In case you were already bored of all the roster management, Patrick Kane, salary cap gymnastics and injuries, you were in for a treat last night! In a purely chaotic outing, the Rangers did manage to come out with a big win to sweep the season series with the Kings. However, the Rangers did so, playing down three players, one of which could be facing a suspension and almost lost Mika Zibanejad in the process. You truly, can not make this stuff up. Meanwhile, several other crazy trades were taking place around the league during the game, the largest of which involving the team the Rangers are most likely going to see in the playoffs. Needless to say, there is LOTS to talk about so let’s get right into it.
Leading up to game time, it wasn’t clear whether the Rangers were going to have 20 healthy players to partake in their Sunday night showdown. With Lindgren injured and no immediate roster move taking place, it appeared that the Rangers could be down a man and given the salary cap, they’d rather play shorthanded then make extra roster moves. Which became quite evident in this one. They ended up recalling Ryan Carpenter out of necessity as they would be breaking the CBA by not dressing 20 players when having the ability to do so. All seemed good and normal until the Rangers beat writers started breaking the news on Twitter that both Ryan Carpenter AND Braden Schneider were expected to sit on the bench all night so as to not risk injury for “roster management related reasons.” Anyone else sick of that phrase yet?
Now if you’re still panicking that Braden Schneider might be on his way out, fear not. The purpose for not playing these two is because both of them either have already been or will need to be sent down to Hartford throughout the upcoming off days to accumulate more cap space by Wednesday. Carpenter likely will report to Hartford but for Schneider, it’s purely a paper transaction. Seriously, salary cap gymnastics should be an olympic sport. Despite how ridiculous it all sounds, it made sense but relatively early into the game, things got far more complicated when the officials congregated at center ice, reviewing a play involving K’Andre Miller that left fans everywhere extremely confused.
As it turned out, K’Andre MIller would receive a match penalty which is a five minute major accompanied by a game misconduct for spitting. Yes, spitting. On Drew Doughty. Mind you, the Rangers were already playing down to five defenseman as to not risk Schneider getting hurt so now all of a sudden they're down to four with over two periods of hockey left to play. Ryan Carpenter, relocated from the Rangers bench to the penalty box which allowed him a couple seconds worth of a shift but again, that doesn’t affect the salary cap, they just don’t want these guys getting hurt.
Now regarding the situation with Miller. It is truly wild how many fans were so quick to jump down his throat, labeling him a disgrace to the game, the team, so on and so forth. No matter how you slice it, yes, spitting is disgusting and doing so on another person is incredibly gross and disgraceful. However, the fact that so many people were quick to judge him for it potentially being purposeful is insane. If you watch the replay, it’s very clear Miller wasn’t even looking at Doughty and if you saw his reaction to the replay, you can see him say “I *expletive* spit and it hit him.” The only other explanation that came to mind was the possibility that Doughty said something nasty to Miller which in itself is sad that the possibility of that is one of the first things that come to mind.
Now again, I’m only justifying the intent of Miller because if it wasn’t already, it was clear following the game that it was accidental. Several reports came out that he spoke to Doughty after the game to let him know he was sorry and that it was an accident. According to those same reports, it appears that the conversation between the two was good so hopefully we can all move on from this. The league however, likely won’t move on from it. Players have gotten suspended for as much as three games in the past for similar situations so there is a very real chance we could be without Miller for the rest of the week. (example, in 2019 Garnet Hathaway was suspended three games for spitting). Nevertheless, it was a mindless and dumb penalty to take but let’s refrain from all this negativity towards K’Andre.
Now back to the rest of the game. The Rangers took a 1-0 lead not long before the major penalty to Miller was assessed. Alexis Lafreniere, who always shows up against the Kings, put away his eleventh of the season with assists from Kakko and Chytil. However all of a sudden, the Rangers were even more short-handed then they were before and now had a five minute penalty to kill. Thanks to a valiant effort from the groups penalty killers and some outstanding goaltending from Shesterkin, who is so back, they took the lead to intermission and killed the rest of it off early in the second.
Not long after the penalty was over, Vincent Trocheck scored twice in a span of 95 seconds to give the Blueshirt’s a 3-0 lead. Both goals beat Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick up high with at least one of them taking a redirect off a Kings player’s stick. This put an early end to Quick’s night as he was replaced by Phoenix Copley. The Rangers held the lead for most of the period until Niko Mikkola was sent off for hooking, which gave the Kings another power play. Viktor Arvidsson batted a high flying puck into the back of the net which despite a suspiciously quick review, was deemed a good goal, leaving Rangers fans and Shesterkin alike, quite unhappy heading into the second intermission. However, the goal wasn’t the most concerning aspect of that penalty kill.
Mika Zibanejad blocked a hard shot from the point that left him down on the ice, requiring the assistance of medical trainer Jim Ramsey. Normally anytime a player blocks a shot you wince for the guy a little bit but Mika couldn’t even put any pressure on that leg. Having to be helped off the ice, this was honestly the last thing the Rangers needed, both in terms of the overall well being of the team and for the forsaken roster management related reasons. Miraculously, Zibanejad skated out amongst his teammates to start the third which earned him a standing O from the Garden Faithful. Despite an early goal from Matt Roy that brought the Kings within one, the Rangers weren’t letting this one get away from them.
Not even a minute after the Kings goal, Artemi Panarin found the back of the net on his own rebound off a nice save from Copley. Not long after that, the game and Garden alike would grow even crazier. Alexander Edler was sent off for hooking Chris Kreider which gave the Rangers another power play and wouldn’t you believe it, Mika Zibanejad put one away. 5-2 good guys. The story writes itself as I tweeted at the start of the power play that this Zibanejad goal would hit different and boy did it. Sparks flew a bit as tension rose towards the end of the game but once that final buzzer sounded, the Rangers would skate away with a pair of much needed points, putting to bed their four game losing streak. There’s no doubt that after these last couple games they needed the win but what a story from Fox, Mikkola, Trouba, and Harpur who basically played the entire game, each averaging well over 25 minutes of ice time. Certainly not ideal circumstances but great to see Mikkola and Harpur rise to the occasion.
Amidst all the craziness, it appears that a deal to bring Patrick Kane to New York is in place and just awaiting all this crazy salary cap juggling. With Carpenter and Schneider being sent down on paper, the belief is the soonest we could see this deal be finalized would be Wednesday, ideally just in time for the Blueshirt’s next game. That will certainly be the big thing to keep an eye on in the coming days, along with a decision from the league regarding Miller. Given the fact that it’s his first offense, wasn’t intentional and seemingly made nice with Doughty, hopefully the league will only given him a game, two at most. It will undoubtedly cause more cap issues with or without Kane in the coming week but in terms of actual hockey, they’ll be fine without Miller for the week but will definitely need him in Boston on Saturday.
The Rangers are back at it Wednesday as they kick off a back to back with the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators before heading to Boston Saturday afternoon. On the ice, the Rangers will look to build off this win against LA last night as we continue to wait for all the off ice logistics with the roster to play themselves out.
Chris Feldman
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