New York Rangers: DeAngelo creates history as Devils brushed aside

Notes on the game

Let’s go over some notes and nuggets from the Rangers’ success over the Devils…

The New York Rangers are now 21-18-4 on the year following this win over the New Jersey Devils, and they are also 12-8-2 at Madison Square Garden this season.

With 17 of the next 39 games coming against Metro Division opponents, the Rangers have improved to 8-1-0 in their last nine contests against divisional foes.

It wasn’t pretty and there will be a lot of questions asked about the defense after they allowed a below average Devils team to get 49 shots on goal. However, a win is a win and we were given another reminder of just how much firepower this Rangers team possesses.

Again, it was hardly a Picasso of a performance and the front office will no doubt be shifting the defense to the top of the list when it comes to their off-season priorities.

Let’s talk about Igor Shesterkin. Handed his second straight start, the rookie was certainly given enough chances to show what he was made of as he faced a staggering 49 shots, saving 46 of them. He was left exposed by his defense on occasion but the prospect handled himself well and gave us another glimpse of why many consider him to be the future goalie of this franchise.

I don’t think there was too much Shesterkin could have done with the three goals he allowed, you could maybe make a case that his technique could have been better for the first goal, but this is a learning curve and the rookie will be better for the experience.

From the front office perspective, I don’t think this could have gone any better in terms of really evaluating Igor Shesterkin from both a performance and mental aspect. He faced a lot of shots and a lot of traffic over the course of his first two games in the NHL, and he also faced nearly every scenario possible. The front office wanted a good look at their future franchise goalie and they certainly got just that.

Final note on Shesterkin here. There was a really nice moment after the game that the official New York Rangers Twitter account captured, with

Henrik Lundqvist

giving his young protege advice on what to do with the Broadway Hat that is handed out to the player of the game. It was a poignant moment between the present and future goalies of this storied franchise.

Actually, I lied. We haven’t finished with Shesterkin just yet. The Russian’s 46 saves were tied for the third-most by a Rangers rookie goaltender in one game since the NHL began to track saves in 1955-56.

Shesterkin is also only the sixth goaltender in franchise history who has earned a win in each of his first two NHL appearances, and the only one who has earned a win in each of his first two outings in which both were at MSG.

Now we can move on from Shesterkin but we are moving on to another Russian in Artemi Panarin, who continued his stellar year with another three-point night against the Devils. The forward tallied a goal and two assists to move on to 61 points (24 goals, 37 assists) on the year.

Panarin is the fourth Ranger in franchise history who has recorded three or more consecutive three-point games at home, while the forward is the sixth Ranger in franchise history who has recorded 60 or more points in the team’s first 43 games of a season.

Let’s talk about Tony DeAngelo. What a night for the defenseman. It was an historic game for DeAngelo who put on an absolute show with five points and a hat trick, including two power play points. DeAngelo boasts a deadly release and that is developing into a real nice weapon for the Rangers, especially on the PP.

Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist for two points, and the power forward now has tallied a point in five of the last six games (three goals, three assists). Kreider is also one of 11 forwards to have recorded 25 or more points and 75 or more hits in 2019-20.

The final point of the night was Kreider’s 300th career point in 502 NHL games.

Ryan Strome also tallied a two-point night (two assists) and the forward now has 41 points (12 goals, 29 assists) on the year, which is more than anyone would have expected from Strome prior to the start of the season.

Let’s finish with the stats by putting this one out there – The Rangers tied a single-game season-high with six goals in Thursday’s game.

The Blueshirts did a fine job on the penalty kill, going a perfect 2-for-2, while they went 2-for-5 on the power play. The Rangers are ranked 20th on the PK (79.1) and 14th on the PP (20.4).

The Rangers were better in the faceoff circle with a 54% winning percentage, while they also did a good job of staying out of the box.