangers up 1-0 after one of the best played periods of the season.
Six seconds into the second period, Kevin Rooney took a high sticking penalty and the Rangers had to kill another one. Just 26 seconds after the penalty expired, the Rangers padded their lead on a Ryan Strome goal off a great pass from Lafrenière, for the rookie’s first assist of his career.
Chris Kreider did all the work getting the puck into the offensive zone and then he dished it to Lafrenière who made a nice cross ice pass to a streaking Strome. This was one of those turning point goals as the Bruins’ Jack Studnika had hit the crossbar just before the Rangers breakout.
The Rangers gave it right back just 90 seconds later. Patrice Bergeron was left unchecked in front of Georgiev and he scored. McAvoy led the rush and got past Brendan Smith, then passed the puck to Marchand who fed David Pastrnak who fed Bergeron for the easy tap in.
The chippy play continued with a scrum involving Ryan Lindgren, Brad Marchand and Jack Studnika with the Rangers ending up with their first power play. The Blueshirts couldn’t get much going on the power play and the penalty kill appeared to give Boston some life. It got really hairy when Brendan Lemieux took an unnecessary roughing penalty that was as much a reputation call as a penalty.
The Boston push ended when Brad Marchand high sticked Chris Kreider at 14:19 and the Rangers were dominant on the power play, but couldn’t convert. They got another chance when Nick Ritchie went off for tripping Brendan Smith and this time, the Rangers cashed in.
The penalty was called with only 1:18 left in the period and it took the Rangers nine seconds to score. Strome won the facoeff and got he puck to Fox who fired a slapshot from the blueline. Colin Blackwell was in the slot for the redirection and it was a 3-1 lead.
Just 12 seconds later, Chris Kreider scored for a 4-1 lead.
He did what the Rangers never do, skating out from behind the Bruins net, turning and just shooting at the crease. The puck hit Charlie McAvoy’s skate, right past Rask and into the net.
There was some more nastiness at the end of the second period when Jack Johnson cross checked Trent Frederic, but it didn’t take long for the Rangers to pad their lead.
Pavel Buchnevich scored 1:45 into the third period off a beautiful feed from Adam Fox.
The final goal came two minutes later when Jonny Brodzinski crashed the net on a pass from Kevin Rooney for his first goal as a Ranger.
The Bruins added a meaningless goal by Brad Marchand to make the score 6-2 but the final result was never in doubt.
Notes on the game
The six goals the Rangers scored was a season high and equals their highest total over the last few years. The last time they scored more than six goals in a game was in November 2016 when they scored seven goals in a 7-2 win in Vancouver.
Alexandar Georgiev very quietly had another solid start. He had 31 saves and made some difficult stops look easy. His good work was lost in the offensive outburst by the Blueshirts.
Sam Rosen dropped a hint that Kakko may be coming back from the COVID list saying that he was in quarantine, but showed no symptoms.
Speaking of Sam Rosen, he mentioned it every time the crowd started a “Let’s Go Rangers”chant. He also mentioned it when the crowd gave Rask a derisive cheer after he made an easy stop.
Brad Marchand’s goal was the 300th of his NHL career.
The Ranger penalty kill has now killed 41 of their last 43 penalties over 11 games, a 95% success rate.
Ryan Lindgren played a hard hitting game and got his inevitable bloody nose. He led all defensemen with four hits and was a +3 for the game with two assists.
BOOM. pic.twitter.com/0AYWpCHqru
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 27, 2021
The power play has now scored in four straight games with five goals in 19 chances, a 26% success rate. Prior to that they had gone six for 52, an 11% success rate. They are slowly creeping up the rankings, now 25th overall.
This was the first time the Rangers have won without Artemi Panarin in the lineup in five tries.
See what a great offense will do for you? Mika Zibanejad was held off the scoresheet,but no one noticed. He played a strong game and had several decent scoring opportunities. He took six shots, three on goal.
Ice time was very evenly distributed, as it was in the win over Washington. No forward played over 18 minutes and Adam Fox played a team high 21:41.
Mika Zibanejad played just 18 minutes, the fewest minutes this season. All last season there were only two games that he played fewer than 18 minutes.
Kevin Rooney was very strong on faceoffs, winning 12 of 18 and Zibanejad won 7 of 13.
The Bruins are the best in the NHL on draws, winning over 56% of their draws and the Rangers are second to last, but the Rangers won 51% of the faceoffs in this game.
Alexis Lafrenière had his most dynamic game of the season. He had an outstanding assist on Strome’s goal, hit a crossbar and had five shot attempts. If any player has the most to gain from Panarin’s absence, it is Lafrenière.
With the Rangers up 6-2 and on the power play with only four minutes left, David Quinn gave Phil Di Giuseppe, Brett Howden, Julien Gauthier, Libor Hajek and Jack Johnson some well earned time with the man advantage.
The last time the Rangers scored as many as six goals against the Bruins was March 17, 2007 when they won 7-0 at Madison Square Garden.
The Bruins had lost one game in regulation in their first 13 games. They have lost four in the last five in regulation.
The win pulled the Rangers within four points of a playoff spot.
My 3 Rangers stars of the game
- Ryan Strome played his best game of the year with a goal and two assists. He won a key faceoff on the power play that led to the Blackwell goal and he scored the crucial second goal.
- K’Andre Miller didn’t make the scoresheet, but the fact that he was in this game gave the Rangers the boost they needed to win. He led he team with four blocked shots and again demonstrated amazing poise under pressure. While Adam Fox is the offensive leader, Miller is turning into the shut down defenseman that the team has been searching for and he was matched up against the Bergeron line all game.
- Adam Fox led all skaters in ice time and was the offensive catalyst for the Rangers. His slapshot was redirected by Colin Blackwell for the team’s third goal after the Bruins had cut the lead to one. His no look pass to Buchnevich for a goal was the final nail in the Boston coffin.
- Honorable mention goes to the Ranger fans who spurred the team with the very vocal and emotional support.
The official 3 stars of the game
- Ryan Strome
- Adam Fox
- Ryan Lindgren
East Division
Scores
No other games
Standings
- Boston 18 11-5-2 24 points
- Washington 19 10-5-4 24 points
- Islanders 19 10-6-3 23 points
- Philadelphia 16 9-4-3 21 points
- Pittsburgh 18 10-7-1 21 points
- Rangers 18 7-8-3 17 points
- New Jersey 15 7-6-2 16 points
- Buffalo 17 6-8-3 15 points
What’s next
The Rangers play Boston again on Sunday at noon at Madison Square Garden. The game will be nationally televised on NBC. The Rangers will be going for their fourth win in five games.