Okay, over Sunday and Monday, we won two back-to-back games by an aggregate 10-2. Can we talk about this? The two games represented two different kinds of games we expect the Rangers to lose, and yet we won both decisively. That is awesome.
Sunday night, we ground out a hard effort, outplaying the Ducks pretty consistently for 42:14 (outshooting them 11-1 in the first and 24-12 through two) before ever scoring a goal. This is exactly the kind of game where a Ranger fan gets nervous: we keep outplaying them for most of the game, and then they get a lucky bounce, score first, and win 1-0. We've seen this movie before.
Only this is John Tortorella's team now, and that means this is a team that keeps fighting hard and forcing chances, even if they've already been doing so for two fruitless periods. And so Alex Kotalik, not some lucky Duck (ha!), broke the scoreless tie on the power play. And we kept pressing, and we kept playing hard, and then with 5:38 to go, it became 2-0 Blueshirts, Anisimov's first (and Avery's first point), also on the power play. Again, we didn't back down, we kept the game in their end, and Girardi hit the empty net to finish it out. A thing of beauty.
Monday night, we played different kind of game we used to like to lose. After scoring on the PP 2:34 into the game and dominating the Leafs through the first period (outshooting them 15-8) and giving up a late goal to make it 2-1 at the first intermission, we bounced back to regain the 2-goal lead just 26 seconds into the period, then fell asleep. After the previous night's 3-0 victory, and up 3-1 over a winless team in this one, we seemed to consider this a game in hand. All of a sudden we were spending long stretches of time in our zone, laying down to let Lundqvist bail us out. Had he not, it would have gotten much closer much sooner, but as it was, Toronto finally came within one with 2:49 left in the period. And honestly, they could easily have been leading by then.
But between periods, it seems, Torts sent out a reminder that this is, as mentioned, his team. Yes, we played a great 60-minute effort just the previous night, and yes, we were still up in this one, but it was our game to lose. Had we played the third like we had since we scored goal number three, we would have lost it. Instead, we listened, and who better to kick things off than Sean Avery, with his first goal of the season? From there, the flood gates opened. We took the game to the Leafs despite our comfortable lead, and we scored goals until there was only 1:57 left on the clock, when Avery tallied again to make it 7-2.
In the past, you may recall relying on one or two "key players" to provide the offense for the team. When it was Jagr, it worked, because he was Jaromir Jagr. Otherwise, it largely hasn't. These days, are we spreading the offense around better? Well, in routing the leafs, 11 different Rangers (nine forwards and two defensemen) picked up points. Our 7 goals came from 5 different people. Eight Rangers (Dubinsky, Prospal, Drury, Avery, Anisimov, Gaborik, Redden, Girardi) had multi-point nights. Yeah, times are good.
Look, I know it's a young team, and I know things aren't gonna stay this good. They can't possibly. We haven't lost since opening night, when we lost to the defending Stanley Cup Champions, in their building (which we can't win in anyway), for their banner-raising, by one goal. Since then, we're 5-0, outscoring our opponents 22-9, including 18-5 in the final two periods. In fact, other than the Caps scoring one in the first period of our 4-3 triumph in DC, we haven't been outscored in any period in that stretch. So, yeah, I know there's gonna be a fall off. But let's do this for as long as we can first. This is fun. Let's show the Kings how much fun we have, tonight at 7.
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