The New York Rangers are rolling

The New York Rangers have been rolling since early December.  They have only lost one game since then with 12 wins in their last 13 games.  The Rangers are completing a tough three city California road trip on Saturday night with the chance to sweep it.  They have been getting great goaltending coupled with good defense and now are scoring goals at a good clip.  The Rangers right now are probably the best team in the NHL and looked prime to make another good run at the Stanley Cup. 

They had been playing really well but then embarked on a three city road trip to California this week.  This was seen as a big test as they were set to face the Anaheim Mighty Ducks who had the best record in the NHL, the defending stanley cup champs the LA Kings and then finally the San Jose Sharks.  The New York Rangers won all three games.  I don't think there is anyone in hockey that wants to play them right now, that is how good they have been.  Henrik Lundqvist has been great and his backup Cam Talbot has been really good as well.  The Rangers are still playing strong defense and now they are one of the top scoring teams in the league as well.  Rick Nash is playing on another level, he may be the best player in the sport right now.  Martin St. Louis is a good goal scorer and guys like Chris Kreider and Carl Hagelin use their speed and can put the puck in the net as well.  The biggest difference is that they can score on the power play now.  They have a good quarterback in Boyle and they are playing with a lot of confidence right now. 

They are currently in third place in their division but have been going back and forth with the Washington Capitals who are fourth and now the first wild card.  It will probably be a battle to the end but the way the Rangers are playing, just make the postseason and then go from there.  They will have the confidence to beat anyone in the league. 

The New York Rangers defeat the New York Islanders 4-1

The New York Rangers defeated the New York Islanders 4-1 on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers played a strong game getting two goals from rookie J.T. Miller, they were his first two NHL goals. Marion Gaborik and Ryan McDonagh scored the other goals, one was an empty net. The Rangers played good defense and Henrik Lundqvist played one of his better games. 
The first goal by Miller was at the 1:29 mark of the first period. It was only the third time this season in ten games that the Rangers had a lead. He was assisted by Chris Kreider and Marc Staal. Gaborik scored to make it 2-0 at the 14:04 mark of the first period. Staal and Brad Richards assisted on the Gaborik goal.

The Islanders cut the lead to 2-1 at the 11:13 mark of the second period on a John Tavares goal. Moulson and Finley assisted on the goal. The Rangers made it 3-1 at the 18:11 mark of the second period on Millers second goal. McDonagh assisted. McDonagh scored the final goal on an empty net goal. It was at the 17:52 mark of the third period.

The Rangers scored a power play goal and were 5-5 on the penalty kill. They still are taking too many penalties and one more too many men on the ice. It was their fifth such penalty of the season which is unacceptable. If the special teams get better like they were tonight they will get better as a team. The Rangers having more balance on offense also helps. Miller may be here for a while and he may only be here for a short time. We will have to see what they do with him. Lundqvist was 19-20 in saves and Nabokov was 18-20 for the Islanders.

The Rangers moved ahead of the Islanders into eighth place in the conference with 10 points. The Islanders after starting hot have struggled lately. The Rangers are back to 500 and will look to build on that in their next game on Sunday night. They play the Tampa Bay Lightning and then they play the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night in Boston.

New York Rangers earn their first road win with a strong showing against the Tampa Bay Lightning

The New York Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning by the score of 3-2 on Saturday night. The Rangers had come in to this game losing their last game and not having a road win on the season. They wanted to end that tonight and they played a strong game and were able to do so. Marty Biron got his first start in net of the season for the Rangers and played well. The Rangers got some balanced scoring and they were able to play strong defense to shut down Tampa Bays high powered attack. 
The Rangers goals were scored by Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and Rich Nash. The Rangers were trailing 1-0 in this game before scoring three straight and then enduring a late goal by the lightning but holding on for the 3-2 win.

The first goal of the game was scored in the second period by Steven Stamkos his sixth of the season. The goal was scored at the 4:22 mark of the period, the Rangers were able to tie the game at the 9:50 mark of the second period. The goal was scored by Stepan with assists by Hagelin and Taylor Pyatt. Nash scored at the 3:04 mark of the third period to give the Rangers the 2-1 lead. He was assisted by Brad Richards and Marc Staal. It was a beautiful goal as he went right around the defenseman and made a nice move to the front of the net and slid it past the goaltender. Hagelin scored on a tap in at the 14:47 mark of the third with an assist by Pyatt to make it a 3-1 Rangers lead. Tampa scored their second and final goal at the 19:39 mark of the third. The goal was scored by Stamkos.

The Rangers only took one penalty in the game and the Lightning took two. It was a clean game as all three penalties were in the second period. Biron made 30 saves on 32 shots and got the win and Garon stopped 27 of 30 for the Lightning. The shots were pretty even with Tampa getting two more 32-30.

The Rangers are now 4-4 on the season and the Lightning are 6-2. The Rangers will next play on Tuesday night in Newark, New Jersey against their rivals the New Jersey Devils. It will be the first time they have played since game six of the Eastern Conference finals last season when the Devils knocked the Rangers out of the playoffs.