New York Rangers: Victory over Vegas Shows Capability Is Still There

The New York Rangers’ third period rally shows that the abilities this team once had is still amongst the locker room, it just needed to be accessed.

The New York Rangers clinched a dire 6-4 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in their first ever meeting on the ice.

The Rangers were once again coming off of a tough loss Saturday where they climbed back to tie the Montreal Canadiens only to give up the game winner a few minutes later in the third period.

The Vegas Golden Knights have surprised the hockey world starting their season 8-2-0 coming into this tilt while the Rangers have had opposite fortunes sitting at 3-7-2.

The Golden Knights have not only been making history starting off their franchise with the record they have, but it is how they have managed to do it while losing each goalie they call up to play after its predecessor gets injured.

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You would think this would be a recipe for a decisive victory but the Rangers gave the lackluster effort they have been displaying all season in the first two periods.

Jimmy Vesey tallied his first goal of the season early at 2:45 off a nice feed to the front of the net from David Desharnais. That is when we thought this would be the field day the Rangers deserve.

It was just a tease as Vegas scored twice to end the first period ahead by two. It was more of the same in the second as after Mats Zuccarello opened the period with a goal, it followed with two Vegas tallied, one of which was a penalty shot off a careless hooking on David Perron.

Henrik Lundqvist was showing flashes of the Hank we all know best making game-saving saves to keep the Rangers in the contest for both periods.

After another frustrating two periods of play, it seemed like we were in for another disappointment that would entrench the Rangers another two feet deeper in their hole.

Well, all hail Mika Zibanejad. Our patience was finally granted as the best period of the season followed where four unanswered goals were netted in the third, two of which coming as power play successes.

A double-minor on Perron gave the opportunity for Zibanejad to feed a beautiful sauce pass to Chris Kreider who would bury it to put it within one. Zibanejad made another great play feeding red-hot Pavel Buchnevich for a wide open net.

Buchnevich is coming to the form the Rangers envisioned, scoring four goals in the last three games. He is becoming a powerful power play asset.

Five minutes later, who but Mika Zibanejad would rifle the game winner top left shelf on the power play.

It was truly inspiring to see the power play execute like this. I think we can all be grateful for not one but two power play conversions in a Rangers hockey game.

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This third period of thirst and capitalization shows that it is all still there. It has just been hiding. The chemistry hasn’t been great and it has caused mistakes, which then has caused second guessing, which has caused more mistakes and therefore more losses.

The dominoes can stop falling into one another. October is behind us.

Let’s hope this emotional victory the Rangers gave to New York Monday helps them bond together and to start to take the season back as the New York Rangers we all know.

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