Nov 1, 2022; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers left wing Chris Kreider (20) celebrates with center Mika Zibanejad (93) after scoring the game winning goal against the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
NHL: Philadelphia Flyers at New York Rangers
The Rangers showed their resilience once again, but this time they did it at the Garden with a 1-0 overtime victory against a division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers.
They won it without Filip Chytil and Vitali Kravtsov as they are nursing injuries right now. In terms of shots, the Rangers harassed Flyer goalie Carter Hart with 36 shots on the evening. Igor Shesterkin was not tested as often as Hart was as he only needed 19 saves for the shutout.
Former Rangers C Kevin Hayes had two chances in the final two minutes with Shesterkin standing tall at the goal-line at 18:42 of the 3rd period, denying Hayes of the potential game-winner. New York had many chances to score, but they ended up hitting the post four times in the game. It took until the final minute of OT when Chris Kreider scored a backhander on a breakaway. Mika Zibanejad took the puck up the neutral zone and provided a soft touch to guide the puck into Kreider’s possession with ease.
“I think we did a good job of keeping our game simple,” Kreider said in the locker room after the win. “They’re certainly a very hard working team so we needed to match that or else they were gonna establish their forecheck.”
After experiencing their first slump of the season, Rangerstown was able to wake up during their weekend road trip to get themselves back to winning ways. The New York Rangers were going through a 4-game losing streak, highlighted by a 3-0 shutout to their cross-town foes in the New York Islanders. Igor Shesterkin and Jaroslav Halak split the past 4 games in front of the cage and just could not seem to keep the puck out of the net as they conceded a total of 14 goals in those 4 losses. The Rangers were outscored by a total of 14-5 with the losing streak beginning at Madison Square Garden.
In their 5-1 defeat to Columbus, head coach Gerard Gallant said in his post-game press conference that he wants his boys to play faster because it makes them a better unit. “When we play faster, we are a much better team, and when we play faster we have more body contact,” Gallant said. “It’s all three zones, we look slow, we look like we’re a team that played back-to-back games.”
They experienced the back-to-back immediately after that contest. They hosted Colorado on Tuesday before going to Long Island on Wednesday. Gallant’s comment rang true in the end as they lost both games. They then had two more away games on the schedule in yet another back-to-back, but the Broadway Blueshirts found a spark in Dallas. They were in an offensive battle against the Stars on Saturday when their starting netminder, Jake Oettinger, went down with a lower-body injury in a 2-2 game in the 2nd period. When Scott Wedgewood replaced the rising star in front of the cage, the Rangers went into overdrive and overwhelmed the backup goalie to pull out a 6-3 win.
They had to face another back-to-back on the schedule as they traveled to Arizona State University to play the Coyotes. Arizona is not known to be one of the premier threats in the NHL in recent memory, but they still possess talent that can bite at any given moment. Still, it was the skillset of Artemi Panarin that saved the day for New York in the 3-2 win as he partook in every single Rangers score. With a goal and two assists, Panarin moves to 2nd in the NHL in points and assists, showing that he is the guy that can produce in tough spots. Igor Shesterkin was able to power through the demanding schedule to come away with 4 points over the weekend to keep the Rangers in the upper class of the Metropolitan division. After Tuesday’s win against Philadelphia, the Rangers stand with 14 points, a tie for 1st place in the division with their rivals, the New Jersey Devils.
They now prepare for game two of their second four-game homestand of the season as they welcome the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening.
