New York Rangers: All hail the new King, other takeaways
It was a sweet ending to the homestand for the New York Rangers who made light work of the LA Kings in a 4-1 win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
After dropping a tough loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, the New York Rangers needed a response and they got one against the rebuilding Kings.
Igor Shesterkin was the star of the show as the rookie made 42 saves, with the starting job now seemingly his to lose.
And the Rangers landed the first blow of the night thanks to Greg McKegg, who pounced on a bad play by Kings goalie Jonathan Quick to hammer home the loose puck.
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The Blueshirts and the Kings were trading blows and chances with both goalies standing tall to make it a scoreless second period.
However, the contest exploded into life somewhat in the final period as Kaapo Kakko buried a silky feed from Filip Chytil to make it a two-goal game.
The Kings did respond thanks to Trevor Moore, recently acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade, with the forward dispatching a wrister past Shesterkin after getting the puck back.
But that was the only real fightback from LA as the Rangers went on to take full control of the game.
Artemi Panarin recorded his 28th goal of the year after converting on the rebound after Jesper Fast had knocked the puck down with his hand to start an odd-man rush, before Tony DeAngelo iced the game with an empty-netter from inside his own zone.
Although this is a bad Kings team, this was a win the New York Rangers needed and we had some takeaways from the contest…