NY Rangers Aftermath

Mats Zuccarello, Derick Brassard and Kevin Hayes scored in the first period, and the Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues 6-3 on Thursday night for their seventh straight victory.

Zuccarello also had two assists as NY improved to 14-2-2, the best 18-game start in franchise history in wins and points (30).

The Rangers raced into an early three-goal lead in the first period but were nearly pegged back as Dmitrij Jaskin and Vladimir Tarasenko scored for the Blues. Brassard sent a pass to Zuccarello, who waltzed past Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and snapped a shot past Allen for his eighth goal of the season.

“I might have gone with Reims again, but we gave up too much in the 3rd period last night so I didn’t think that was fair”.

Making his first start in goal in over two weeks, Bernier was involved in what was clearly a battle of the backups on Sunday night. Zuccarello’s current shooting percentage is unsustainable, but he is a player that makes his mark on most games through his playmaking and ability to create scoring chances for his teammates. So far this season they’ve been less than stellar on the power play as well, but things may be coming around, as they’ve scored a power-play goal in five of their last nine games.

And the result is a top line scorer, who is pacing the best team in hockey right now – yeah I said it and check the standings. Not only is he the team’s best player not named Henrik Lundqvist right now, but we can now wonder if he has been the Rangers’ most valuable forward in the Alain Vigneault era.

Jason Zucker scored his second goal of the game with 1:10 remaining in overtime as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 at PNC Arena. It was the second consecutive game where Bernier gave up a goal on the opening shot, albeit while his team was shorthanded.

That’s why it such a feel good story that No. 36 is playing so well right now and it’s not just that he is scoring, it’s the type of hard goals that St. Louis used to score when he was in his prime playing for John Tortorella in Tampa Bay.

Derrick Brassard and the Rangers are all smiles after a ninth straight win.

11/25 vs Montreal: The Canadiens will be looking for a similar performance to their 3-0 shutout of the Rangers in their first matchup.

After watching the Toronto Maple Leafs string together three wins in a row, are they the worst team in the league like everyone thought? The Rangers’ captain one-timed a feed from Stepan past Elliott, then pumped his fist in celebration. It was McDonagh’s third goal in four games. NOTES: Toronto scratched D Frank Corrado, D Martin Marincin and RW Brad Boyes, while NY scratched D Dan Boyle and RW Emerson Etem…. He only knows how to play one way – and that’s with straight-ahead decisiveness. Former NY Giants offensive lineman David Diehl and NY Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard were among the 18,006 in attendance.