Truthfully, there really isn't anything I can say to put into words what happened to this New York Rangers team in the last 24 hours. The Rangers absolutely blew the Philadelphia Flyers away by the score of 9-0. In what will certainly go down as a memorable night in New York Rangers history, a game fans will never forget, there was more to this story than just scoring nine goals.
David Quinn was expected to speak with the media around 11:30 on the morning of this game day when it was suspiciously postponed to later in the day. No explanation, fans just hoped that no more of our players were going to be added to the Covid list. Fans were delighted to find out later that evening, closer to game time that Pavel Buchnevich and Adam Fox were taken off of the leagues Covid protocol list and would be active for tonight's game against Philly. Of course with the year this team has had no good news comes without bad news. Turns out the reason for Quinn's unavailability for the media was because him and the entire coaching staff were put on the leagues Covid Protocol list. So the Rangers were gearing up for Wednesday Night Hockey with the return of two of their best players but now without a coaching staff.
Hartford Wolf Pack head coach, Kris Knoblauch as well as associate head coach Gord Miller and the Rangers associate general manager Chris Drury, would piece together the teams coaching staff in the absence of David Quinn and his assistants. A hectic start to what would be a hectic game. With Buchnevich and Fox returning to action, Julien Gauthier and Tarmo Reunanen would come out of the line up. Not that the coaching staff really had much time to put thought into this decision making but have to think it was Gauthier's penalties in the last game that led to him being a healthy scratch.
Nevertheless, the puck would drop and this rivalry match up would be underway. The Rangers came out playing well and seemed to be just letting the lines role. It was a quieter kind of start to the game until Adam Fox cut in and fed Brendan Lemieux a perfect pass to make it 1-0 seven minutes into the game. Have to give Brendan Lemieux credit on this one, he worked his tail off on the fore check to get this play started and ended it with scoring the goal. Seven minutes later, Strome fed Panarin who let a heck of a slap shot go to rip one past Brian Elliott, 2-0.
The second period was when things went absolutely crazy. Pavel Buchnevich scored back to back goals in the matter of two minutes, one of a snap snot and one off a tip-in. 4-0 Rangers. About four minutes later, Jacob Trouba let a shot go for his first of the season to make it 5-0. Now what was the only thing missing from this game so far? You guessed it! Mika Zibanejad. On the penalty kill, Zibanejad found himself on a breakaway and pulled a move different from his usual backhand one. Completely fooling Brian Elliott to make it 6-0.
Brian Elliott would finally be replaced by Carter Hart, not that there was really any hope to the Flyers digging themselves out of this hole. The Rangers would head to the power play with about five and a half to go in the second. Mika Zibanejad would cut into the slot and make a beautiful move to flip the puck in top shelf. Don't worry, Mika wasn't done! With a minute and a half to go he completes the natural hat trick to make it 8-0 New York. With under a minute to go it was the "kid line" joining in on the fun when Libor Hajek gave Filip Chytil a perfect pass to make it 9-0. Yes that is correct, NINE NOTHING.
This game was unlike anything Rangers fans have seen all season and was such an important game for two reasons. One of which being the obvious, Mika Zibanejad finally finding the net and playing like vintage Mika. That hat trick is so huge, for him and this team. Have to hope that this is the official slump buster for him and that he will be back to his old self for the rest of the season. The second being Alexandar Georgiev who has also struggled as of late. You may look at the score and think well it didn't really matter who was in goal the team scored nine goals. However, Georgiev made some very impressive saves during important parts of this game. It's hard to say who needed that game more, Mika Zibanejad or Alexandar Georgiev.
At the end of the day, the answer is the team as a whole needed that. We've been looking for that game that turns this season around and you have to think and hope that this is it. The Rangers are back at it tomorrow against the Washington Capitals and while it is unsure what is going to happen as far as the coaching staff and Covid protocols go, one thing is sure. That the Rangers need to take this 9-0 game and go the rest of the season playing with that confidence and energy.
Chris Feldman
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