As for the actual match, Jonathan Quick returned to action after missing the last few weeks with a lower body injury and didn’t look like he had missed a beat. Quick’s first period kept the Rangers in the game as they didn’t look good in the second half of a back-to-back. The ice was tilted towards the Rangers defensive zone and Quick had to make some big saves due to mistimed reads, turnovers and some rushing opportunities. Jack Eichel’s winner was a unique goal, as was Nathan MacKinnon’s winner on Saturday. Tap the target with your stick and proceed with the point in tow.
Alexis Lafreniere has had a pretty mediocre season in terms of stat-accumulation, and while other parts of his game have been great, the lack of points is starting to become a story. He may have come off the schneid by setting up a Mika Zibanejad goal to tie the game after a great offensive zone shift, and Mika later returned the favor to Lafreniere to rip the puck down Carter Hart’s crossbar and go outside to take the lead. Lafreniere doesn’t shoot nearly enough as he should, he tends to delay his linemates, but he has a great shot that he should use more often.
If Lafreniere shot more, it would likely lead to more goals, calming the discourse around him. However, we have seen in the past that when Lafreniere finally scores, he has a mini series of games where suddenly everything ends up in the net. Will he do it again, with a game against the Blackhawks on the horizon on Wednesday?
But again, it’s a shame the referee took center stage and ultimately cost Rangers two points. The Rangers did just about everything right to give themselves a chance at victory. There are so many plays that could have led to power play opportunities that we can’t cover them all, but you can’t look me in the eye and say Vegas committed zero penalties in the game, aside from an accidental minor.
We know that officials don’t really call games by the book, but instead “ensure” that power play opportunities emerge evenly in each game more often than not. So what exactly were Chris Lee and Furman South doing? They didn’t control the game, and they certainly didn’t call it fair. There is hardly any real accountability system in the NHL for these types of officials because the commissioner gets on his soapbox at every Stanley Cup Final presser to praise the job these guys do. At some point there has to be accountability for what the referees did last night.
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