Rangers
He won’t be perfect every night, but Dylan Garand has shown promise in net for the Rangers. Last night, he made a season-high 32 saves, falling 59 seconds short of a shutout as the Rangers earned a much-needed 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.
Garand has played in 11 consecutive games for the Rangers since Igor Shesterkin’s season ended on October 2. Because Joonas Korpisalo started his season on injured reserve, the Rangers haven’t had anybody viable to back up Garand. Spencer Martin and James Reimer aren’t good enough.
General manager Chris Drury is extremely lucky nobody picked Garand up off waivers at the start of the season. Otherwise, he’d be under pressure to trade for a goalie, or Martin and Reimer would be splitting reps. Yikes. Now, Garand is the starter, and his backup is almost ready to return.
Korpisalo will play in a live AHL game tonight. He is expected to join the Rangers as an active participant on their four-game road trip, which begins in Seattle on Saturday. The 24-year-old Garand, who played in three NHL games before this season, will finally get a break. But he’s still the Rangers’ starter.
Yesterday, the Rangers won their first game since October 19. They struggled early in the first period, again coming out of the gate cold, and they trailed 9-2 in shots on goal. But with 5:19 remaining, the Rangers went on the power play. The first unit didn’t get any pucks to the net, but the second unit did.
When the first unit departed, Adam Fox stayed on the ice. He helped the second unit—JT Miller, Will Cuylle, Tye Kartye, and Oliver Bjorkstrand—keep the puck in the offensive zone. The second unit didn’t score, but they helped the Rangers record seven shots on goal in five minutes.
The Blues entered yesterday’s game with the NHL’s 10th-best power-play conversion rate. The Rangers took six costly penalties but killed off each. Their 90.4% penalty kill rate leads the NHL, and yesterday, Garand was their best penalty killer. He stopped eight shots while his team was shorthanded.
“I felt good,” Garand said. “I just really try not to think out there. I have been doing too much of that lately in my game, so I tried to go out there and battle and stop the puck. […] Obviously, it’s my first experience going through this in the NHL, and there are lots of things you can learn.
“We play a lot of games. How to manage that physically and mentally, it’s new. Just handling that, and at the end of the day, just figuring out what I want to do with my game and me as a human being, and just trying to battle for the guys and help this group win.”
Garand was the Rangers’ best player, and Fox was their best skater. Fox ranks second among NHL defensemen with 17 assists, but he hit his marks so well yesterday that he scored a goal. He almost scored two, but he hesitated to shoot.
Channeling the momentum he helped his team gain at the end of the first period, Fox scored 1:49 into the second. He entered the offensive zone on the rush, got open in the slot, and whipped Tye Kartye’s perfect pass around Joel Hofer’s glove.
“I guess it’s always nice to contribute in the goal category,” Fox said. “It was a hard-fought game. I thought the [penalty kill] was great, and on the [power play], we had some good looks. We’d like to get one [power-play goal], but overall, we felt pretty good about it.”
If the Rangers’ power play finds rhythm, they will have to thank Fox. Later in the game, head coach Mike Sullivan started the second unit because they played so well. Will Cuylle is on that unit, and he was excellent in his first-ever game at center.
By moving to center ice, Cuylle made the Rangers’ third line functional. His linemate Eeli Tolvanen had his first multi-point game of the season, including the primary assist on Oliver Bjorkstrand’s third-period goal. The Rangers took a 2-0 lead after Cuylle kept the puck in at the blue line.
St. Louis couldn’t clear, and Cuylle’s new role positioned him for the takeaway. In a tic-tac-toe sequence, he passed across to Tolvanen, who dished the puck up to Bjorkstrand for the goal. The third line was overdue, and Cuylle proved to himself he could play center.
“My approach was not to change too much,” Cuylle said. “Try to play my game and be detailed in the defensive zone. I tried to play my game, and like I said, just worry about the little details, and the rest will come.”
Tolvanen scored on St. Louis’ empty net with three minutes remaining, sealing the game for the Rangers. Pius Suter broke Garand’s shutout bid with 59 seconds left, but the Rangers held on. They need to carry this win into tomorrow’s game against Philadelphia (7 PM, 6 PM CST – MSG, DAZN).
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Rangers
