The New York Rangers Are Roaring Into Playoff Form After A 6-Goal Opening Period In A Rout Of The Predators
What the heck has gotten into the Rangers!? There's no question their exciting recent additions of forwards Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko have galvanized them to a degree, but what they've done this weekend is almost unbelievable.
Coming off a 6-0 shutout of the Penguins on Saturday, you'd forgive New York for having a slight letdown, at least in the early going on the second leg of a back-to-back. Instead, the Blueshirts overwhelmed the Predators on Sunday at Madison Square Garden and racked up their sixth win in the past seven games.
Once K'Andre Miller lit the lamp for his second goal of the evening to close out the first-period flurry, this became a fact:
COME ON!! The Broadway Bullies are straight-up taking names and kicking ass right now. What an incredible turnaround this New York club continues to be in the past two years. Last postseason's run to the Conference Finals was lit. Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Igor Shesterkin was a big key to that effort. While Shesty has had a bit of a letdown/rollercoaster 2022-23 campaign, he's picked his shit up in the month of March, going 6-1 with a 2.10 GAA and .928 save percentage. For context, Shesterkin would rank third in those latter two categories if he'd done that all season.
But since Shesty was between the pipes to blank Pittsburgh, it was Jaroslav Halak in net for the Rangers tonight. You always love when you can give your backup goaltender strong scoring support. Makes the gig super easy.
Halak could've set up a picnic in the crease, stuffed himself silly with grub and shot spirits down his hatch for the final 40 minutes. Instead, he was a consummate professional who contributed an assist to Filip Chytil's opening goal and stayed locked in when he was tested, steering aside all 22 shots he faced.
If I were Halak and were it not for the pride of preserving the shutout, I'd start literally trying to do headstands on the ice just to troll Nashville. The ex-Bruin is definitely a solid backup backstop to give Shesty occasional blows to stay fresh for what should be another strong playoff push.
Speaking of Rangers netminders, franchise legend Henrik Lundqvist could barely comprehend what he was seeing as the domination of the Preds unfurled:
Gotta love King Henrik shouting out the team for their exceptional performance.
Look, I'm not trying to get too carried away here. I think we all know the Stanley Cup is Boston's to lose at this point. As dope and as super-tight as the playoff race has been for most of the other contenders, the B's are wayyyy out in front of everyone. Having said that, the Rangers are one of those hot teams who could well pull an upset if they face off with Boston in the postseason. Remember that only eight of the 36 Presidents' Trophy recipients have gone on to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup.
Hopefully the Bruins faithful who get pissed at me for bringing this up will view it as a reverse jinx of sorts. In any event, watch the hell out for the Rangers. They're coming on strong and starting to play their best hockey at the perfect time.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok