The question following last night’s 8-2 humiliation of the Lightning at the Garden is whether the Rangers are on a plan that gives them rollover goals.
It’s been a sweet week thus far for the Blueshirts, who followed Sunday’s 6-2 drubbing of the Canadiens with another offensive bonanza, even if this one was accomplished against a disengaged team that looked as if it had been out partying upon its arrival in New York in the early morning following a victory Monday in Raleigh.
Presumably it will be more difficult in Philadelphia tomorrow night and in Montreal on Saturday, but at least the Rangers, 6-2-3 in their last 11, will arrive for those matches with buoyancy in their sails after weeks of biting their nails.
“I hope that this relaxes us,” said Vinny Prospal, who used Marian Gaborik as a two-on-one decoy to score early in the first for a 2-0 lead. “You’ve seen how disappointed and uptight we are in the room when we can’t score — Marian basically has been the only one to score on a regular basis — so these two games should be a great confidence-builder for us.”
Eight Rangers scored goals. Sixteen of their 18 skaters — all but Michal Rozsival and Artem Anisimov — recorded at least one point, with Gaborik leading the way with the second four-assist game of his career.
Aaron Voros, who fought at 0:10 of the first and 14:28 of the third, got his first goal (a PPG, no less) while combining again with Crash Line mates Sean Avery and Brian Boyle to help set the tone.
“I understand what I have to do,” said Voros, who’d been scratched for 18 of the previous 20 before being reinserted into the lineup on Sunday. “As far as our line, we relish the opportunity to play together and be aggressors. We bang and we crash and hopefully that kind of play is contagious. I think it is. When the [opposition] knows they’re going to get hit, maybe they’re going to be looking over their shoulders at times.”
It’s difficult to gauge the Crash Line’s impact last night against a club that did a bang-up imitation of last week’s Rangers while also getting shoddy goaltending from starter Antero Niittymaki, chased after surrendering five goals on 20 shots in 35:39.
“The only thing we did was the bus was on time to get to this game,” said Lightning coach Rick Tocchet. “The bus driver was the best thing we had.”
Among the best things for the Rangers were goals from Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, even if Girardi’s was a floater from 50 feet that found net and Staal’s extended the lead to 6-2 late in garbage time. After defensemen had combined to score 12 goals in the team’s first 14 games, they’d contributed just eight in the following 35 before last night.
“I think we all kind of pulled back a little bit after we were getting beaten back way too much and were giving up too many chances,” said Staal. “We want to be smart as a group and pick our spots so we can get up into the play. Our forwards have been so good defensively in keeping the third man high that we’ve had more opportunities to get in the play. It’s a huge advantage to add that fourth man to the attack.”
Almost as huge as having rollover goals.