That there blast by Bruins captain Zdeno Chara held up as the winner in a 3-2 Boston victory over the Rangers in today’s Thanksgiving Showdown on NBC.
For Chara, who also assisted on Brad Marchand’s first-period goal before dropping the gloves with Rangers forward Brian Boyle in the second period, it completed the Gordie Howe hat trick. For the B’s, it was a nice win after getting smoked, 6-1, on Wednesday in Detroit.
New York, meanwhile, won’t have much time to recover from today’s loss. The Rangers host former coach John Tortorella and the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow afternoon in a game they should be extremely motivated to win, especially if the report that followed Tortorella’s firing was true.
By the sounds of it, the Rangers’ new coach, Alain Vigneault, wasn’t too pleased with his team’s performance today.
Clearly agitated AV calls it a B effort by Rangers. Not enough motivation. Too much inconsistency. Says team got what it deserved.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) November 29, 2013
So there’s some more motivation for tomorrow.