It was certainly a happy birthday for Captain Cally. Celebrating his 27th birthday, Ryan Callahan scored the game-winning goal (coincidentally, his 27th of the season) 2:42 into overtime to help lead the Rangers to a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Red Wings. The win moved the Rangers three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Atlantic Division and first place in the Eastern Conference.
If you ever wanted one game to use an example to show just what kind of a player Ryan Callahan is, this game is probably one of the best. I thought this was easily Cally's best game of the year and one of the best of his entire career. He finished with a game-high 8 shots on goal in 23:02 of ice time with the game-winning goal and was a plus-1 rating. Not exactly numbers on a boxscore that would jump out at you upon first glance, but as Rangers fans have come to learn, Callahan is one of those guys that does so many little things beyond what shows up in the stats sheets. The boxscore from tonight's game won't tell you about the amazing hustle Callahan showed in the third period to skate all the way across the ice and slide to block a slap shot from the point in a tie game. It also won't tell you the unreal job of backskating Cally did in the third period to dive and breakup a Pavel Datsyuk breakaway when the Rangers had a shot blocked on the powerplay and the Red Wings broke out the other way, or the awareness he showed all night long to break up passes, chip pucks in deep and work along the boards. In other words, it was just another day at the office for Ryan Callahan. Tonight was a game in which the Rangers needed their leaders to step up big, and they followed the lead of their captain. All night long it just seemed like it was a matter of when, not if, Callahan would be involved in the game-winning goal. He's that type of player that just comes up big, and he showed it once again tonight.
Simply put, tonight was just a good ole fashioned hockey game by two fundamentally sound hockey clubs.
