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The Rangers flew west for a season-long, five-game road trip coming off an embarrassing home loss. They return home winners of five straight, having swept the road trip after Monday’s 3-2 overtime win in Winnipeg.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.
1. I was worried about what may happen to the Rangers on the West Coast and in Western Canada when they left New York nearly two weeks ago. The Rangers had just laid an egg against an inferior Nashville team, losing 4-1 at home with Igor Shesterkin getting pulled in the loss. After that demoralizing loss, they were set to embark on an 11-day, five-city, five-game road trip to locations and venues they have not played their best at in recent seasons.
2. I think all Rangers fans would have signed up for three wins on the road trip. It would have represented a winning trip, while earning at least six of a possible 10 points. It would have been understandable if the record on the trip were less than that thoguh, given the ongoing learning process of a new system under a new head coach, it being so early in the season, and the trip being so lengthy.
3. Not in the wildest dreams of any Rangers fan could they envision what would transpire: five wins in five games with a clean sweep of Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg. It was the first time in Rangers history the team had gone undefeated on a road trip of that length.
“It’s awesome,” Peter Laviolette said after the team’s trip-ending 3-2 overtime win over Winnipeg. “Anytime you can grab a record like that is pretty special. This franchise has been around a long time. That’s a pretty big record.”
4. The Rangers outscored their five opponents 17-7 on the road trip. They won in five different cities across three time zones. They posted two shutouts and won two overtime games. They allowed one goal or fewer in three games and two goals or fewer in four games.
5. After beating the Canucks 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night to improve to 4-0 on the road trip, it would have been understandable if the Rangers laid an egg on Monday in Winnipeg. Playing the last game of a season-long road trip and tasting a return home (even if just for a single game) is an acceptable reason to not produce the best effort, and yet the Rangers maintained their excellence.
6. The Rangers could have fallen apart against the Jets after giving up the game-tying goal with 28 seconds left in the first period. They didn’t. They could have let up when they trailed by one with less than seven minutes left in regulation with the thought of their chartered return home growing closer. They didn’t. They could have packed it in when Ryan Lindgren was absurdly called for tripping with 19 seconds to go that would give the Jets a man-advantage in overtime. They didn’t.
7. The Rangers didn’t let the Jets’ game-tying goal at the end of the first faze them. They never wavered when they trailed by a goal with less than seven minutes remaining and used a power-play opportunity to tie the game on a Chris Kreider deflection. When Lindgren was wrongfully called for tripping, they killed off the 4-on-3 advantage in overtime, and with 26 seconds left Artemi Panarin fed Mika Zibanejad for a game-winning one-timer.
“It seems like we’ve been on the road a long time,” Laviolette said. “For the guys to throw in an effort like that in the last one and to come back is pretty amazing.”
8. After not scoring through the first seven games, Zibanejad now has scored in two straight following his overtime game-winner on Monday. It was made possible by Panarin’s open-ice creativity and otherwordly playmaking abilities.
“Some of the things he does are pretty special,” Laviolette said of Panarin. “The game-winner, just to be able to part the way down the middle of the ice like that, that’s a unique player and he’s playing really well for us right now.”
Panarin scored the first goal of the game, assisted on the game-tying, power-play goal and then set up Zibanejad for the game-winner. The three-point night pushed his season total to 15 through nine games (a 137-point pace) as he has tallied at least one point in every game this season.
9. The game-winning goal wouldn’t have been possible if not for the Rangers’ penalty kill stepping up and killing off a 4-on-3 for the opening one minute and 41 seconds of overtime, an unfavorable scenario that typically leads to a loss.
“I thought our penalty kill did a really did a really good job, Laviolette said. “They were in lanes and didn’t really allow much of anything.”
10. With that, the Rangers can fly back home knowing they won’t have to visit any of those venues again this regular season. They can rest easy knowing they won’t play another game on the West Coast for nearly three months.
“Big win,” Laviolette said of the overtime victory over the Jets. “It’s a great way to end the road trip.”
Now it’s back home, where the Rangers left on bad terms in that effortless performance against Nashville. The Rangers sit atop the Met, where one win and two points separate them from Carolina, who they will play on Thursday at the Garden. If they play at home like they just did on the road, they won’t have to worry about that one-win, two-point gap being closed.
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!
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