The Good: I finally get to watch the Rangers play a full 60 minute hockey game. The Rangers came out today and executed their gameplan, played good defense, shut down Giroux, won individual battles along the boards and got timely goals. Congrats to Carl Hagelin getting his first NHL goal. The kid is a keeper and hopefully he stays and gets better with time. Anything that keeps Christensen off the ice is a good thing.
I want to note that during the game I tweeted that I didn't think the Rangers were too far away from a Eastern Conference Final or perhaps a Stanley Cup Final run. To elaborate while I don't think it could happen this year (never say never) but you really can't help but notice how much better the Rangers have been playing year-to-year since the lockout. The kids the Rangers have drafted in the past few seasons are beginning to work their way up to the Rangers and are extremely talented. If guys like Kreider and JT Miller play to potential and are in Rangers blue next season there's no telling how high the Rangers can go. Especially once the Rangers get rid of some of these deadweight contracts in Wolski, Christensen, Stralman, Eminger and Woywitka and use the money to re-sign homegrown guys in Del Zotto and Stepan.
The Bad: Very little to complain about today. The only thing really is the Rangers let their foot off the pedal towards the end of the first and second period. I get you can't play on a emotional high for every second of every game but if the Flyers were going to score on Lundqvist today it was during those small timeframes.
The Ugly: At the beginning of the season you couldn't help but notice this 3 game stretch around Thanksgiving the Rangers had. First on the road ending another road trip in Washington followed by 2 more tough games against Philly and Pittsburgh. So far the Rangers have passed both tests against a floundering Capitals team and a banged up Flyers team by a combined score of 8-3. The Rangers next game on Tuesday night is a measuring stick game against the Penguins.
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