Everyone good? Still catching your breath from last night? What a win as the Rangers followed up Monday Night’s train wreck with a true “No Quit In New York” performance, coming back from trailing 2-0 to winning 5-3. While we’re still miles away from the complete game this Rangers team needs to have to win a series, they absolutely took steps in the right direction and a large part of that effort comes from the future of this franchise, “The Kid Line”. If there’s been one positive throughout this series, it’s the steps Filip Chytil, Alexis Lafreniere, and Kaapo Kakko have taken, truly stepping up when it mattered most.
The puck dropped to kick off the most important game of this group’s season and at the start, it wasn’t looking great. Just 24 seconds in, the Rangers got called for what seemed like one penalty but ended up being two. Right off the bat, the Rangers had the tall order of killing off a 5-on-3 power play. Thankfully, they were able to but it would take a couple minutes for them to bounce back from it. The Rangers couldn’t register a shot on goal and were struggling to enter the Penguins zone cleanly. They couldn’t get any momentum going and sure enough, began falling victim to the type of game Pittsburgh has played as of late. Around the halfway mark, Shesterkin made a couple saves that led to the puck going in the corner. Jake Guentzel threw the puck to the net and sure enough it bounced off Shesterkin’s skate and crossed the line. 1-0 Penguins. A tough break early in the game for the Rangers who can’t catch a break with puck luck. That would be the lone goal in the first as Pittsburgh would take a one goal lead to the second.
The Rangers showed sparks here and there but again, just couldn’t get anything with substance to build solid momentum from. Life was slowly draining from the building and nearly emptied when Kris Letang let a shot go that gave the Penguins a two goal lead. At this point, the game was just about half over and the Blueshirts had very little to show for. Just over the five minute mark, Adam Fox let a shot go from the point that found its way through Domingue to cut the lead in half and just like that, there was life in the Garden. About a minute and a half later, the kid line went to work as Kaapo Kakko found Alexis Lafreniere in front of the net and put it away to tie the game up at two. The Garden erupted and all of a sudden, this team had some fire.
With about two minutes to go, Jacob Trouba found the puck on a pinch and came into the slot to sneak a backhander through the legs of Domingue, 3-2 Rangers. Now that we mention Trouba, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Obviously the only story line to come out of this game in the eyes of ESPN was the injury to Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby. Earlier in the second, Sid picked up the puck around the hash marks and got caught mid shot with his head down. Trouba, whose initial point of contact with Sid was a poke check, came in to lay a body check on him. Since Sid was in the process of shooting the puck, he was hunched down a bit, looking down to ensure he would have control of the bouncing puck. Trouba went to deliver a clean body check but because of the follow through on the puck, Crosby ended up in a slightly vulnerable position at too late a point for Trouba not to deliver the check.
Now before we start shoutout opinions at the computer screen, there really isn’t a good angle of the hit anywhere. There’s one picture and video angle that makes it look like the only thing that makes contact with Sid is Trouba’s elbow which is a bit high, about level to Crosby’s head. However, if you look at it from the opposite side, it looks like Trouba almost doesn’t even make full contact with Crosby as Trouba’s body appears to only be on the side of Sid. Going back to the first angle, look at the position of Trouba’s arm. Not only is it obvious that Trouba had no intent of taking a headshot at Sid but the way his elbow is positioned doesn’t even indicate that his elbow was the force of the hit. His arm is making an upside down L kind of shape, that’s not how you throw an elbow.
There was no call on the play, Sid played a couple shifts after the hit and even the broadcast crew at ESPN had nothing malicious to say about it. There was conversation after the game, mostly from people who have no say in the decision, that Trouba could or should have a hearing for the hit but that argument lacks substance for several reasons. It’s hard to imagine we would even be having this conversation if it was anyone other than Sid on the receiving end of it. I’m confident if that hit happens to Brock McGinn, no one says boo about. Again, don’t get me wrong on this, you hate to see a player get hurt and unlike most Rangers fans, I have a ton of respect for Sidney Crosby. I’m a huge fan of him for the 78 games a year we don’t play him but that hit was nothing more than unfortunate. No penalty, no intent to injure, no elbow thrown, no conversation to be had. Trouba plays the game hard and is by no means a dirty player.
Anyway, back to the action. Nothing can ever be easy in Rangerstown and sure enough right after Trouba gave the Rangers their first lead of the night, Guentzel brought everyone back down to earth, tying the game up at three. Again, the Rangers have had a lot of problems and Shesterkin really isn’t any of them but come on. Your team just came back from a two goal deficit, there’s two minutes till intermission, that’s a save you have to make, especially as the favorite for the Vezina Trophy. The goal just goes to show that you can not sit back on this Penguins team for even a second, especially when Jake Guentzel is on the ice.
To the third we go and all attention is on the fact that Sidney Crosby is not on the ice nor on the bench. 68 seconds into the period, the Rangers catch a break as the Penguins get their first penalty of the night. Huge opportunity for the Rangers to get the lead back with their top five power play in the league. Of course, they can’t get anything going aside from a couple good looks. The Penguins clear again and the Rangers put their second unit out there which is basically just the kid line with Vatrano at the point and Copp on the wing. With time on the man advantage running out, Filip Chytil finds the puck in the slot and has the opportunity to either shoot it or pass it across. Chytil chose wisely and put everything he had into the shot that would beat Domingue to regain the Rangers lead.
You really can’t say enough about the kid line as before they even got on the board last night, they were the only line that was consistently going out there playing like there was no tomorrow. This series has been far from perfect but the one thing Rangers fans should feel great about is how those three have played, in addition to K’Andre Miller who has without a doubt been their best defenseman. You can even throw Braden Schneider in the conversation of pride. He hasn’t been perfect but his confidence in his first playoff series as a 20 year old is evident and extremely impressive. Regardless of how this year turns out this team is going to be SO GOOD for years and years.
The Garden is imploding, the Rangers have the lead but there is a LOT of time left to play. Teams exchanged power play opportunities but the score stayed the same. Pittsburgh was picking it up, trying to get back to their game but the Rangers held strong and got some help from Igor to keep all 15 of their third period shots out of the net. In the final minutes, Pittsburgh called a timeout and pulled the goalie to go for it. With less than 30 seconds to go, Ryan Lindgren cleared the zone, got a fortunate bounce off the glove of the Penguins defender as the puck rolled toward the empty net to put this one away 5-3.
What a story Ryan Lindgren was and if there was ever any doubt on how important he is to this team, last night made it pretty clear. Gallant had Lindgren as a game-time decision and opted to go with 11 forwards and 7 defenseman that way if Lindgren re-aggravated the injury (which for a minute he did) they would still have six defenseman to play with. Sure enough, Lindgren would play and not only was he one of the best, most reliable players on the ice but his character helped get this team going and got them the win. Nobody deserved that empty netter more than he did and he would be rewarded for his efforts by being named the third star of the game.
The Rangers took care of business and forced the series back to Pittsburgh. They will drop the puck for an enormous, pivotal game six Friday Night. Hopefully the Rangers won’t have any issues to worry about going in, Lindgren will still be able to play through what he’s playing through and look for the Rangers to do everything they can to get this series back to the Garden. This team still has another level they can get to and still need more from their top players but the kids are playing their best hockey and things are looking up. Believe in this team and let’s keep the damn thing going!
Chris Feldman
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