3 Rangers takeaways from all-around solid 4-3 road win against Canucks

This four-game road trip is coming together nicely for the New York Rangers. They won again Tuesday, 4-3 at the Vancouver Canucks, with an impressive all-around showing, after starting with a 2-0 win in Seattle against the Kraken on Sunday.

It appears the Rangers (12-4-1) are turning the corner on their worrisome stretch of hockey that lasted a few weeks. Things began to look better to the eyes and on the stat sheet even when they lost 6-3 at home last week to the NHL-best Winnipeg Jets. They’ve since won three straight games, looking better in each, saving the best — so far — for Tuesday in Vancouver.

It wasn’t perfect. There were still a couple goals allowed off the rush, and some lackluster defense on Quinn Hughes’ game-opening score just 34 seconds in — yes, another goal surrendered in the first minute of a game. But this ended up being one of New York’s more complete games in a while. It was a very good, solid road win.

Speaking of the road, the Rangers are 7-1-0 away from Madison Square Garden already this season. And this road trip could provide a similar boost for the Rangers as the 5-0-0 trip out west did last October.

The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are next up on this road swing. So, there’s still games to be played before we put the trip into any bigger context. But, so far, so good.

3 takeaways from Rangers 4-3 win against Canucks

Here are three takeaways from the game Tuesday.

1. Foxy performance

Adam Fox typically doesn’t wow you. But he’s so good at what he does — at both ends of the rink — as New York’s top defensemen, that it often feels like he’s taken for granted. Yes, he won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2020-21 and been in the top-5 voting for that award every season since. But his greatness does seem to go unnoticed at times.

Not last night. Fox probably had his best all-around game of the season. He had two assists (and is now tied for third among NHL defensemen with 15 helpers) — including a long beauty of a pass (tipped ever so slightly by Kaapo Kakko) that sprung Will Cuylle for a first-period breakaway goal — and was stout defensively, breaking up plays in the neutral zone and a couple scoring chances in his own end with good, strong, determined plays. He blocked three shots and the Rangers had an xGF of 64.75 percent when he was on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick.

Perhaps seeing Hughes, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, on the other side Tuesday got his juices going. But Fox seemed to have another gear to his game.

2. Rangers dictate against depleted Canucks

By and large, the Rangers took the game to the Canucks. And they should have, especially with the Canucks missing Brock Boeser (injury) and J.T. Miller (leave of absence), two of their best forwards. Vancouver showed plenty of fight and grit, and should be commended. But New York did what it needed to to control large swaths of this game, and was the better team throughout.

The Rangers outscored (4-3), outshot (27-17) and out-chanced (20-16) the Canucks at 5v5. They spent more time doing what they wanted in the offensive zone, and were largely effective defensively. As a result, they had a team xGF of 61.65 percent.

Mika Zibanejad’s line scored twice and allowed a pair of goals. But they controlled the game, with a 72.8 xGF percentage. And with the score tied midway through the third period, they delivered a lightning-fast tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Zibanejad to Reilly Smith to Chris Kreider, who buried the game-winning goal. And it all started with a solid defensive play by Zibanejad.

Even without Filip Chytil — who will rejoin the team in Calgary — the third line was outstanding again. Cuylle and Kakko each had a goal and assist. Jonny Brodzinski had an assist and won seven of nine face-offs. That line outshot the Canucks 7-1 and outchanced them 5-2. Just another day at the office for them, no matter who plays center.

3. Off the rush

Though the Rangers are playing much better in their own end, winning more board and puck battles and staying away from being pinned for extended stretches, they’re still getting burned on rush chances. The Canucks scored on two of them Tuesday, in an otherwise pretty tight defensive showing by the Rangers.

Zibanejad’s line was on for the first two Canucks goals, one of which was off the rush when Kiefer Sherwood got behind Smith to create a 3-on-2 and zipped a shot past Igor Shesterkin from right wing to tie the game 2-2 in the first period.

The Ryan Lindgren – Jacob Trouba defense pair was on for all three Canucks goals, including Conor Garland’s that tied it up 3-3 in the second period. Trouba had his man on that one, but Lindgren got turned around and never picked up Garland, who ended up with a wide-open look.

The Rangers still had better than a 60 percent xGF with them on the ice, and they ere out there for the Kaako and Kreider goals. But the rush goals against must be cut down moving forward.