Blue Line Station
Fansided

A solid 6-3 win gives hope to the improbable

By Steve Paulus

Apr 25, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers is surrounded by teammates after he scored a hat trick in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at Madison Square Garden on April 25, 2021 in New York City. Mandatory Credit: Elsa/Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 25, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers is surrounded by teammates after he scored a hat trick in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at Madison Square Garden on April 25, 2021 in New York City. Mandatory Credit: Elsa/Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kaapo Kakko #24 of the New York Rangers celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench after he scored in the first period (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Kaapo Kakko #24 of the New York Rangers celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench after he scored in the first period (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Notes on the game

The biggest the coach has with the team is that they cannot stand prosperity.  The Sabres scored just 1:27 after Mika Zibanejad gave the Rangers the lead.  In the third period, the Rangers scored their fifth goal giving them a 5-2 lead.  Less than three minutes later, it was 5-3.

This was Mika Zibanejad’s third hat trick of the season, his third is 22 games.

The last Ranger to get three hat tricks in a season was Marian  Gaborik in 2010-11.   Tomas Sandstrom is the only Blueshirt to get four in one season in 1986-87.

The Rangers  have six hat tricks this season, the most in the NHL.  No other team has more than four.

Adam Fox notched three assists, second highest for one game this season.  He now has 41 assists, fifth most in the entire league.

With 46 points, he has opened a two point lead on Victor Hedman.

It was the fourth two-goal game of Kaapo Kakko’s career.  He has scored four of his eight goals against the Sabres.  His two goals were very different. The first was a one-timer he lasered into the net and the second was a “dirty” goal in front of the net.

Panarin had one assist, but it was a brilliant pass to Zibanejad for his second goal, a hard pass that the center deflected by Dustin Tokarski.

The empty net goal by Kevin Rooney was the team’s 13th of the season.  The opposition has pulled their goalie in 13 games this season and the Rangers have  scored in 12 of them.  They are second in the league behind Tampa with 15.

Zac Jones assists on Kakko’s second goal, his first NHL point.  After the game Jones said all he was trying to do was “get the puck to Buch so he could do his thing.”

Five of the last nine power plays goals for the Rangers have been scored by the second  unit. That’s pretty amazing considering their limited ice time.

Filip Chytil missed a wide open net, a disease that has been affecting the Rangers recently.  This time it didn’ t hurt them.<

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The Rangers rolled four lines very consistently with only Panarin playing over 20 minutes.  Adam Fox led all skaters with 24:45 minutes of ice time.

Igor Shesterkin quietly had a very good game. Though he allowed three goals, one was on the power play and he had 31 saves on 34 shots.  It was the sixth time in nine games that he has had to face over 30 shots.

The Rangers penalty kill went three for four with the only goal scored in the second of back-to-back penalties in the second period.   The Rangers scored their league leading eighth shorthanded goal  (Rooney’s open net) and that improved their Net Penalty Kill to 89.3%, second only to Boston.

The win improved the Rangers record against Buffalo to 5-1-1 with one more game left.

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