It rained hard all night long in New York City but the levee stood strong behind Jonathan Quick, who faced his former team for the first time since leaving the club he won two championships with. For the Rangers, the 37 year old net minder has left them with precisely zero buyers remorse, as he notched his eighth win of the season and he is still yet to lose a start in regulation. Kings back up goalie Pheonix Copley (why does he spell Pheonix like that?) can no longer say the same as he conceded his first regulation loss of the campaign. Quick continues to impress while Igor Shesterkin has been somewhat inconsistent and doesn’t quite look like himself, but the former Vezina winner will turn his game around in time.
The Rangers snapped a two game slide, their first of the season, in a game that started out tight and quiet at both ends for forty minutes and saw the Rangers go into the second intermission with a 2-0 lead. Then there was the third period. It was raining penalty minutes in what became a massive ref show around the 6 minute mark of the frame, as scrums ensued after whistles and two star players, Mika Zibanejad for NY and Kevin Fiala for LA, were given ten minute misconduct penalties for… well I don’t think anyone even knows. So now, in a 2-0 game with just about 14 minutes remaining, two marquee players are sitting on their hands because of post whistle scrums. Three rangers players and two Kings players would join them in the box for a variety of infractions, with K’andre Miller taking a seat in place of Quick who was called for roughing. It was honestly an embarrassing sequence of events which felt like the officials were simply making shit up as they went.
The resulting Kings power play led to their lone goal of the night, scored by Phillip Danault, who took a puck to the face earlier in the game, was leaking blood like a faucet, came back into the game wearing a full cage, and tapped in a cross crease look from Adrian Kempe. For the Rangers, this goal was entirely preventable despite the man advantage, and Braden Schneider once again wears the horns on the play. It couldn’t be much more obvious who the puck was going to, and Schneider didn’t even turn to attempt to tie up Danault to take away the option for Kempe. If Kempe is forced to shoot, that’s a puck Quick stops every single time. A frustrating moment to see the shutout yanked on what should have been a simple play, and I haven’t been very impressed with Schneider this season in general.
With all that said, the Rangers are back in the win column, Zibanejad and Jonny Fucking Brodzinski convert on the power play, Vesey and Cuylle pot goals of their own, and the Rangers win 4-1 after dropping two games on the road that should’ve been wins on paper, so you have to be happy with the bounce back effort, and even happier for Brodzinski getting his first of the season, and Quick for shoving it right up the Kings’ hoops with one of his best performances of the season. The boys will be back in action Tuesday when AM34 and the Leafs come to town in a showdown between two Eastern conference juggernauts. Until then, let’s make this Monday our bitch and have a good week here on the back of a huge Rangers win against one of the league’s top teams.
The Morning Skate 