This one has to go into the record books as a statement win. After an extremely slow start, the Rangers woke up and thoroughly outplayed the Bruins to win their eighth road game and move temporarily into second place overall in the NHL. The 5-2 score was indicative of the play as the Rangers scored three third period goals to run away with the game.
Finally, after four tries, the Rangers beat the Bruins in the NHL Thanksgiving Showdown and they did it on national television. Let’s not get into the quality of the ABC telecast except to say it bordered on being unwatchable.
They Blueshirts used the same recipe that they have been cooking with all season. Outstanding goaltending from Igor Shesterkin kept them in the game early and then they showed their knack for timely and balanced scoring. They got goals from their stars (Artemi Panarin), their worker bees (Dryden Hunt) and their future (Alexis Lafrenière ).
The newly configured four lines are really beginning to mesh. Hunt had a very good game with Panarin and Strome and finished with a goal and an assist. While the Zibanejad line did not score, they had numerous opportunities. The third line came through with the backbreaking fourth goal and the fourth line played another hard game. It’s really starting to work.
Watching the telecast, the 17-5 shot advantage for the Bruins in the first period was more like a 100-1 advantage. Ever the optimist, Coach Gerard Gallant talked about it after the game. “The start wasn’t great, the first period wasn’t great.” Gallant continued, “I pay no attention to the shot clock. They’re marking shots that aren’t shots and we had a couple extra….it’s just a feel of the game and we didn’t like our first period.”
Gallant complimented Shesterkin for keeping them in the game, and said that after the first three or four shifts of the second period “I though we played great the rest of the way.”
That they did.