An almost perfect road win over Ottawa 2-1

About the game

This was anything but a scintillating game.  Both teams took turns with offensive zone time, but high danger chances were few.  At even strength, the Rangers had 47 shots attempts with only eight of those of the high danger variety.  The Senators had 52 shot attempts of which only six were high danger.

The Senators got on the board first when the Rangers turned the puck just over the Senators’ blue line.  Ottawa broke in on a two-on-one. Jacob Trouba let Shesterkin handle the puck carrier and Tim Stützle rifled a shot over the Ranger goalie’s blocker. It was an excellent shot and Shesterkin was clearly beaten.

The Rangers answered right back on goal by Ryan Strome just 2:35 later.  The play was made by Artemi Panarin who had gained possession of the puck in the Senators’ zone.  He made the pass to Braden Schneider who was in center ice, the pass reach Schneider just inside the blue line.  The young defenseman let loose with a one-timer that was blocked but ended on Strome’s stick and he put the puck past Senators goalie Filip Gustavsson.

The 1-1 carried into the second period when Panarin drew a hooking penalty on Nikita Zaitsev at 7:48.  The first power play unit went right to work and with the penalty kill focusing on Mika Zibanejad and his one-timer, it left Panarin open to walk in and put a shot past Gustavsson.

The third period was an excellent defensive period for the Rangers despite a push by the Senators.

The Rangers got a second power play with about four minutes left when Nick Paul hooked Panarin on a breakaway. They weren’t able to score despite a couple excellent chances, but it killed off two crucial minutes.

That set up Shesterkin for his failed attempt to score with 1:15 left.

The miss resulted in an icing, but Shesterkin was determined to keep the Sens from scoring, making one last save on Connor Brown.

Here’a a full video recap of the game.

One question for Rangers fans is whether they should be blowing out the non-playoff teams like Detroit and Ottawa, or at least winning more one-sided games.  Does it matter?  On the surface, not to Gerard Gallant,but he has to be a little concerned about the lack of even strength scoring and the dependence on their goalie.