It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t elegant. At times it was choppy. But in a contest that was chippy at times, the Rangers finally ended their five game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Canadiens. New York rode three power play goals, including one by Kaapo Kakko with 24 seconds remaining, to eke out the victory. 

Game recap:






Rangers lineup vs. Montréal:
Panarin-Chytil-Cuylle
Berard-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko
Edström-Carrick-Vesey 

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Schneider
Jones-Trouba 

Quick
Shesterkin 

Scratches: Smith, Brodzinski, Ruhwedel
(Smith is the mildly surprising one. But he is goalless in nine games and his scratching does send a little bit of a message. Given New York won Saturday, I would expect we see the same lineup).

A few thoughts: 
1) Better effort - after failing to show up the first 40 minutes in the 3-1 loss to Philly on Friday, New York was engaged from the get go. That effort was punctuated by a Jacob Trouba-Josh Anderson dust up in which Anderson got the better of the fight but Trouba refused to give an inch, earning respect from his teammates and most of the Garden faithful.

Later in the contest, all 10 players on the ice were part of a mild dust up. The Rangers certainly showed a bit more heart than we have seen in recent weeks. Whether it was the return of Filip Chytil and Chris Kreider, lineup changes or just being tired of suboptimal play, the Blueshirts had a far better engagement level than what we had seen recently. 

2) Kreider and Chytil - Krieder’s presence was seen in the first two PPG as his net front presence created a screen that led to both goals. Returning from a back injury after missing seven games, Kreider skated with Kakko and Mika Zibanejad on a newly created third line, yes, third line. Despite Mika and Kakko scoring on the power play, that line struggled more than the rest, with Montreal owning a 7-0 advantage in scoring chances against them, including 4-0 in the high-danger category.

Chytil hinted after the game that the injury was to his head, but didn’t state exactly what it was. The fact that he was cleared by an independent specialist yet hinted at the ailment falls into question the diagnosis. "It was not an easy time," Chytil said. "Maybe when we have time in the future, we can sit and we can talk about it."

He centered Artemi Panarin, who scored on PP, and Will Cuylle, who was a force on the ice, throwing his body around. Cuylle has blossomed well beyond what we thought his projection would be and been the team’s most consistent forward this season. This trio should get a few games together to see if they could build chemistry.

Chytil made a key play on the game winning goal, helping keep the puck in at the line. Zac Jones got it next and fought through a couple stick checks to make a backhanded feed to Cuylle. His slight deke to the middle drew Sam Montembeault over another half stride before he alertly made one final pass to Kakko for the one-timer that beat the netminder short side. 

The Berard-Trocheck-Lafrenière line resulted in a goal for Trocheck, his second game with a marker. Berard left the game for a bit with what looked like a shoulder injury but returned. He certainly has no issues throwing his weight around, despite being undersized.

3) Fortunate win: Montreal is far from an elite team, as they entered the game one point away from tying for the NHL’s worst record. In addition, New York, when they were rolling, defeated them, 7-2, back on Oct. 22. Yesterday, the Habs likely deserved to win the game.

The Canadiens had an 18-6 advantage in high danger scoring chances and controlled stretches of the final period. They rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game and New York needed another brilliant effort from Jonathan Quick. D zone breakouts and an inability to clear the puck were still an issue, resulting in the Rangers constantly getting pinned deep. But an ugly win is certainly a lot better than a pretty loss. 

It's a start but the effort has to be better and for a full game against New Jersey on Monday.

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