BREAK GROIND
Coming off All-Star hiatus, Blueshirts get victory to build on vs. Red Wings
If the standings don’t end up mattering much before the Feb. 24 trade deadline, well then at least there are nights like this one to keep the Rangers’ psyche intact.
The Blueshirts were able to take a 4-2 victory against the Red Wings on Friday night at the Garden, beating the worst team in the league in their respective first games back from the nine-day hiatus that encompassed All-Star weekend and their bye weeks. It wasn’t very pretty, but it certainly got the Rangers feeling better than they did before the break.
“It was a good break, kind of reset your mind a little bit and rest your body,” said Mika Zibanejad, who had a goal and two assists as his line with Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich did most of the heavy lifting, while rookie goalie Igor Shesterkin almost had his first NHL shutout in his fourth game — and almost had an empty-net goal in the waning moments.
“Guys were excited to be back,” Zibanejad said. “We know what’s ahead of us, and we’re excited about it.”
What lies ahead of the Rangers (24-21-4) is a very uphill battle to get back into the playoff picture, and more than likely another deadline when key pieces leave in trades with the organization focused on the future. But those who have experienced that the past two years during this rebuilding phase know that it can get ugly fast if they allow themselves to be distracted.
It would have been easy to look past the horrid Red Wings (12-26-4), who are the opponents again on the second leg of this home-and-home, back-to-back, in Detroit on Saturday night. Even with goalie Jimmy Howard’s historical penchant for playing well against the Rangers — and the Syracuse native looked like that player while turning aside all 15 Rangers shots in a 0-0 first period — the Blueshirts kept their heads down and kept pushing. “It was one of those feelings of, ‘ Uh oh, is this going to be one of those nights where you’re doing a lot of good things and the goalie is doing his part on the other end of it?’ ” coach David Quinn said. “You just have to keep going, keep getting pucks to the net, getting inside, and managing the game.”
The floodgates opened when Buchnevich finished a great cross-ice feed from Zibanejad at 9:23 of the second, followed by a tip-in from Kreider at 11:56 and a highlight-reel drag-and-flip on a left-wing rush from the superlative Artemi Panarin — who didn’t seem any worse for the wear after missing the last game before the break (and the AllStar Game) with an upper-body issue.
When Zibanejad scored a power-play goal at 5:02 of the third to make it 4-0, that’s when the Rangers relaxed a little bit and were reminded that even the worst team in the league can’t be given the space in front of the net with no challengers in sight.
“Their chances,” Zibanejad said, “basically were us giving it to them.”
Shesterkin’s bid for his first shutout came to an end when Robby Fabbri scored from in front at 5:59 of the third, and some tremors went through the building when Valtteri Filppula made it 4-2 at 10:59. The new defensive duo of Brady Skjei and Adam Fox were on for both goals, nowhere to be seen near the net at the time of the puck crossing the goal line.
But Quinn quickly broke them up, and the Rangers managed to shut it down from there, with Shesterkin firing two pucks the length of the ice at the empty net in the final minute, barely missing both times. It was almost festive at that point, the two losses going into the break — and the dire shadow of the trade deadline less than a month away — almost entirely forgotten.
“It’s important to come back after a break like that and feel good about yourself,” Zibanejad said. “I thought we played a good game, and did enough to win.”