The Beasts of the East: Rangers win 3-0

The New York Rangers made a statement to the NHL on Tuesday night in Boston.

Henrik Lundqvist made 42 saves and notched his NHL-leading sevent shutout of the season as the Rangers defeated the Bruins 3-0.  Proving to the rest of the league why they are on top of the Eastern Conference, the Rangers pulled nine points ahead of the second place Bruins for the conference lead.

Led by the MVP play of Lundqvist, the Rangers also continued to get production from their Captain Ryan Callahan, who scored a power play goal in the first period for his sixth goal in four games.  Callahan tied his career high in goals at twenty-three.  Last season, Callahan scored the twenty-three in sixty games; the Rangers are only through fifty-five games this year. 

Ryan McDonagh added the second goal with 11.8 seconds remaining in the first period, and Artem Anisimov scored on a 2 on 1 for his 100^th career NHL point in the second.  Aside from that, much of the second and third period was played in the Rangers zone with Lundqvist and the defense coming up clutch. 

The Bruins outshout the Rangers 42-20 in the game, but couldn’t find the net. “Lundsanity” took over as the blueshirts netminder made saves in every important situation, including a late break in by David Kreijci.  Lundqvist is top five in every goalie statistic, and many consider him as the frontrunner for the Vezina Trophy. (NHL’s best goaltender)   There has also been some talk of Lundqvist being in the running for the Hart Trophy for the NHL MVP.

The Rangers have won four in a row, and are now 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, while continuing to spread themselves apart from the rest of the Atlantic Division.  The Flyers are now 10 points back, as well as having one more game played.   The blueshirts are now 2-0 vs. the Bruins this season, and will face them two more times, both at MSG. 

Brandon Dubinsky left the game late in the third period after getting hit in the face with the puck.  He needed ten stiches and has a couple of chipped teeth, but nothing that should keep him out of the lineup going forward. 

The Rangers are now 37-13-5 with 79 points on the season.   With 27 games left in the regular season, the Rangers could go 13-14 the rest of the way and still finish with at least 105 points on the season.  They haven’t broken the 100-point barrier since their 93-94 Stanley Cup Season.

The Rangers are back at it Thursday night vs. the Chicago Blackhawks in an original six matchup at MSG.