As star watch continues, Mika proves his worth

FOR THE longest time, this was a night on which Blueshirts players who were not in the game commanded more attention than the ones who were skating against the Kings at the Garden.

Until, that is, Mika Zibanejad reminded one and all just how vital he is to the cause and just how empty it would be to bring Patrick Kane to Broadway if No. 93 were not there on the ice with him.

The season and all of the organization’s aspirations flashed through everyone’s blue-tinted lenses when Zibanejad was helped off the ice with 2:11 remaining in the second period, unable to put any weight on his right ankle after blocking a blue-line drive from Drew Doughty.

“Last time we were in LA, he told me he didn’t have that hard a shot,” No. 93 would say later with a wry grin. “I guess he worked on it.”

The Rangers medical and training staff worked on Zibanejad. When the Blueshirts took the ice for the third pe- riod, more than a dozen came through the runway … before Zibanejad himself did the Willis Reed to ovations and chants from the crowd.

“I was sick,” head coach Gerard Gallant said when asked his reaction to seeing the center crumple to the ice.

In Mika, the faithful trusts, and it was Zibanejad putting away this one with a third-period powerplay one-timer to complete the scoring in this vital 5-2 victory achieved under perhaps the most bizarre set of circumstances in franchise history.

The Rangers entered the game with the full complement of 18 skaters but were effectively two shy upon deciding to keep both Braden Schneider and Ryan Carpenter on the bench to ensure that neither would be injured. The plan is to send one after the other to Hartford — Schneider is on his way — in order to clear enough space to complete the trade for Kane by Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia. Schneider, of course, would be recalled as soon as the arithmetic allows.

The effective playing roster of 16 was then reduced to 15 when K’Andre Miller picked up a match penalty for spitting at Doughty at 16:37 of the first period. That left Gallant with four defensemen, split into Niko Mikkola-Adam Fox and Ben Harpur-Jacob Trouba tandems.

“Typical and routine if you’re a mite hockey player,” Fox said. “But

it almost makes it easier to play and keep it simple when you know you’re going to be on every other shift.”

The effective 15-man lineup was just that — effective. That might even represent an understatement. Reeling after having lost three consecutive one-sided affairs in regulation and four straight overall (0-3-1), the Blueshirts responded with a methodical, buttoned-down effort supported by outstanding work in nets by Igor Shesterkin.

“I am so proud of the group we have in here and the way we responded after the game in Washington,” Zibanejad said of Saturday’s

6-3 defeat. “It was very impressive.”

The Rangers had played ramshackle hockey unbecoming of this team. The talk about acquiring Kane that has dominated the discourse seemed to become a significant distraction. Then they reported for duty on Sunday to learn they would play short.

“We all know there is reasoning for it, but it is not for us as players to speculate about it,” Zibanejad said. “Our job is to play, nothing more.

“We’re not talking about it in the room before the game. That’s not our job. If we play shorthanded, it’s up to us to make the most of it.”

That is what the Blueshirts did. They did for the most part play straight-line hockey. They did for the most part avoid turnovers in the most vulnerable parts of the ice. They avoided the multitude of odd-man rushes against that had become an epidemic.

They killed the five-minute match penalty to Miller while holding only a 1-0 lead, with Carpenter managing to avoid injury in the 13 seconds it took the center to get from the penalty box to the bench after serving Miller’s time.

“I remember last year we had a slump a couple of weeks before the deadline,” Zibanejad said. “And we talked about not waiting to see what was going to happen.

“It’s the same here. We can’t wait and I don’t think we have been waiting. We wanted to turn this around as quickly as possible.”

Zibanejad hopped on the ice 33 seconds into the third period to a loud ovation that was followed by chants of “Mika … Mika … Mika!”

“Hearing all of the chants, it’s a special building, special fans and a special organization,” said the Swede, who leads the club with 31 goals. “Obviously it’s pretty cool.

“It gives you an extra boost for sure.”

Zibanejad is providing an extra boost for the Rangers. On a team with Fox and Shesterkin, he has been his team’s best player. When No. 93 is in the lineup, the Blueshirts are not playing short.