Last night’s 6-1 rout of the Panthers at the Garden should finally put to rest the canard that the Rangers aren’t equipped to keep up with the NHL’s best skating teams.
For the Blueshirts sure were quicker and faster than Florida, beating the Puddy Tats both to the puck and up the ice, dominating in possession-time, zone-time as well as in open ice to complete a weekend sweep that began with Saturday’s 4-1 victory in Buffalo.
“I think our team tempo has gotten a lot better,” said Brad Richards, who opened the scoring at 11:40 of the first with a power-play wrist shot from the left circle off a nifty move. “It doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re not fully confident, you’re going to look slow, and that goes for an individual — if Sidney Crosby isn’t playing with full confidence, he’s going to look slow — and for a team.
“I think there was a time earlier in the year where we didn’t have everyone clicking on all cylinders, we were doing too much thinking, and because of that we looked a little slow. When we lost to Florida [2-1 on Thanksgiving Eve] right after we lost to Montreal, we were in a stretch where we were dull and flat.
“But we’ve turned that around. We’re playing with full confidence. And when we have that, I think we can skate with anybody.”
The Rangers scored four goals on 10 shots during a 12:03 span of the second to go up 6-1 and chase Jose Theodore after two. They were 2-for-3 on the power play, now 10-for-37 in their last nine matches after going 9-for-74 in the first 18. They killed all seven Florida power plays to boost their penalty-kill success rate to 86.7 percent, sixth best in the NHL.
“I think we’ve raised the bar here this year,” said Henrik Lundqvist, sharp when called upon in turning away 20 shots. “We’re satisfied with just being OK and picking up a point here and there; we want to win.
“We have so many good players in the room now and challenging each other to be better.”
Derek Stepan scored twice and set up another in that span, his first goal on a brilliant solo dash up the right side that began in his own end with the Blueshirts shorthanded, the assist coming from the seat of his pants when he was able to gather the puck after being knocked down after a rush down the left.
Marian Gaborik scored on the power play for his 15th. Carl Hagelin was a hound. Artem Anisimov banged in a power-play rebound and allowed the goal to speak for itself.
The Michael Del Zotto-Steve Eminger pair was plus-four. Del Zotto leads the Rangers with a gaudy plus-15 rating, tied for ninth in the league.
“I thought it was one of our better games controlling the puck—in the neutral zone, defensively and offensively,” said Eminger, who scored a goal and has stepped up his play while stepping up to the second pair in Michael Sauer’s absence. “It gives credit to everyone.”
The victory propelled the Rangers to 14-3-1 in their last 18 and 17-6-4 overall. Their plus-11 over NHL .500 is tied for second with Philadelphia behind Minnesota’s plus-13. The Blueshirts have had winning streaks of seven and five but have not gone more than three without a victory and no more than two without a point.