It looked as if the Rangers and Blackhawks were going on muscle memory through large swatches of Thursday night’s match at the Garden that marked the first for the clubs in nearly three weeks.
Pinpoint precision and ferocity were missing from the contest that featured 14 Olympians — nine for Chicago — and a three-quarters pace most of the way.
But if both clubs were working their way back into a flow in this game devoid of excitement and even drama until the final ticks of the clock, the Blueshirts were somewhat closer to their standard in recording a 2-1 victory at the Garden that represented the team’s sixth win in the last seven games (6-1).
“I thought we played an outstanding game defensively,” said Rick Nash, who beat Corey Crawford with a right wing wrist shot at 15:53 of the third for a 2-0 lead and what became the winning goal. “And Talbot was first star, by far.”
That’s Cam Talbot, who made 31 saves, and was beaten only by Peter Regin with 11.6 seconds left in regulation. The Blueshirts’ netminder improved his record to 11-5 in allowing two goals or fewer for the 13th time in 16 starts.
“It was important for us to pick up where we left off,” Talbot said. “We were able to establish ourselves early and play our game.”
Uncertainty hovers over the Rangers and will continue to do so up to Wednesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. The fates of longtime linchpins Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi remain unresolved, Callahan far more likely to go in a deal than make a deal to stay and Girardi looking about 50-50.
Nevertheless, the Blueshirts went about their business in a match in which the teams played as if coloring by numbers rather than painting with flair. They played quickly, too, the game featuring a total of 50 faceoffs, 14 of which came in the final 8:23.
“We wanted to keep the game simple,” Girardi said. “We wanted to keep our shifts short, which we did from the start of the game.”
Neither team established a substantial amount of zone time or generated a dangerous rush game. Both teams kept turnovers to a minimum, therefore negating much of the transition game. The Rangers scored the game’s first goal at 10:14 of the first period when Derick Brassard buried his own rebound to complete a sequence on which J.T. Miller’s forecheck hectored Jonathan Toews into a defensive-zone giveaway.
The Blackhawks, who had been shut out 2-0 by Phoenix in their final match before the break, entered as the NHL’s top offensive team, scoring 3.37 goals-per game. The Rangers used strong five-man defense to minimize Chicago’s scoring chances.
“Trading chances was probably not the way to go,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “We were really solid, we back-checked hard, our shift lengths were good and we were able to keep a smart pace and not give them very much the first two periods.”
The Rangers didn’t exactly sit on the lead in the third period through which Vigneault rolled out a fairly steady four-line rotation but the Blackhawks did have the better of the final 20 minutes — the last 2:39 of which they played with an extra attacker after pulling Corey Crawford — in outshooting the Blueshirts 13-2.
“I feel bad for Cam we didn’t get the shutout,” Marc Staal said. “The way he played for us, he deserved it.”
The Rangers are in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon and home to the Bruins Sunday night. The game following that comes at the Garden against the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, hours after the deadline.
It’s impossible to know what the Blueshirts will look like then, but Talbot has an idea who they are now.
“To come out and beat the defending champs is a good measuring stick,” he said. “We know when we play our best hockey we can beat anyone.”
The Rangers didn’t play their best hockey on Thursday but they still beat somebody. That will do.