Exhibition: NYR 5 vs NYI 2, Tilt’s Takeaways

Anthony Scultore Sep 28, 2016

Girardi notched the ENG (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Last night the Rangers opened their preseason with a resounding thumping of the Islanders. Granted, I couldn’t tell you who 70% of the Islanders roster were, but at the same time it’s not like the Rangers had all their regulars out there either.

Tilt’s Takeaways

In an effort to get more content out to you and also to breakaway from your standard postgame recaps (which you can find on every blog), I will just give you a handful of things that were either important or stood out from the game.

I Love Zibanejad’s Right Handed Shot!

When the lineup was revealed, I immediately couldn’t wait to see how the line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Pavel Buchnevich would perform. Needless to say I was impressed.

Zi (copyright on the nickname, so I better not see tee shirts with that on them) stood out last night thanks largely to his right handed shot on the power play. He earned first star honors with a power play goal and 2 assists. Not a bad debut.

He and Derek Stepan are both right handed centers, that means they will each man one of the two PP units and give the Blueshirts that look for a full 2 minutes. I expect that Zi will help make giving up Brass a lot easier and faster than many thought.

#NYR @MikaZibanejad…welcome to @TheGarden! #ItsAPowerPlayGoal pic.twitter.com/thynLgVmxH

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 27, 2016

Pirri Stood Out…period.

On Zi’s PP tally to open the Rangers scoring he made my eyes pop, you just need to watch his work around the right circle to understand why. He controlled the puck, he was on top of it at all times and made the great feed that led to the tally.

If that wasn’t good enough, he also scored a beauty. Here it is…

#NYR @pirri91, welcome to @TheGarden! pic.twitter.com/fTXGfSGwLa

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 28, 2016

That was two PP goals between Zi and Pirri both assisting on each other’s tally. My belief was that Pirri was definitely making the team as a 4th liner. Now, I have to look at how he may be working his way onto to the third line and quite possibly one of the two PP units.

Clendening Made a Statement

Adam Clendening proved to me one thing for certain last night…he has the offensive chops to play in the NHL. However, the Rangers top 7 won’t be easy to crack on defense. He notched 2 assists last night and made consistent heads up plays with the puck.

I’m not exactly sure what will happen here, but if he can do this throughout the preseason, it may just lead to a trade to open up a spot for him. At the very least, should an injury occur we already know who will likely get the call up.

Quick Shots

I though both Magnus Hellberg and McKenzie Skapski were rock solid with the stop of the night going to The Skap Man.

The Ginger Princess with a pretty good save on P.A. Parenteau. #NYR pic.twitter.com/F1E47iQXXs

— Woj (@BryanWojtanik) September 28, 2016

If you looked at last night’s game to nitpick Dan Girardi‘s play…you need to reevaluate how you look at hockey. It is way too early to think he was good or bad. Girardi is a veteran and most vets work on certain little things each game to prep for the regular season. I’m just glad he got the empty net goal at the end of the game to give the haters a rest.

That’s it folks….let me know if you like this postgame format.