“Am I dreaming?” is a question many fans of the New York Rangers must have been asking themselves around an hour into the game against the Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday night. The Blueshirts piled on a hapless Flyers squad, jumping out to a 2-0 first period lead and then adding seven goals in the second period. The third period was garbage time and the final score was 9-0, the most one-sided win for the Blueshirts in over 20 years.
The irony is in a game that David Quinn and his coaching staff had to miss for health concerns, his team got healthy in a hurry, particularly Mika Zibanejad. The Swedish center tied an NHL record with six points in the second period and his six points on the night was the second most in one game in franchise history.
The win draws the Rangers within three points of fifth place Philadelphia and six points from the last playoff spot. If the Rangers can build on this win and play like this every game the playoffs dream can be very real.
Zbanejad had a power play, even strength and shorthanded goal along with three assists. Pavel Buchnevich had two goals and four points. Artemi Panarin, Filip Chytil and Brendan Lemieux added goals and Jacob Trouba scored his first goal of the season. It was a magical second period. Every time the Rangers touched the puck, it seemed to go in.
It was a well deserved and timely shutout for Alexandar Georgiev who stopped all 26 shots he faced. While he was rarely challenged, he did make a spectacular save on Nolan Patrick at a point when a Flyers’ goal might have shifted momentum. After the game Georgiev was humble. “Tonight was a great day to be a Rangers goalie. The guys played really, realy good defense. It would have been easy to try to score more goals. but we locked it down from the middle of the game, didn’t give up any odd man rushes…huge credit to those guys.”
Although he won’t get credit for the win, Hartford coach Kris Knoblauch pushed all of the right buttons behind the bench. After the game Knoblauch said that just followed he game plan that had been laid out in advance by David Quinn. “Everything was all planned out. He had a game plan, video all set up, Before the game we went through the video and the pregame scout with Quinny,…Went over talking points, key things, match ups. I was really following up the game plan that he set forward.”
Knoblauch had been pulled off the ice at a Wolf Pack practice in the morning and had been told to prepare in case he was needed. He did say that he was told to be ready to go on the road to Washington if needed. His Associate Coach Gord Murphy and Assistant General Manager Chris Drury were behind the bench with him.
But the star of the night was Zibanejad. He spoke about his challenging season. “Obviously it hasn’t been what everyone expected including me…just trust myself and for the last week or so, I’ve been feeling better about myself. It’s nice to get a game like this, but first and foremost it was a really nice team win.”
He did talk about this night in relation to the rest of the season. “If the puck doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t go in. I’ve been trying to get myself through this….it’s one game, but overall l’ve been feeling a little bit better for the past little bit…obviously production is a big part of it. As long as we keep winning I’m happy.”
It was a spectacular night, one that the Garden hasn’t seen in over two decades. Now, the question is if they can build on it when they go on the road to face a very tough Washington Capitals squad on Friday.