NO KIDDING!
Rangers' youngsters delivered in Game 1 victory
NEW YORK » The kids are, indeed, all right.
On the backs of the “Kid Line,” the New York Rangers stunned the heavily-favored Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden.
Twenty-two-year-old Filip Chytil scored two goals, 20-yearold Alexis Lafreniere had two assists and 21-year-old Kaapo Kakko also had an assist in the victory. A few nights after the team’s veteran players collectively stepped up in Game 7 against Carolina to get to this point, that it was a line comprised of three of the team’s most recent first-round draft picks getting it done this time around wasn’t lost on anybody.
“It was close to their best, if it wasn’t their best, for sure,” said Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant, when asked if this was the best game that trio had put together to date.
“They got inside, they scored some nice goals, they made some plays. And you know, they’re attacking. They’re a confident bunch of kids now, and we need that to continue.”
It was Chytil in particular who stood out on Wednesday night and, truthfully, who has done so nearly the entire postseason. Selected 21st overall by the Blueshirts in the 2017 NHL Draft, his regular season production has never quite matched his skill level — his career high in points just 23, and he posted fairly pedestrian 8-14—22 stat line this year — but he’s had a coming out
party of sorts in the playoffs.
He’s third on the team with seven goals in the postseason, including five in his last three contests; Game 6 and Game 7 against the Hurricanes, both elimination games, as well as potting what was ultimately the game-winner on Wednesday.
What’s changed for the Czech Republic native?
“Fil’s a good kid,” Gallant said. “He works hard, he competes hard and he deserves what he’s getting right now. He stepped his game up. He knows it, everybody knows it, and that’s exactly what we need from him…he’s grown up to be a man. He’s 22 years old, and he’s confident in his game and he feels good about his game. He always has, but now, he’s stepping up.”
While some of that is surely related to his own development, a lot can be attributed to the way that “kid line” has seemed to gel.
“I was working hard through the whole season, but there were tough moments, so many chances where I couldn’t put it into the net,” Chytil said. “Maybe I started to be frustrated. Now, it’s finally going in…we just move our feet, play strong on the puck, and we know that all three guys can play with the puck. We’re strong down low, and that’s exactly what we were doing. That was exactly the same mindset we had through the whole playoffs.”
On the other side of things, the much-anticipated goalie matchup between likely Vezina winner Igor Shesterkin and two-time Stanley
Cup winner Andrei Vasilevskiy never quite materialized, with the latter uncharacteristically giving up six goals on the night, including a deflating early goal by Chris Kreider just 71 seconds into the game.
“The first goal, it sucks, a minute and a half in or whatever it was, but I thought we rebounded well,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. “Puck management got the best of us in the second and having to defend too much. I think there are things we did tonight that we hadn’t done a ton of in the previous two rounds. The Rangers have some dynamic players, and if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. They did that tonight…but we’ve got better in us. We’re going to show up (Friday).”