Knights Shine Brightly In Win Over Rangers

Zak Chiger Updated: Jan 9, 2019

The Rangers have been in a bit of a funk since the beginning of December, having gone 4-6-5 in their previous fifteen contests entering their matchup against the defending Western Conference Champions. Unfortunately for the Rangers, this one would end in the team’s fourth consecutive defeat as the Golden Knights defeated the Blueshirts 4-2 at T-Mobile Arena.

A brutal road trip for the Rangers, but their effort and intentions seemed good and right tonight. They’re just not as good as Vegas. And these kinds of slides are bound to happen to a team that told everyone 11 months ago there would be hard times ahead. These are them.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) January 9, 2019

Mika Zibanejad – The Swedish center has been one of the better forwards this season for David Quinn’s squad, and he would notch his 35th point of the year by scoring the first Rangers goal. With the Blueshirts man-advantage ending, Zibanejad started a rush that would result in a beautiful passing play between Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello, and himself, with Zibanejad finishing it off with the tally. The goal was 12th of the season for Zibanejad, who is on pace for one of the best seasons of his career.

https://twitter.com/4bnyrgameday/status/1082870709800579072?s=21

Jesper Fast – Despite the game being all but over, the Rangers did not quit and their persistence was rewarded with Jesper Fast scoring with under 30 seconds remaining in the contest. Unfortunately for Fast and the Rangers, the goal had no impact on the game’s end result, but at least we saw a team playing until the clock read 0:00.

https://twitter.com/4bnyrgameday/status/1082874501065596929?s=21

Adam McQuaid – It’s been a rough first season on Broadway for McQuaid. The veteran defenseman spent significant time early on dealing with an injury, and, like most of his teammates, has been subjected to a spot in the “Quinn Bin” this year. In spite of all that, McQuaid, who has always been known as a tough guy to play against, stood up for his teammate and dropped the gloves with Ryan Reaves at center-ice. Reaves got the decision in the scrap, but McQuaid did what he had to do in order to try and spark his team for a third period comeback.

https://twitter.com/4bnyrgameday/status/1082865831669829632?s=21

What did #NYR coach David Quinn think about Adam McQuaid stepping up to fight @GoldenKnights tough guy Ryan Reaves? pic.twitter.com/D5ZbYZqlWT

— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) January 9, 2019

Tony DeAngelo – Speaking of players that have spent time in the “Quinn Bin,” defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who the Rangers acquired in the Derek Stepan deal with Arizona, had himself quite the night to forget. Disregarding his first period injury, which saw him miss the final 8:35 of the opening frame, the 23-year-old blue-liner took two horrendous penalties. The first penalty was an unnecessary boarding call, in which DeAngelo clearly hits the Vegas player from behind. Then, while skating to the box, he loses his temper and goes after Max Pacioretty and earns himself a 10 minute misconduct penalty. For a guy that hasn’t seen much of the ice this season, DeAngelo did not give David Quinn any reason to put the kid in his lineup.

Alexandar Georgiev – The Rangers netminder stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced – Vegas scored with the net empty – and had a better game than his previous two starts. Georgiev kept the Rangers in the game early on, especially consider 24 of the Vegas shots come in the game’s opening 40 minutes.

“That’s the only way that you can turn this thing around, is with hard work and committing to the details.” – #NYR Chris Kreider on building off of tonight’s game in Vegas and more in his postgame reaction pic.twitter.com/1xKmI3rNQi

— x – New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 9, 2019

Next Game: The Rangers head back to MSG to take on the Islanders on Thursday night. Puck drops at 7!

LETS GO RANGERS!!