1st Period
17:16 Detroit Frans Nielsen (10) ASST: Taro Hirose (1), Brian Lashoff (1) 1-0
2nd Period
04:30 Detroit Andreas Athanasiou (27) ASST: Jacob de la Rose (6), Michael Rasmussen (10) 2-0
3rd Period
14:46 New York PPG – Ryan Strome (14) ASST: Kevin Shattenkirk (24), Pavel Buchnevich (14) 2-1
19:06 Detroit EN – Andreas Athanasiou (28) 3-1
19:50 New York Brendan Smith (3) ASST: Brett Howden (13), Neal Pionk (17) 3-2
Stats:
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Henrik Lundqvist said after the game on MSG, “for the most part we played a pretty good game, good energy, good skating, physical, maybe we could have gotten in front a little more and made it tougher for Howard but they defended well, packed it in and made it hard for us to create the big chances.”
Lundqvist spoke about John Gilmour and said, “I think I know him pretty well by now, he’s a good skater, sees the game really well and competes really hard. He looked comfortable and it helps when you have played before and know what to expect, I think he looked good.”
On trying to finish strong, Lundqvist said “it’s important that you approach each game the same way, that you prepare a certain way, you don’t want to try and do too much to try to get the win, start forcing things, that is part of learning how to play in this league and win consistently, you have the same approach. For me it’s about preparation and you know what to do and execute. When we execute our game plan we are close. It’s a game of mistakes and it’s cost us a little bit but I think the approach is pretty good but in the end you look at the losses and who is beating us, it’s usually their top guys coming with the big plays. Those are the guys you need to shut down. We work really hard and you can’t ask for anything more than that type of mindset going in.”
Adam Rotter:
- Pavel Buchnevich has been arguably the Rangers best forward in the last little stretch and you could see, both on the ice and then on the bench, how upset he was when his tying goal attempt didn’t find the net. He got another assist but had 9 shot attempts and is hopefully now finding the level of consistency that the Rangers need from him.
- For someone battling the flu and who wasn’t expected to play tonight, Filip Chytil looked great and certainly seemed to enjoy being back at center. He’s had some good moments on the wing but if the team views him as a center he needs to play there. I thought he would get more of a shot in the middle after the Kevin Hayes trade but Ryan Strome assumed took on more minutes and then Brett Howden, Lias Andersson and Boo Nieves have rotated in the other two spots. Hopefully he can finish the rest of the season strong and produce some points in the middle.