Rangers whip Canucks 7-2
The well-worn adage summed up everything Tuesday.
We all know that hard work will beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard. When the New York Rangers decided to apply some diligence and turn up the wick at Rogers Arena — after being outshot 13-5 at one point in the opening period — the results shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
The National Hockey League’s highest-scoring club came as advertised, a speedy and slick squad that occasionally needs some loud vocal direction from Alain Vigneault to get in gear. And in a convincing 7-2 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers exposed a club that doesn’t have an answer when it has to continually chase games this season.
The Canucks have two players with at least 10 points — Henrik and Daniel Sedin — and the Rangers have 11. And even though the Canucks tried to play a structured game to keep the opposition at bay, they turned pucks over and didn’t have an answer defensively, and certainly not offensively.
And they didn’t get the goaltending. Jacob Markstrom had pucks beating him short side and going through him.
The power play continues to drag this club down and going 0-for-4 was another example of everything that’s gone wrong offensively. The Canucks tried a four-forward set on the power play but the only success they found came at even strength.
Brandon Sutter’s shot from the wall beat Henrik Lundqvist because Henrik Sedin provided the perfect screen. And even when Markus Granlund scored in the third period, it really wasn’t going to mean much because the Rangers are now 11-0-0 when they lead after two periods.
There was a lot of try from the Canucks. The line of Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Alex Burrows had a dominant first-period shift and should have scored.