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After a mid-week win over Detroit and a Saturday night win in Nashville, a Sunday night home game against league-worst San Jose was set up to be a trap game for the Rangers.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.
1. I was worried about the Rangers and their league-best record hosting the Sharks and their league-worst record. Having played the previous night in Nashville and playing for the third time in five days, I had visions of David Quinn walking out of Madison Square Garden holding his head up high with a smile on his face after knocking off his former employers. Thankfully, Artemi Panarin put my fears to rest, handed the Quinn’s Sharks another loss and pushed him a little closer to the door in San Jose.
2. Panarin produced his league-leading 12th multi-point game of the season (in just 23 games), scored his fifth career hat trick, added an assist and the Rangers won 6-5.
“He leaves you speechless sometimes,” Mika Zibanejad said of Panarin. “I couldn’t be happier having him on our team.”
Panarin is up to 35 points in 23 games and a 125-point pace over 82 games. He has never scored more than 32 goals in a season and he’s one away from being halfway to that total with more than 70 percent of the season to play.
“He’s been outstanding,” Vincent Trocheck said of Panarin. “He’s taken another step, somehow, and he was already a world-class player.”
3. In what was a wild game, the Rangers overcame two deficits, blew a one-goal lead and nearly blew a two-goal lead.
“It was loose defensively, but we can’t make excuses about that,” Trocheck said. “We have back-to-backs all the time in this league. Whether it’s a great team or a team that’s maybe not in a playoff spot, you still have to come out the same way.”
4. The Rangers’ first deficit came 3:50 into the game when Anthony Duclair undressed Jonathan Quick with a breakaway deke to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. The former Ranger who was traded away as a 19-year-old rookie is now a 28-year-old vet, having played for seven teams within the last decade. There’s a chance he could return to the Rangers later this season as he has been a popular name tied to the team as a potential trade deadline target, and I’m all for bringing him back to where he started.
5. Five minutes after Duclair opened the scoring, the Rangers tied it on the power play with Panarin’s first on the night — a wrist shot from the point through traffic. The Sharks regained the lead less than four minutes later, and then just 34 seconds after the Sharks scored, Panarin tied it at 2. Zibanejad scored his sixth of the season at 16:42 of the first period in what was the final goal of a five-goal first.
The Sharks got a power-play goal at 9:16 of the second to tie it at 3, and later in the period, Will Cuylle broke the tie with his first goal in 10 games (and his first point in nine).
“He’s a young player who gives everything he’s got every night,” Peter Laviolette said of Cuylle. “He’s learning, but he’s off to a good start.”
6. Jonny Brodzinski got a chance to play with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider in his latest and best attempt to stick in the NHL, and he didn’t disappoint with his second straight two-assist game. The four-point weekend and the chemistry with Zibanejad and Kreider will certainly give Brodzinski an extended look in the Rangers’ top-six.
“He had a really good training camp,” Laviolette said of Brodzinski. “He was generating lots of scoring chances, attempts, pucks at the net and doing lots of good things.”
7. The Rangers extended their lead in the third, making it 5-3 on Panarin’s third of the game, and then 6-3 on K’Andre Miller’s fourth of the season. With a three-goal lead, the remaining 6:56 seemed like a formality, especially with the Sharks as the opponent, but a couple of turnovers at the top of the offensive zone led to Sharks’ goals at 14:38 and 15:50 to cut the Rangers’ lead to 6-5. Fortunately, there was nothing more after that.
“They made it interesting in the end,” Zibanejad said. “We’ll take this win and these four points this weekend.”
8. “Give our guys a ton of credit,” Quinn said. “They came ready to play tonight and had a chance to tie it late.”
Yes, the Sharks came ready to play, allowing six goals and losing on the road for the 11th time in 12 rod games his season.
The win improved the Rangers to a ridiculous 18-4-1 on the season and 9-0-1 in their last 10 games against the Sharks.
“It’s a good feeling,” Panarin said. “We look pretty good right now. I hope we can play this way all year.”
9. For as good as the Rangers have been this season, and they have been unbelievable, it’s hard not to think ahead to their eventual postseason berth and what type of team they will be come April. At this point, the Rangers playing in April is a given. They have a 97 percent chance to make the playoffs as of now, which represents the highest odds in the Eastern Conference. With 37 points through 23 games, playing .500 hockey for the rest of he season would give them more than enough to reach the playoffs. For now, I will try to stay in the moment and enjoy this magical run.
10. Next up is a game in Ottawa on Tuesday, and then another weekend back-to-back in Washington and home against Los Angeles. Nine games over the next 19 days before Christmas break with five of them at home and all nine in the Eastern Time Zone. After a grueling, ugly schedule over the first two months of the season, the schedule finally favors the Rangers, and so far thy have made the most of playing at home and on the East Coast. I don’t expect them to stop now.
Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!
Last modified: Dec 5, 2023
