That’s More Like It

That was a nice win.  No that’s not a typo, I’m only giving it nice.  The reason: we’ve seen this before.  This win becomes big, great, huge, and whatever other word you want to throw out it when, and only when, the Rangers win another, then another, then another.

But that being said, tonight was an utter domination.  The Rangers paid attention to the little things and capitalized on the opportunities they were given.  More importantly this team didn’t panic when faced with almost the exact situation in which they fell apart on Thursday.

Up 2-0 after a dominating 1st (again), the Blueshirts went down 2 men early in the second.  But this time they were able to kill off the disadvantage and even got a big save from Henrik Lundqvist who took back his throne with a vengence!

And once the 5 on 3 was killed off, the Rangers again did something we’ve seen so little of recently…step on the throat of their opponent.

Led by the line of neophytes, the Blueshirts stormed to a commanding 4-0 lead and never looked back.

Kudos are in line to Tom Renney for his defensive shakeup.  The backline troops responded with a stingy performance reminiscent of the Rangers team we saw in November and say what you want about Marek Malik, but the big guy stepped up tonight.

If you can’t see the difference between Malik and Strudwick I really don’t know what you’re watching.  I’m not going to sit here and say that Malik is a top-pair defender nor am I going to make the claim that he can replicate tonight’s performance on a consistent enough basis to remain a Blueshirt.  But the fact is he is an NHL caliber defenseman and Jason Strudwick simply isn’t.

 So again, a much-needed nice win for the Rangers that can turn into a much-needed GREAT win depending on the team that shows up Monday against the Pens.