New York Rangers: November success leaves open possibilities

The New York Rangers have shown what they are really capable of in the month of November as they are back in the playoff conversation with 10 wins in the last 13 games.

The New York Rangers finish the month of November with a 9-3 record after a rough October start to the season.

Just like that, the Rangers quickly turned what could have been an abomination of a season to being a playoff contender in the second month of the campaign.

Only two losses separated a six-game win streak and a four-game win streak. This last week of hockey has been a string of exciting contests as the Rangers came from behind to tie the score in the third period three times in a row.

Captain Ryan McDonagh has been out of the lineup in the last four games with an abdominal strain and players have found ways to compensate for his absence.

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Players of note start with Jimmy Vesey who seems to be starting to click at a consistent level as an NHL player.

We saw him bury two goals in 29 seconds on the Boston Bruins on November 8. and he scored a gorgeous forehand-backhand goal to tie the thriller against the Vancouver Canucks that would go to a seven-round shoot-out in where he would score the winner.

Vesey jumped up from the fourth line to playing on the second line along with Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash and he has a lot more confidence with the puck.

Another player that has surged to the next level in recent is Chris Kreider. Kreider is finding scoring opportunities for himself every single night and is such a threat in front of the net due to his strength and size.

Kreider has five goals in the last four games and has been a game-changing factor since McDonagh’s absence. Him and his line mates, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich, have been gelling on another level as the team’s best trio.

Buchnevich is someone that has an obvious bright future as a New York Ranger, as he stars on the top power play unit and sits at second in points on the team with 20 behind Zibanejad’s 22.

He has creative hands, size, a great shot and always seems to be in the right spot to score. It has quite some time since the Rangers last had a Russian star on the team. It is funny that the last one that comes to mind shares the same first name and last initial.

Even a player like David Desharnias, who has been the Rangers 13th forward as of recent, finds out he is playing five minutes before face-off when Zibanejad is out with injury and goes to record three beautiful assists against the Florida Panthers.

During this November turn around, the 35-year-old Henrik Lundqvist has started every game of the month in goal with 13 straight while posting a 10-2 record in the span.

I think it is fair to say this man still has juice left in the tank. It is hard to continue to criticize his age when he is maintaining a top ten reputation against goaltenders significantly younger than him.

Let Lundqvist do his job like he always has, when it comes to looking at areas of improvement, it is certainly not in the blue paint right now.

When everyone is doing their job, it really shows, but as far as when they aren’t, it is detrimental. The Panthers game on November 28. (4-5 loss) as well as the Chicago Blackhawks game on November 15. (3-6 loss) are both prime examples of how this team absolutely must play a full 60 minutes of hockey.

The Panthers game could have resulted in at least a point if it weren’t for a sloppy Nick Holden turnover in the defensive zone, who would only get up to screen his own goalie and let the game winner wiz by his ear with a minute left. Plays like this can not happen in order to be consistent.

From what I can see, if there is any demise of this team it is this. The league is just way too tight this year and each game means way to much to throw away winnable games like these due to slacking defensively at certain stages of the contest.

There cannot be lazy first periods where guys are missing each other’s sticks on passes and the puck glides down the rink for an icing call.

Next: Lundqvist ninth on wins list

The play-from-behind games are exciting to watch and a win is a win, but the Rangers are capable of burying some teams early and they need to come out of the gates hot in the first period not the second.

However, both those games are also examples of the great resilience the Rangers have had this year. I believe this team can play with anyone if they are clicking for 60 minutes.

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