EDMONTON, Alberta — The Magic Number is seven … as in a combination of seven points the Rangers get in their final six matches or the Capitals fail to get in their final seven games in order for the Blueshirts to clinch their fourth straight playoff berth and eighth in the past nine seasons.
This is the road map for the Rangers following their 5-0 rout of the downtrodden, 29th-overall Oilers Sunday night in which it was difficult to evaluate whether the Blueshirts — who scored two short-handed goals and one on the power play — were that good or Edmonton was that bad.
The Rangers — who meet the spiraling Canucks and endangered head coach John Tortorella in Vancouver on Tuesday in Alain Vigneault's return to the place he called home for seven seasons — were in complete command.
The Blueshirts, 6-1 in their last seven, carried the play throughout, and were especially strong below the hash marks in front of Cam Talbot, who stopped 26 shots to record his third shutout in 18 starts.
Mats Zuccarello gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 16:30 of the first period in scoring for the first time since getting a pair on Jan. 26 against the Devils at Yankee Stadium — and first indoors since Jan. 18 at Ottawa — with a mid-air deflection of Anton Stralman's snap shot from 55 feet. Zuccarello would add a short-handed goal at 3:49 of the third.
The Blueshirts entered the match having scored once on 73 shots against goaltender Ben Scrivens, who registered victories at the Garden first for the Kings and then, after being traded, for Edmonton. Scrivens made a dandy right pad save on a Rick Nash power play at 6:59 after big No. 61 had split the defense and pulled off a wicked deke on the goaltender, but to no avail.
That was the best chance on the power play for the Blueshirts, who entered the match 1-for-22 with the man advantage in their previous eight matches and 2-for-31 in the last 11. The Rangers had devoted the final 20 minutes of Saturday's practice in Calgary to work on the power play.
The power play started to slide when the coaching staff curiously removed Chris Kreider, a front-of-the-net presence and puck retriever, from the specialty unit in order to create a spot for Marty St. Louis. Kreider is done for at least the remainder of the regular season; in his absence, Nash has moved to the front while St. Louis has operated off the right wall.
The second power-play unit of Derick Brassard, Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot — on which the latter sets the screens — has had issues gaining the zone and moving the puck.
"We need to settle down," Richards said before the game. "We need to get our focus back and work together as a unit, not as much as individuals. We're on all the same page as far as our approach and our intentions, but we haven't been on the same page on the ice.
"We've been trying to do too much on our own. We need to get back to basics and pound the puck."
The Rangers did get a power-play goal on their first opportunity of the second period, in which the club built a 4-0 lead against an Oilers team that suffered numerous breakdowns and against a goaltender who buckled.
Scrivens did make a neat glove save on a right porch rebound by St. Louis at 3:06 of the period, but Brassard sneaked a right wing wrist shot short-side on the power play for a 2-0 edge at 4:38. That seemed to take the life out of the Oilers.
Nash then scored twice within a span of 4:19, first putting a bad angle shot from the right goal line off Scrivens' left pad at 9:07 and then flicking home two-on-one short-handed wrist shot from the left circle at 13:26 converting Stepan's feed.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Rangers breeze to easy victory over the Oilers
Dengan url
http://bahayaprostat.blogspot.com/2014/03/rangers-breeze-to-easy-victory-over.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Rangers breeze to easy victory over the Oilers
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Rangers breeze to easy victory over the Oilers
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar