The New York Rangers are on a roll, beating the Devils 6-3 in Newark. They have now won three in a row, four out of five and six of eight. It was a much better performance than Thursday night and the Rangers got off to a fast start, though typically, they blew a two-goal first period lead. The Devils are the definition of a fragile team and they were unable to muster much of an attack after falling behind for good.
As they have had over the last few wins, scoring was spread throughout the lineup with 11 different Rangers factoring in the scoring. This was Filip Chytil’s best game of the season as he had a goal and an assist and could have have two or three more points. The difference it makes to have him in the lineup is huge and it really enables David Quinn to roll four lines consistently.
Chytil said that it’s been a little different with him playing wing and that he can improve even more. Chytil said that he spent a lot of time during the off season working on his speed and strength. “You see a lot of fast players in the NHL, I want to be one of them…I feel bigger, was working out every day to be in the best shape.”
David Quinn was very pleased with the win,”I really liked the way we started, I thought it was really good first period for the first time against them. They made it 2-2 and I loved how we responded to that and I just liked how we played a smart third period.”
The only sour notes were a 17 second span in the first period when the Ranger gave up two goals and an apparent leg injury to Mika Zibanejad in the closing seconds when it appeared that he caught a skate in a rut.
After the game, Quinn said that “there’s no issue with Mika, he feels pretty good, just caught a rut and was got a little stung there.”
Quinn was quick to point out that the team is getting close to the halfway point of the season and they need to keep winning in order to have a chance at the playoffs. “If you’re gonna have a chance you’ve got to string together wins, you’ve got to go on some sort of streak, some sort of run and we really haven’t done that up to this point..our guys realize what’s in front of us.”
They will find out how good they are over the next eight games, against Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia, all ahead of the Rangers in the standings.