Nash is King for Rangers
RICK NASH had scored just once in his previous 12 games, a goal on Monday that went in off his leg. He’s had a number of nights like Friday against the Kings when he’s had several highquality looks, some of which he’s done a brilliant job of creating himself, but just hasn’t been able to finish. He is so much more than a goal-scorer, wears many hats on a nightly basis, but ultimately pucks need to go in. And given his previous streakiness, he and the Rangers hope that his go-ahead goal with 3:27 left Friday night in their 4-2 win over the Kings provides a spark.
“You know what? It’s hard to score goals in this league,” said Nash, who has nine goals this season. “You just have to stay with it. You can’t get frustrated. You’ve got to look at positives when they’re not going in — and when they are going in, you don’t ask any questions about it.”
Nash had three great looks in the first period that he couldn’t finish off. Of course, it was a good defensive play by Nash that led to his crucial tally, stifling a Kings transition ahead of the red line with a takeaway, skating into the left circle and beating Jonathan Quick near side.
A similar play in the first better informed his shot selection on the gamewinner. Nash was denied by Quick when he tried to go high-glove, so he instead aimed blocker.
“I feel like I’ve been getting so many chances each game,” Nash said. “I’ve been through a few stretches where pucks aren’t going in the way you want them to. But I always say it’s important to get the opportunities, and I think they’ve been there the last little bit.”
The Rangers (17-12-3) took a one-goal lead into the third but old friend Marian Gaborik, who scored five-hole on Henrik Lundqvist (33 saves) in the second, caused havoc to set up an equalizer. Gaborik blew right by Kevin Shattenkirk, and after Lundqvist stopped his shot, trailer Torrey Mitchell wasn’t picked up and he cleaned up.
It took 15 blocked shots in the first period for the Rangers to help keep the Kings off the board early and take a lead on a power-play goal credited to Chris Kreider after Shattenkirk’s shot hit Jake Muzzin and Kreider’s leg. A Ryan McDonagh rush up the right side set up Kevin Hayes at 14:43 of the second to give the Blueshirts a 2-1 advantage after Gaborik tied the game.
Having blown the one-goal lead in the third, it would’ve been a gut-punch had the Rangers taken a loss while heading right up to Boston for Saturday’s game. But Nash’s moment finally came.
“I think we all knew it was just a matter of time, and hopefully this opens the floodgates because he does so much for us: Power play; penalty killing; net-front presence; certainly drawing penalties; just creating offensive-zone looks,” McDonagh said.
“It’s been a tremendous season for him creating offense like that, and it’s great to see him get rewarded.”