The New York Rangers are all the way back. After picking up a pair of wins over the weekend’s back to back stretch, the Rangers are now on a seven game win streak, 8-1-1 over their last ten. With a combined tally of 13 goals over the weekend, the Blueshirts are getting offensive contributions all across the line-up and it appears that the vibes couldn’t be higher. All season long, we talked about how badly this team needed to go on a run of wins and pick up a couple of dominant wins along the way. This weekend was exactly the kind of winning we were talking about in regards to that run and with two games left before the holiday break, the Rangers are in a great spot to head into 2023 with their heads held pretty high.
Rangers Win 6-3 in Philly
The Rangers kicked off the weekend’s back to back in the city of brotherly love, with their second meeting of the year with their Philadelphia rivals. The first time around, the team’s played a scoreless game that brought them into overtime where Chris Kreider put away the game winner on a breakaway. Second time around, we had a very different type of game. The Blueshirts didn’t get off to the best of starts as a missed shot on goal from Ben Harpur led to the Flyers breaking the puck out and James van Riemsdyk cutting around the net, scoring on sort of a weird wrap-around attempt. Not a great goal for Halak to give up, also just kind of a weird play. Whatever, the team won, right? Took some time but Artemi Panarin would tie it up later in the first, some great news for this team that he is not only starting to find the back of the net again, but is also giving a better defensive effort.
To the second we go and halfway through the period, K’Andre Miller exploded out of the Rangers zone and found himself on a breakaway. Miller was tripped up on a play that probably would have resulted in a penalty shot, had Miller not immediately gotten back up and made a beautiful play to put the puck in the back of the net on the breakaway. 2-1 Rangers. Barclay Goodrow would give the team an insurance goal three minutes later off a nice move that fooled Hart, sending the puck top shelf off Goodrow’s back hand. 20th and 30th assists of the year on that goal from Zibanejad and Panarin respectively. Scott Laughton would bring the Flyers within one with just a couple minutes remaining in the period, 3-2 Rangers after two.
The Flyers would linger around through the third but Jimmy Vesey would get things started with a nice wrist shot that beat Carter Hart to make it a 4-2 game. What a story Jimmy Vesey has been for this Rangers team this year. After bouncing around from team to team, going through waivers, being called “vanilla” by one of his former coaches, he has certainly found his footing with the team he started it all with. With three goals in his last three, Vesey has six on the year and has been a reliable presence in both ends of the ice and has been a great addition since making the team out of camp. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be long after his goal before the Flyers had an answer, this time with Morgan Frost finding the back of the net. The Rangers held onto that 4-3 lead and put the game away once the Flyers pulled Carter Hart.
Jacob Trouba, finally registered his first goal of the season on the first empty net goal and then Kaapo Kakko would be taken down on a breakaway towards the empty net, which automatically gave him the goal to make it a 6-3 final score. Wasn’t a pretty game, such has been the theme through many of these recent wins but all in all, there were plenty of positives and the Rangers kept it going which is most important.
7-1 Blowout In The Windy City
The Rangers kept the good times rolling right through the weekend as they headed into the Windy City for a rematch with the Chicago Blackhawks. Last time the Rangers saw the Hawks, was the last time they lost a game in the infamous night where Trouba threw his helmet and lit a spark within his team. Oh how the tide has turned since as the Rangers have become one of the hottest teams in the league ever since. The Blueshirts picked up right where they left off in Philly, with goals from Filip Chytil, Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko in the first period, all of which for their eighth of the season. I mentioned earlier how good it is for the Rangers that Panarin is beginning to find the net again and just as importantly, the Rangers are getting consistent contributions from the Kid Line, specifically Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be all good things to come from this game as the Rangers lost Filip Chytil to an “upper body injury” which by the looks of it, might be concussion related. Chytil was hit late, away from the puck in what probably should’ve been a penalty that ended up in him leaving the game, not to return. There haven’t been any updates yet but I think it’s safe to assume that Chytil is probably going to be done for the holiday break and hopefully not longer. A tough break for the Rangers as Chytil has been one of their top performers as of late. Hopefully, it isn’t a major injury and doesn’t miss much time but at the end of the day, I would rather him miss these next two games than try rushing him back at not 100%. Goodrow can slot in as that line’s center and either Kravtsov or Gauthier can step up to the right side of the top line.
The goals would keep on coming in the second period however, Chicago would get things going with Pavel Kurashev breaking the goose egg with a deflection to make it a 3-1 game. The Rangers did a great job of moving right on from that one as they continued to control the game and around the halfway mark of the period, found the next goal. One of the big storylines going into tonight’s game was Jacob Trouba’s hit, fights and helmet throw that proved to be the turning point for the Rangers first half of the season. For what it’s worth, Trouba hasn’t been given nearly enough credit as this team hasn’t lost since that last game. He may be struggling with his play on the ice but he’s absolutely doing his job as a leader in helping this team turn things around.
In addition to Trouba’s performance, there’s constant controversy with how he plays the game, specifically with his physicality. In the last game with Chicago, it was Trouba’s hit on Andreas Athanasiou that led to one of the fights prior to him throwing the helmet on his way off the ice. Following the game, Athanasiou didn’t hesitate to express his disdain toward Trouba and the hit, going as far as saying something along the lines of “all he does is hurt people, he makes eight million dollars and doesn’t have any goals.” Sure enough, it was Jacob Trouba, picking up his second goal of the season, off a clean slap shot that beat Soderbom. While celebrating the goal, Trouba looked right at Athanasiou and said, “Hey, you want the puck?” How can you not love sports, man.
From that point on, it was the Rangers game. Vincent Trochcek ended the period with a deflection for a power play goal that made it a 5-1 game going into the second intermission. Vitaly Kravtsov and Jonny Brodzinski would be credited with goals six and seven on the night, wrapping this one up by a decisive score of 7-1. Seven goals from seven different players, many of whom aren’t regular, relied upon goalscorers for this Rangers team. These are the kinds of games you love to see, especially this deep in an extended win streak. The Rangers now have two games remaining before they head into the holiday break and while they’ll see a pair of tougher opponents then they’ve breezed through this weekend, you have to feel pretty good about their chances as they wrap up the first three months of the season.
Chris Feldman
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