Rangers 6 – Thrashers 2
It isn’t too early to sneak a peak at the standings, isn’t too early to note that the Rangers are accumulating points at a rate rapid enough to put a significant November distance between themselves and ninth place, which is no place they want to be near when the pages of the calendar turn to spring.
Add two more points to the resume for the Eastern Conference leaders off last night’s 6-2 Garden party of a victory over the Thrashers that featured Eric Lindros’ 13th career hat trick; an 11-point night for No. 88 and his FLY Line mates Mike York and Theo Fleury; a 38-save performance from Mike Richter; and, an energizing fight off the opening draw starring Sandy McCarthy and his fists.
Add that pair of points to the 13 the team had accumulated in its previous seven matches, plus those that had come before the early-season revival, and there are the Rangers with 28 points in 22 games, a nine-point lead over the ninth-place Devils and 10th-place Canadiens, a 10-point lead over the 11th-place Sabres, a 12-point lead over the 12th-place Caps.
Add up the points and bank them, because no one can ever subtract them. The Rangers are 7-0-0-1 in their last eight, 9-2-0-1 in the last dozen and six over .500.
“If you’re looking at how quickly we’ve pulled this together, you have to give credit to the guys who have been here for a while,” said Lindros, who added an assist to his first hat trick since December of 1999, and whose first goal of the evening marked the 300th of his career. “Those guys have opened their arms and made all of us newcomers feel very welcome.”
Lindros, Fleury (three assists) and York (four helpers) dominated throughout the match, both on the rush and in the trenches, far too strong, fleet, quick and talented for the Thrashers. This Legion of Zoom has combined for 49 points in the last 12 games. But it wasn’t only No. 88 and his friends who did last night’s damage. The Rangers played with emotion after losing it (and a 1-0 OT game) in Pittsburgh Saturday.
“We talked before the game about getting the emotion back,” said Ron Low, who returned to coach after having attended funeral services for his brother in Manitoba Saturday. “And then Sandy went out and picked us up in a big way.”
The Rangers talked before the game, and then McCarthy and Atlanta’s rookie enforcer, Darcy Hordichuk, talked as they lined up for the opening draw. Three seconds in, their fists did all the talking in a wing-ding of a bout that had players on both teams’ benches banging their sticks against the boards in excited approval.
“Sandy’s fight really got our juices going,” Fleury said. “We all meant business right from the start.”
The Rangers poured 23 shots on goaltender Milan Hnilicka in the first but somehow did not score, emerging from the period in a 0-0 game. But the team simply kept coming, broke through at the 32-second mark of the second, and barely stopped thereafter.
The power play scored twice, and the penalty-kill unit yielded one goal in the third to snap a streak of 26 straight kills. After being outscored 19-7 on the specialty units in their first 14 games, the Rangers have outdone their opponents 6-5 in the last eight matches.
There are still problems lurking. Petr Nedved hasn’t found his game. Radek Dvorak is far from his best. And the Rangers, who have yielded 35 or more shots in 11 games – 40 or more in six – are leaning too much on their goaltenders.
Still, compared to the travails of the last four seasons, it is fair to say: what problems?
