This is not a drill. The New York Rangers won a hockey game against a playoff team in regulation. It wasn’t perfect, but sometimes you just need to see something in the win column. The Rangers took 7 penalties as their new found aggressiveness was a little untamed. Naturally that’s not a good thing, forcing Igor Shesterkin to make 21 total saves while shorthanded. But a win’s a win. It’s been a long time coming, so let’s see if beating a true Cup contender serves as a turning point. It’s certainly the most a mass portion of the group was engaged in the game.
As mentioned above, the win came down to special teams, specifically that Rangers penalty kill going 7-for-7 and getting a short-handed goal from Reilly Smith. Dallas was perfect on the penalty kill as well, though Artemi Panarin came close with a couple of goal posts,. The biggest kill of the game was following a brutal major penalty taken by Matt Rempe–who honestly up to that point had played probably the best game of his Ranger career, dumb and reckless penalty aside.
Before this hit, which is a bad hit and he will be suspended, he had drawn 3 penalties, was a heavy forechecking presence, and even had a few high danger scoring chances. But, as what has happened in 13% of the games he plays, he found himself ejected again. I love the energy he brings, but he’s a liability. The refs let him play, surprisingly, but they couldn’t ignore that egregious hit on Miro Heiskanen.
As elite as the Rangers are at killing penalties, it’s tough to ask your them to go out and kill off a major given the skid they’ve been on. Luckily they won in the end.
Finally, if there were any doubts as to why Igor Shesterkin was given a $92 million contract, this game proved why he got that contract. The Rangers desperately needed a win in a well played but not perfect game, and he delivered with 41 saves. The goalie is the most important penalty killer, and when the Rangers needed to kill 7, including a major, Igor stood tall. That’s why he gets that money.
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