Quick Hits – Rangers vs Lightning 11/2/17

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NYRangers Twitter Here is our quick hits recap of the Rangers 2-1 OT victory over the Lightning.

Henrik Lundqvist- The Rangers goalie was fantastic all night. The Rangers played their best game of the season by far. The defense was stout, and rebounds were kept to a minimum. But, the few times there were breakdowns, The King was on point. He made a game saving stop on Yanni Gourde with his left pad with approximately 10 minutes left in the third. In the second period Lundqvist stopped 15 of 16 shots, as that was the one period Tampa dominated. He also bagged an assist on the game winning goal, after stopping a Nikita Kucherov wrap around attempt.

JT Miller- Miller played perhaps his strongest game of the year. He played the third least minutes of any forward but, along with Kevin Hayes and Michael Grabner, had the most shots on goal. It was also the most he had in one game this year. In the first period, he took a brilliant feed by Jimmy Vesey and walked in alone on Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Tampa goalie was up to the task. He too was spectacular all night, thwarting several breakaways. On the game winning goal, he got up to full speed and took a pass from Kevin Shattenkirk, and blew around Gourde and Brayden Pointe. His finish was spectacular, and hopefully not a once a month tease. Miller has the hands and shot to score more, he needs to be a bit more selfish with his shooting.


KZB Line- Another game together and another goal. A very skillful passing play between Brady Skjei, Mika Zibanajad and Chris Kreider resulted in a Kreider goal, late in the first period. Zibanajad led all forwards with just under 21 minutes of ice time. He was double shifted in the third as center David Desharnais saw very little ice time. Mika’s assists have been fantastically skilled passes of late, while his goals have been left circle snipes. Seeing such high skill plays lead to goals, leads to optimism that Zibanajad can have a banner year and reach the potential the former 6th pick of the draft hopes to achieve.

Ranger Forwards- I was very impressed with other Rangers who didn’t wind up on the score sheet. Jimmy Vesey was very strong and skilled in making plays all over the ice. Grabner utilized his speed to get 4 shots on goal and rang a post. He also had a goal taken away due to a borderline call on a high stick by Boo Nieves. Mats Zuccarello showed grit and leadership in taking on 6’6″ Victor Hedman in a first period scuffle. Rick Nash also had another strong game in all zones, as well as transporting the puck.

NEXT GAME: The Rangers look to make it three in a row on Saturday when they face the Panthers. Puck drops at 7!

LETS GO RANGERS!

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