It’s one thing to play well on the defensive side of the puck. The Rangers have done that pretty much all season. It’s quite another, however, to combine a defensive consciousness with an attack. The Rangers finally did that last night.
For the first time, really, the Blueshirts gave everyone a glimpse of how dangerous they can be when they move the puck quickly on the transition, when they get their speed-game going in open ice, and when they crash the net, as well. For the first time, really, the Rangers looked like a reasonable facsimile of what they’re supposed to be.
“It was only a matter of time with the depth we have that we were going to score some goals,” Scott Gomez, who played a Devilish game, said after the Rangers’ 4-2 victory at the Garden over the Penguins. “The most important thing for us is to stick with the program and to believe in the game-plan, because with the players we have, it’s going to come.”
Gomez had jump all night, and got his open-ice speed-and-dish game going while working on a line with Brendan Shanahan and Sean Avery. Brandon Dubinsky, so calm, so confident and so young, scored the first goal of his NHL career. The Fedor Tyutin-Dan Girardi defensive pair was outstanding in working most of the night with the equally impressive Ryan Hollweg-Blair Betts-Colton Orr unit against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. When all else failed, King Henrik of Lundqvist was customarily excellent.
The Blueshirts scored two goals in the first for the second time this season, and scored four in a game for the first time since opening night, even if it seemed like the first time since the Andy Bathgate-Earl Ingarfield-Dean Prentice line roamed Eighth Avenue. They played with purpose in taking a hit to make a play. They won most of the battles in the corners and along the boards.
To that end, it was no accident that Avery had his best game by far since returning last week from the shoulder separation that sidelined him for a month. He agitated; he had a monster shift late in the first and was able to goad veteran Gary Roberts into taking a double minor on which the Rangers capitalized to score a power-play goal for a 2-1 lead. He then added the cherry on top of the sundae by ripping home a rising one-time for a 3-1 midway through the second.
It only seemed to infuriate the Penguins. But then what else is new? The ability to irritate is, of course, the secret of his, uh, charm.
“I definitely think teams want me to play poorly, they want me to get hurt; that’s part of the whole thing with me,” said Avery, wearing black nail polish on the five fingers of his right hand. “I guess I’m kind of used to the unnerving part of my game, but getting the first [goal] out of the way was nice.”
Avery did not play well in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss at the Coliseum. He said so then and he said so last night. He didn’t have to hear it from Tom Renney, but he did, in a meeting on Wednesday. He didn’t have to hear it from his mom, either, but he did, when he called home two days ago.
“My mom said I played like [garbage],” he said, before going off into the night to paint it black, as well.
Rangers 4 Penguins 2