Red Hot Rangers Keep Rolling to Ninth Straight ‘W’
No team is hotter than the New York Rangers right now in the NHL.
The Broadway Blue shirts handily took down the New Jersey Devils 4-1 last night at Prudential Center for the club’s ninth straight victory to improve to 38-16-3, one point shy of Boston, who lead the East with 80 points. But in reality, when you look at the standings closely, while Boston has more points than the Rangers do, the Bruins have 24 losses this year, 12 of them in overtime.
That means the Blue Shirts essentially have the best record in the Eastern Conference.
Against the struggling Devils, the Rangers wasted little time in lighting the lamp. Mika Zibanejad scored the opening salvo on a power play at the 9:14 mark of the first period. Eight minutes later Alexis Lafreniere tallied his 15th goal of the year to make it 2-0.
Lafreniere finished the night with a pair of goals in the victory.
Chris Krieder and Vincent Torcheck also lit the lamp as the Rangers jumped out to a 5-0 lead. And to think the Rangers did all of this offensively while getting only 18 shots off on goal.
The Devils meanwhile, just didn’t have it. 40 shots on goal for New Jersey, and they couldn’t get one by Igor Shesterkin until Jack Hughes poked the puck through with less than three minutes left in the third period. New Jersey now finds itself tied with the Islanders with 60 points, five back of Tampa Bay for the final wild card.
RIVALRY:
It comes as no surprise that these two teams do not like one another. There were multiple instances both on the ice and in stands of such distaste for the other, and the cameras were ready to capture the moments for social media posterity.
First on the ice, Matthew Rempe was hit with a major foul for a hard check of Nathan Bastian into the wall. Bastian, sat slumped on the ice for a moment before falling over in pain. Rempe was ejected from the contest.
Meanwhile, in the stands, a Devils fan headbutted a Rangers fan, before the former retaliated with a punch. Both fans, as one would assume, were ejected from the Prudential Center.
ISLANDERS LOSE
Finally, the Islanders’ struggles continue. The Isles suffered a 4-0 shutout loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
NHL Stadium Series: Rangers vs. Islanders
