God I miss this team already. The Rangers come out on top with a 5-4 win against the Boston Bruins to end this wild, wild ride of a season on a positive note. I'm sure I speak for all Rangers fans when I say man, am I glad they found a way to get a win to end the season, especially after the last two weeks this team had. From start to finish there was nothing easy about this season. It seemed that no matter what there was always something going down and just when things were going well, injuries or something else came up to get in the way. However can't make excuses, all we can do is be proud of our team for finishing high and look over all the positives from this year as well as areas in need of improvement for next season.
So, for one last time let's recap last night's game. After a quiet first period, K'Andre Miller found the back of the net off a wrist shot from the point that went through some traffic to make it 1-0 good guys. Justin Richards, who for the most part had a pretty impressive night, found his first NHL point on the goal, grabbing the primary assist on the play. The Rangers would hold on to the lead for most of the period but with about two minutes to go, Nick Ritchie found the rebound to tie it up to head into the third. The Rangers opted to go with Keith Kinkaid in the final showing and what a night he had, stopping 28 shots on goal aside from the Nick Ritchie goal at the end of the second.
Unfortunately it appeared as though Kinkaid was in some discomfort after that first Boston goal and would find himself in more pain after David Pastrnak scored early in the third to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Igor Sheshterkin would come in to replace him, a shame after a real strong outing from the teams "third goalie". Luckily the Rangers wouldn't fall in and call it quits, Mika Zibanejad tied it up about five minutes later off a beautiful passing play involving Buchnevich and Strome. Just a couple minutes after that, Alexis Lafreniere gave the Rangers the lead again, finding the back of the net off a pretty move off a nice pass from Anthony Bitetto.
A couple minutes after that it was another promising rookie for the Rangers in Vitali Kravtsov getting his second of the season off a good shot in front. Of course as I mentioned early, nothing can be easy for the Rangers and this night was no different. brad Marchand scored on the power play to bring his team within one once again. With two minutes to go it was Mika Zibanejad again scoring to make it 5-3 and to collect his 200th career goal. What a story Mika has been, following an incredible season last year he struggled so much to start the season after a battle with COVID during training camp. After only having three goals in the first couple months of the season he now finishes with 24 goals and 26 assists, 50 points in 56 games? Not bad at all.
Patrice Bergeron scored with a minute and some change to go but it didn't matter, Rangers walked out of the TD Garden with a win and that's all that mattered. If you didn't know how drained this team was with everything that went down this season, most notably the last couple weeks, it was very obvious in post game. Mika Zibanejad's interview was almost painful to watch when he mentioned the win means a lot more than you would think right now, having almost no answers for any questions from the media.
While we all wanted this team to sneak into playoffs and make a splash, it's obvious this team needs a break. Not to mention this team is without Trouba, Kreider, Panarin, Lindgren, and a whole bunch of other guys and without them we're not getting anywhere. Looking back, as soon as the Trouba injury happened our season was pretty much over and as much as that sucks and as much as I hate to come to the realization, it's okay.
This team has such a bright future and even though these last couple weeks were pretty awful to watch, it was even evident in these games. Alexis Lafreniere is a super star and you have to think if this was a normal year he could've easily finished somewhere in the 20-30 goal range. It took some time but his development has certainly started to speed up in the last month or two. Kaapo Kakko's development took a big step this year despite missing time due to COVID, he is a menace with the puck, making in near impossible to get it away from him when he has possession. I mean we can go on and on, Buchnevich had a big year, Fox should win the Norris Trophy, Lindgren's playing like a young Dan Girardi, Jones and Kravtsov had great showings down the stretch.
The future is so bright with this team and I'll be the first to say yes, it can be VERY challenging to be patient but it's going to be worth it in the long run. Next season it's time to take the next step and become a playoff team and it starts right now. Chris Drury was in house yesterday to start his evaluation process and he will begin with exit meetings with everyone to start deciding how we're going to look for next season and where we need to improve. It's going to be a fun offseason with LOTS of possibilities, with a couple upgrades, this team can be scary good come October.
As for me, I couldn't be happier or more proud to be a Rangers fanatic. I've loved this team with every inch of my being since coming into this world in 96 and especially after the pandemic and everything, having the hockey season start up and getting the Rangers back was huge. While I hope we get a full "normal" season come October, I've enjoyed every minute of this crazy year and enjoyed actually putting my constant thoughts about this team into real readable words. I'm already looking forward to next season and look forward to continuing to ramble on about this team before and after every game. However I am also excited to start writing about all the possibilities this off season brings and will continue sharing content about the team from now through the off season including coach and player evaluations, the expansion draft, entry draft, free agency, trades, and everything in between. So until then, LET'S GO RANGERS!
Chris Feldman
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