This is what you want, for victories to feel matter of fact, just the way the Rangers’ 5-1 triumph over the Hurricanes at the Garden on Saturday night seemed routine.
“This type of effort is what we should expect from ourselves,” Marc Staal said after the Blueshirts’ third straight victory and fourth in the past five games. “I feel as if our forwards have a boatload more confidence than they did a few weeks ago insofar as making plays, and I guess that goes for all of us.
“It’s amazing how much of a factor confidence is in playing this game.”
The victory that pushed the Rangers to 6-7 was not without blemishes. The Hurricanes dominated the opening minutes, controlling play in the New York zone, forcing Henrik Lundqvist to make a series of outstanding stops.
But when Carl Hagelin got the first of his two goals at 8:26 by whipping a backhand past Justin Peters, the Blueshirts took over the match. Hagelin got another and Derek Stepan recorded the hat trick — the second of his career and first since his first NHL game on Oct. 9, 2010, in Buffalo — as the Candy Canes dropped their fifth straight.
“You’re not going to play perfect hockey for 60 minutes, but you can handle tough stretches when you have confidence,” said Lundqvist, who has surrendered a sum of three goals in his past three games. “We didn’t panic at the start tonight, and then when we got that first goal, it was huge.”
The Rangers never did came close to being pristine in their own end — and with the score 3-1 with 8:03 remaining in the match, Lundqvist lectured J.T. Miller at a stop in play following a coverage blunder that allowed Carolina to generate a couple of glorious opportunities — but the Rangers made their opportunities count at the other end.
“The first goal was really important,” said Hagelin, with whom the club is unbeaten since his debut on Tuesday at Long Island after 10 games on long term injury. “We gave them way too many chances, but after we took the lead we battled harder and played much better.
“We have to be honest with ourselves. Henrik had to make too many Grade A saves.”
Carolina outshot the Blueshirts 6-2 over the first 6:19 and out-attempted the Rangers 16-5 over the first 10:49. By the end of the period, the shots were 12-9 Rangers and the attempts were 22-18 for the Hurricanes. The second-period shots and attempts were 15-5 and 27-14, respectively, for the Blueshirts.
Hagelin’s second goal gave the Blueshirts a 2-0 edge at 8:16 of the second. Stepan’s power-play goal at 15:54 increased the lead to 3-0 before Carolina scored on its only shot of the final 10:48 of the period. The centerman then completed his hat trick by scoring at 9:09 and 14:37 of the third.
The Rangers had begun to play with more structure after returning from their opening five-game tour through the west a dazed and confused 1-4. But the offense has just begun to come with Hagelin’s return and Stepan’s improvement after the stutter-step start that followed the contract impasse that kept him out of training camp.
“I think the last three games our line has clicked,” said Stepan, who has been skating between Chris Kreider and Mats Zuccarello. “Those two guys have picked up the pace of my game, especially [Kreider].”
“I wasn’t where I wanted to be, obviously, but the last three games are much, much closer to me being the player I want to be,” Stepan said. “The coaches, everyone in the organization and the guys in the room understood where I was at and gave me a helping hand.”
So now in the wake of chaos, there is order. After allowing 25 goals in their first five games, the Rangers have surrendered 13 in the last eight. It is all so routine.