New York Rangers: A good 4-1 win against a bad team
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers learned a lesson from their dispiriting loss to the Sabres Friday night and came out and played a defensively responsible and opportunistic game, beating the Kings 4-1.
New York Rangers fans got a glimpse of the future in this game. The key contributors all have a chance to spend a lot of years at Madison Square Garden. As inconsistent as the Blueshirts have been this season, this game was an example of what could be.
The legend of Igor Shesterkin grew with this game as the rookie netminder made 42 saves and won his fifth game in six starts. This was a tight 1-0 game until late in the third period and while it was not scintillating hockey, it was was a good way to win.
Goals came from Kaapo Kakko, Tony DeAngelo, Artemi Panarin and Greg McKegg. Filip Chytil chipped in with two assists as did Phil Di Guiseppe. Shesterkin, Kakko and Panarin are all going to be on Broadway for many years and DeAngelo is making a strong case to stay. While McKegg is a fee agent after this season as is DiGuiseppe, the latter is making a case for himself to come back.
The Blueshirts didn’t fall into the same trap that they did against the Sabres. Confronted with a defensively oriented team that doesn’t score a lot of goals, the Rangers matched them check for check and rode an early goal by McKegg into the third period. A Kakko goal put the Rangers up by two goal, but the Kings came back it was up to Artemi Panarin to ice it with his 28th goal of the season.
It was solid win and significant that the thee stars of the game, Shesterkin, Chytil and Giuseppe, all spent time in Hartford. The pipe line is starting to pay off.