In one of the best hockey games I’ve ever watched, the Rangers, led by Henrik Lundqvist, shutout the number one team in the NHL.
Newly acquired Wojtek Wolski scored the lone goal for the Rangers on the powerplay after Gaborik took the puck to the net, the puck was lying in the crease and Wolski slapped it into the net.
Henrik Lundqvist was simply phenomenal. He stopped deflections, redirections, rebounds, odd man rushes, powerplay chances. He was superb stopping all 31 shots that the Canucks threw at him. It was truly one of his best performances.
The Rangers are in a tie for 5th place with Washington and are just 4 points out of first place in the East.
The Rangers are back at it in Saturday night with a game against the Canadiens at 7pm.
Not the Rangers that’s for damn sure, but let’s take a look at the top 3.
The only three teams in contention for this title are Vancouver, San Jose and Washington. Let’s look at the stats and determine which line is the best:
Vancouver
H. Sedin 78 points in 54 games
D. Sedin 54 points in 36 games
A. Burrows 49 points in 54 games
A total of 181 points in 144 games or 1.26 points per game.
Washington
A. Ovechkin 76 points in 47 games
N. Backstrom 63 points in 55 games
A. Semin 55 points in 46 games
A total of 194 points in 148 games or 1.31 points per game.
San Jose
J. Thornton 68 points in 55 games
P. Marleau 61 points in 55 games
D. Heatley 59 points in 55 games
A total of 188 points in 165 games or 1.14 points per game.
The math says that while San Jose has the most balanced scoring, they are the least productive of the three line. Washington just edging out Vancouver by .5 points per game as the most productive line in the league.
I still will argue that by the end of the year Vancouver will have the most productive line, but that’s just me.
The Rangers lost the first game of their three game Canadian road trip to the Vancouver Canucks 4-1.
The Canucks struck in the first period, but Chris Higgins teid the game at one in the second period, scoring his first goal of the season and first as a Ranger. Things went downhill from there.
After a Michal Rozsival penalty for hooking, the Canucks scored a power play goal making it 3-0 with just over 5 minutes left to play. Sedin added an empty net goal to finish it off for the ‘Nucks.
The Rangers play their second game of the Canadian road trip in Edmonton tomorrow at 9:30
