The New York Rangers have played exceptionally well against division teams this season, but they have been especially magnificent against the Philadelphia Flyers. Going back to last season, the Blueshirts had defeated the Flyers five straight times going into today's match, and they extended that to six straight with a 5-2 victory this afternoon at Madison Square Garden. More importantly, the Rangers played a complete game today, and put forth a consistent 60-minute effort for the first time since the All-Star break last weekend. If they were going to pick a game to bring everything back up to speed, this was the perfect one to do it in and now the hope is that they can use this as a building block moving forward.
New York got on the board very early in this one with Artem Ansimov deflecting a Dan Girardi point-shot past Philly goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov just 1:04 into the first period. Girardi made a smart play along the blue-line to studder step until a lane opened for him to thread the needle, and Artie's deflection was even more perfect since he sent it top corner from the slot. These are set plays that the Rangers are always working on in practice and in the video room, but they aren't the easiest to execute. When they are executed, however, they result in pretty goals, which was what you saw on this play.
Soon after that goal was scored, the game took on the usual personality that you would expect a Rangers-Flyers tilt to take on. Things got chippy real fast, but it was all ignited by the fight between Stu Bickel and Wayne Simmonds. And then, before the first period came to a close, Brandon Dubinsky also went at it with Tom Sestito. This really had the crowd on hand pumping.
Although the Rangers completely dominated play in the first period by only allowing the Flyers to get five shots through to Henrik Lundqvist, Philadelphia started to come on in the middle frame. Remember, the Flyers were embarrassed in two out of three periods at home on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, so head coach Peter Laviolette, I'm sure, sent a strong message during the first intermission that they would not fall into that hole yet again in this game.
Eventually, at 12:02 of the second, Jakub Voracek sent Brayden Schenn on a breakaway right out of the penalty-box, which the 20-year-old center put over the shoulder of Lundqvist with a silky smooth backhanded deke. Lundqvist never enjoys allowing goals, let alone on the breakaway, so he was wishing he could get that one back for a while there in the middle frame. That was until Marian Gaborik, with just six seconds remaining in the period, worked relentlessly in the offensive zone until he sent a backhander through Bryzgalov to give the Rangers a 2-1 advantage as they headed to the locker rooms. Gaborik had been working hard all game long, but he was especially determined to get the puck to the back of the net on this play - he did.
Brandon Dubinsky, who also had a hard-working outing today, made the mistake of clearing the puck over the glass and out of play while in his own defensive zone to begin the third period. That, of course, is a minor penalty and a minor penalty that the Flyers took advantage of with Wayne Simmonds' powerplay goal. Dubinsky had to sit on the bench in fear for only a short while, though, as Marian Gaborik and Michael Del Zotto connected nicely less than a minute later to regain the lead for the Blueshirts. It was a nice call by Del Zotto to join the offense with Gaborik in a position to do nothing but pass, and it worked out for DZ, who scored his second goal in three games.
The fireworks continued into the third stanza, as the two teams continuously were exchanging fists and penalties. In fact, Tom Sestito was given a game misconduct after dropping his gloves for the third time on the afternoon, this time with Brandon Prust. He also grabbed and pulled Prust's hair during the bout, which is about the most cowardly stunt you could pull in a hockey fight. I guess that's why he's a Flyer.
Through all of this, the Rangers were very strong on the penalty-kill, led by goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and were rewarded at 12:15 of the third when Prust and Brian Boyle made a nice play in the offensive zone to set Dubisky up for a tally that would put the home team ahead, 4-2, with not much time left to play. Before that time did tick off, Ruslan Fedotenko would sink the empty-netter to put a bow on the 5-2 victory.
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was not forced to steal the game for the Rangers like he did in Wednesday's win over the Buffalo Sabres, but he was still called on for big saves quite a number of times in this game. Twenty-one stops were made by the King to be exact, and two of those included breakaway saves. Again, Henrik would love to have that Schenn goal back, but he played very well this afternoon and, as always, gave his team a chance to win.
Aside from Lundqvist, the next player that was most fun to watch today was Marian Gaborik. Gaborik had both a goal and an assist in this one, but the more impressive stat is that he sent eight shots on goal throughout the tilt. He was dominating each time he was on the ice, but not only offensively. I thought Gaborik was the Rangers' best defensive forward in this game as well.
Speaking of defense, I also must tip my cap to Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi. I must say, the entire defensive corps had a solid effort in this game, but that first pairing was the anchor all afternoon. Limiting the Hartnell-Giroux-Jagr line is no easy task, but these two did a hell of job of doing just that. Actually, the Jagr line was out there for three of the five goals scored by the Rangers, so they didn't even have much opportunity to work in the offensive zone in the first place.
Fifty games are now officially in the books, and this win puts the Rangers at 33-12-5 with 71 points. That's good for first in the Eastern Conference by three, and just one short of the league-leading Detroit Red Wings. Only 32 games remain on the schedule, and if they can continue to play as well as they did today in that span, there shouldn't be any problems maintaining that top spot in the East heading into the playoffs.
Oh, and one last thing.......
You can't beat us.
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