The New York Rangers sent a message in their 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night. They aren’t going to be a pushover no matter what happens this season and they are getting closer to being a team to be reckoned with.
The Maple Leafs came to Madison Square Garden out of a playoff spot and were facing a New York Rangers team that had a tough loss to a good team on Monday night. The Leafs have one of the top offenses in the NHL and the Rangers did a solid job of shutting them down. They bent, but they didn’t break and finished with a very satisfying 5-3 win.
It was a night of messages. Chris Kreider told the NHL that he is fine after suffering a head/neck injury and enhanced his trade deadline value even more. Pavel Buchnevich told David Quinn that he knew he had to step up after a lousy effort on Monday and he did in spades. Ryan Strome told Quinn that he knew what he had to do to stay paired with Artemi Panarin. Jacob Trouba told the opposition that he won’t take a dirty check without fighting back. And Igor Shesterkin told the Rangers that they are right in their belief that he is the goalie of the future.
The reunited ZIbanejad line was flying all night and dominated when they were on the ice, scoring two goals in six seconds in the process. Kreider showed no ill effects of this head shot he took two games ago. There had been talk of dropping Buchnevich down in the lineup after he had only two shifts in the third period on Monday. He responded with a three point night.
Filip Chytil replaced Ryan Strome for a handful of shifts in the first period, but in a matter of minutes, Strome was back with Panarin. Quinn explained that he was sending a message to Strome that he had to play better and it took only a couple shifts for him to prove that he had learned a lesson.
Jacob Trouba was reunited with Brady Skjei and he had another strong game and finished the night beating the crap out of Zack Hyman for throwing a dangerous cross check as the game ended.
The surprise starter, Igor Shesterkin, had another superlative game. He had 27 saves as the Maple Leafs swarmed all night and came up big when he had to. He might have had a chance on one of the three goals and he had a couple big stops early in the game. Shesterkin is now 4-1 in his five starts and if Quinn is true to his word about staying with a hot goalie, we should be seeing a lot of Shesterkin in this three goalie rotation.
Perhaps the best of all was that the Rangers counterpunched whenever the Maple Leafs scored and in the third period they played a strong defensive game, not allowing the Leafs many opportunities until a later power play goal. In the first 15:40 of the third period, the Rangers allowed only four shots on goal while blocking six shots.