If anyone thought the New York Rangers were in trouble before this game, they had good reason. Minutes before pregame warmups it was announced that Artemi Panarin was in the COVID protocol. Patrik Nemeth was also unable to play due to a non-COVID health issue. Not only that, but Tampa got Andrei Vasilevskiy and Anthony Cirelli off the the COVID list and Eric Cernak back from an injury. If the Blueshirts took a licking from a Tampa team looking to avenge a shootout loss on Friday, no one would have been surprised.
Instead, the Rangers came out and played a perfect hockey game. They got outstanding goaltending from Igor Shesterkin early. Mika Zibanejad notched a hat trick with two goals on the power play. They totally shut down the Lightning in the third period, holding them to nine harmless shots.
They did this with a lineup that included rookies Nils Lundkvist and Zac Jones as the third defense pair with Jones and Tim Gettinger making their season debuts. The trio of defensemen including Jones, Libor Hajek and Lundkvist has played 119 NHL games combined. Not a single individual Tampa defenseman has played fewer than 187 games. The average age of the Rangers defense was 23.5 years. Compare that to Tampa whose defense average age is 29. And look who got the shutout.
Gallant was asked to assess his rookie third pairing of Lundkvist and Jones. “Real good, they moved the puck good…you try to get match ups you want…they were against the top line sometimes and did real well. They didn’t show a lack of confidence and that’s important.”
It was game that needed big performances and they got them. But the rest of the lineup also responded. Gallant complimented Goodrow and singled out Lafrenière, “When you got some of your top players out of the lineup and some of the kids get a chance to to step up…Laffy goes up to the second line and plays good hockey. It’s a good thing for them and good thing for management to see them step up. It makes the coach feel a lot better when you see those guys when they go into a bigger role and they succeed. It was a big day for us.”
After sweeping an away and home series against the Stanley Cup champions, so much for the Rangers not being able to beat playoff teams.