The New York Rangers, opening their defense of the Eastern Conference Championship and looking to take one more step to secure their first Stanley Cup since 1994 marched into St. Louis to start the 2014-2015 season. They marched out with 2 big points and an impressive 3-2 win over the Blues.
With a healthy roster turnover due to free agency, it was interesting to see who would skate with who, but the first line last night looks like it should stay together for a while. 4:01 into the game, Chris Kreider's aggressive forecheck led to a turnover, and his one handed chip pass found Rick Nash just outside the slot. Nash, a left-handed shot, drifted into the slot and rifled the first goal of the year for the Rangers past Brian Elliott for a 1-0 lead.
After a very disjointed second period that saw more specialty teams play than even strength play, yielding nothing, the Blues tied up the game in the 3rd period in short order. David Backes fired a shot of the blocker of Henrik Lundqvist, but John Moore was a little delinquent in picking up his man, and Jaden Schwartz buried the rebound at 1:32. Schwartz is a touching story - he switched his uniform number from #9 to #17 this year to honor his late sister Mandi, who wore #17 in college for Yale, but lost a 2 1/2 year battle against cancer.
Roughly five minutes later, Rangers fans got to see what they hope is a repeat performance many times over this season. Strong defensive play on the side boards just outside the Rangers blue line led to a Rick Nash cross ice pass to a streaking Chris Kreider on the left wing. With nothing between him and paydirt, "Easy" Kreider steamed in and fired a shot just inside the left post for a 2-1 Rangers lead. In case any Montreal fans were watching, when someone DOESN'T trip Kreider on his way to the net, he doesn't barrel goaltenders.
The lead was relatively short-lived though, as Vladimir Tarasenko took a pass from Paul Stastny, made a nice move inside the blue line, and rifled a shot that deflected off a driving Stastny past Lundqvist into the net, forging a 2-2 tie. Stastny had taken an ugly knee-on-knee attempted hip check from Dan Girardi earlier in the game, but came back to score his first as a St. Louis Blue after signing a big free agent deal to move from Colorado in the off-season.
It appeared that the game may have been heading for overtime, but a lucky bounce gave the Rangers all they needed to ensure that didn't happen. With less than 2 minutes left in the game, the Blues' Alex Pietrangelo banked the puck off the glass, as he has probably done hundreds of times. However, this time, the puck went straight into the air, staying in the zone, and right to Martin St. Louis, who somehow heard Rick Nash calling for the puck, once again in the slot. A no-look, backhand pass right on the tape produced the second Nash-ty goal of the game for #61, and a Rangers 3-2 lead at 18:10. Even with Elliott pulled, the Blues didn't get a sniff at the Rangers net, as a huge block by Captain Ryan McDonagh sealed the win for the Rangers.
PLUS/MINUS
PLUS - The first line of Nash/Kreider/St. Louis was the best line all night for either team, and scored a combined 7 points with all 3 goals and all 4 assists. Originally an assist was given to Marc Staal on the Kreider goal, but subsequently changed to St. Louis.
PLUS - Lee Stempniak had a decent first game as a Ranger, creating scoring chances and taking point time on the power play.
PLUS - Henrik Lundqvist didn't have to be Superman, but the King was good enough to backstop the win.
PLUS - The Penalty Kill had a perfect 5 for 5 night including a brief 5 on 3 kill.
PLUS - The officials called TWO diving penalties last night - one on Tarasenko and one on Steve Ott. With the new rules in place, they keep diving, Ken Hitchcock will lose some weight - out of his wallet. Coaches get fined if their players dive too much this year.
MINUS - As much as I love him, Mats Zuccarello. Your hands are for shootouts, not punchouts. There are other guys to drop the mitts on this team. If anyone had Zuccarello in the "First Fight Of The Year" pool, you need to give me some lottery numbers. A total of 9 PIM for the Hobbit.
MINUS - Dan Boyle, somehow infected by the ghost of John Tortorella, broke his hand blocking a shot in the early stages of the 3rd period, and is out 4-6 weeks. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Matt Hunwick in the next few games.
MINUS - Stop me if you've heard this before - the Power(less) Play went 0 for 3, and the guy that was brought in to QB the PP is now on the shelf.
MINUS - Tarasenko and Ott - stop diving. This isn't European soccer.
The Rangers travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Saturday night. Look for the New Blue (P)Review on Saturday morning.
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