Rangers Vs. Predators: Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

- I've been away a few days, winning some serious money ($6) in Vegas this weekend. And I thought I was getting lucky. But the Rangers are taking the word to a new definition at this point. The whole "let's get out shot like crazy and rely on finishing our chances and getting insane goal tending" is working right now, but when it stops working -- and it will stop working -- there's going to be an uproar I'm sure with finger pointing and "what happened" looks.

- In this game, however, you could sort of make the argument the Rangers did a better job making sure they didn't give up too much despite getting dominated in possession. At the end of the game the Rangers were out shot 47-26 but were only down 16-10 in scoring chances and actually tied the Predators in high danger chances with five.

- The strategy is still not a good one, though. By the measure of corsi against PDO the Rangers are easily the luckiest team in the league so far and it's not getting any better. There is an argument here that the Rangers offense -- the run and gun, rush happy style -- lends itself to a much higher shooting percentage, but overall the Rangers will run cold eventually.

- With all that being said, the Rangers are 16-3-2 without finding their game. They're not playing good hockey and they're still finding a way to win. That should speak volumes about what this team is capable of, and it's why it's so frustrating to see them struggle and not make any real adjustments to try and fix things.

- Henrik Lundqvist was, once again, the man of the match. Some of those saves were just ridiculous. But if I had to write a paragraph about every time Lundqvist has saved the Rangers this year this would be a million word article. So he'll have to live with a paragraph of thanks for playing out of his head and being the only thing keeping the Rangers from a much worse start to the year.

- Rick Nash was bound to come around. He was the one player who was going to regress the other way and he has. His goal on Monday -- and what a goal it was -- was his sixth of the year. He now has 14 points in 19 games and has been consistent since the start of the year despite his lack of goals to get going. He's a monster. He has been a monster. And he will continue to be a monster.

- Speaking of monsters. That was Kevin Hayes' 100th NHL game. He had a goal and an assist to give him 14 points on the year and 59 points in his career. He's already this good and his NHL career is just 100 games old (not including the playoffs). That also speaks volumes.

- Why isn't Keith Yandle playing the point every minute of the power play? I love Ryan McDonagh and I don't mind him on the power play, but the entire reason Yandle is on this team is to run the special teams. He cannot be on the second unit, he just can't. Pair him with McDonagh or move McDonagh down to the second pairing. When Yandle finally did get on the power play he fed Hayes for his marker. Put him there and leave him there.

- Kevin Klein had a gutsy game and made a few key blocks down the stretch. He was still a -10 in shot differential for the game, though. Dan Girardi was a -5 (-123 for the year), Yandle was a -12, Boyle was a -6 and McDonagh was a -8. Not surprising since the Rangers were badly out-possessed but worth noting.

- Derek Stepan (goal) and Jesper Fast were the only two players not to be in the negatives in shot differential. Both players finished the game even in shots for and against. Woof (for the team not them). Marc Staal's pass to Stepan was a thing of beauty for that goal.

- Oscar Lindberg with a power play assist. Keep him there.

- So the Rangers are first in the East (tied with Montreal with a game in hand) and second in the NHL with 34 points. Montreal visits Broadway on Wednesday for what should be a really good litmus test for the Rangers. So long as they can fix their possession issues.

Thoughts?