Sometimes, the scoreboard does not do a team justice. Last night against the San Jose Sharks was the kind of full team effort you expect from a team like the New York Rangers, outshooting the Sharks 35-27 in their 3-2 victory. It’s the kind of soft landing spot against a bad team that should help right the ship for the Blueshirts.
Mika Zibanejad had his best game of the season, as hopefully he is able to use this to jumpstart his 2024-2025 season. Zibanejad was in on the forecheck, scored at 5v5 off a fortuitous rebound from a Reilly Smith shot, and made quite a number of key takeaways leading to rushes and scoring chances. With Filip Chytil leaving the game, Zibanejad may be relied upon even more, and these types of games show he can still do it. Of course, we are putting the cart before the horse, but the point remains that this is hopefully where Mika takes off.
The bottom six has gotten a lot of time in these recaps this season, and for good reason. This really is one of the best Rangers 4th lines we’ve had in recent memory. Sam Carrick was a great signing as he’s really brought a certain dynamic to the 4th line that allows Adam Edstrom and Jimmy Vesey to generate offense. That has been lacking in Rangers 4th lines for a while, mostly due to flawed logic in how to build the bottom half of the lineup.
Speaking of flawed logic, as easy as it is to take shots at Barclay Goodrow, who got 2 quality looks but couldn’t convert, we don’t do that. The tribute was nice, but it’s also nice that he’s not on the Rangers anymore.
Of course, the Rangers can’t have nice things. They got the win, but lost Filip Chytil after he took a friendly fire hit from K’Andre Miller going for a loose pucka. At the time of the writing of this article, the Rangers word is that he is just being evaluated. Hopefully he’s just day to day and a little shaken up. This kid can’t catch a break.
We will know more about Chytil soon though, as the Rangers travel out west for 4 games through western Canada and Seattle. If Chytil travels, it’s a good thing. If not, well, we know what happens next. If this is the game where the Rangers turned the corner on their slump, maybe they also got some luck in avoiding the worst with Chytil.
We can only hope.
