Takeaways from Rangers historic 7-0 romp of Predators.

What some thought would be a letdown turned into a touchdown. One night after drubbing the Pittsburg Penguins 6-0 at the “Worlds most famous arena”, the New York Rangers routed the Nashville Predators 7-0 on Sunday, with six of their goals coming on consecutive shots in the first 13:36 of the contest, highlighting a historic opening frame.

Meanwhile, Jaroslav Halak matched his partner Igor Shesterkin and recorded a shutout. The team became the sixth in NHL History to score six or more without surrendering a tally in back-back games. While this was a Nashville team that entered MSG on their way to a playoff miss and without all-stars Roman Josi, Ryan McDonagh, Filip Forsberg, and Ryan Johansen, the Rangers were opportunistic and delivered an emphatic offensive beatdown.

Dating back to Thursday’s 4-2 win over Pittsburgh, New York has potted 15 unanswered goals, the longest streak in the league this season, which has them firing on all cylinders with a 6-0-1 record in their past seven tilts after dropping their first two following their trade deadline acquisition of Patrick Kane.

The recent stretch has vaulted them back into the Metropolitan Divison race, where they’ll have a chance to close in on the first-place Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday and Thursday, who they trail by six points with 12 games remaining and the Canes possessing two games in hand. Sandwiched between the two rivals are the New Jersey Devils, who the Blueshirts trail by five points, with each team equal in the games played department.

A Filip of the switch:

Filip Chytil opened the scoring by going the length of the ice and knifing his way through two Nashville defenders before beating Kevin Lankinen for an early 1-0 Rangers lead a mere 2:37 into the contest, breaking his 18 game goal drought and amassing the 20 goal-plateau for the first time in his career.

“Finally, It was a long time, but sometimes you have stretches like this in a season. The season is very long, so I’m happy about the goal. But now we have a lot of hard games, and I want to keep doing it”, the 23-year-old center in the final year of his contract said. The goal proved a long time coming for Chytil, who’s been the last guy on the ice at the previous few practices.

The kid line has been quiet compared to the rampaging top six and the tenacious fourth line. Still, they have thrived when needed despite being cut short of ice time since the organization’s acquisition of Vladimir Tarasenko.

“You have to understand, of course, the kind of players we brought in. They are here to help us win the Cup,” Chytil said. “But we want to show that we belong on the ice. We want to prove that we can contribute to the team.”

They had their chance on Sunday and ran with it, as Alexis Lafrenire, Chytil, and Kaapo Kakko logged 11:42 of ice time together with nine shots on goal to show for it, including a stint on the power play, impressing Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant. “They deserved it tonight,” he said, referring to their increased ice time, “I like to see them take it. It’s not about me giving it to them. It’s about them taking it, and they deserve it. The game got out of hand, and everybody played the same amount of time, but they played good.”

Miller Time:

Unlike the Rangers’ bludgeoning of the Penguins less than 24 hours prior, where the offense spread the wealth around as six different players recorded multi-point games, one star stood out from the rest in this one.

Five minutes after Chytil’s tally, a Mika Zibanejad rifle off a feed from Artemi Panarin gave “Mika March” his fourth consecutive game with a goal and his thirteenth point of the month, doubling the Rangers lead. Then, it was Tyler Motte with a blast 52 seconds later before K’Andre Miller kicked his eventual historic stanza into high gear by finishing a pass off a two-on-one from Vincent Trocheck to make it 4-0 Blueshirts, ending Lankenin’s night after 9:09 of action.

Jusse Saros didn’t fair much better, as 51 seconds after his arrival, Panarin greeted him with a power play marker for New York’s fourth goal in a span of 2:39. The five goals in the first 10:01 of play is a new franchise record.

After the Rangers then went the next 3:30 minutes without a shot, Miller made the next one count and scored from the blue line for his fourth point of the period, setting a new franchise record for most in a frame by a defenseman, and he did it in a mere 5:13 of time on ice.

“It’s pretty cool,” Miller said, “I don’t think it changes much of anything. I’m doing what I can to help the team win. “The six goals were the most in franchise history since an 8-3 win on December 15, 1999, against the Los Angeles Kings.

Chris Kreider’s second-period tally made it a dozen Rangers who cracked the scoresheet, including a secondary assist from Halak on Chytil’s goal, giving Miller his first point of the evening.

The Halakness Monster

The game was over after 20, but unfinished business still needed to be attended to over the final 40 minutes, which was notching Halak his first shutout in two years. The 37-year-old veteran backup netminder hadn’t felt the thrill of putting up a goose egg since March 11, 2021, as a member of the Boston Bruins, and the Rangers thought it was important he got to experience that again, even if his most recent one was at their own expense in a 4-0 victory.

Akin to the start of Shesterkin’s 34-save perfecto on Saturday, Halak masked his teams’ defensive discrepancies in the early stages of the contest and would coast from there as part of a 22-save performance.

MARV’S 3 STARS:

HONORABLE STARS: Jacob Trouba(2 assists, +/- 4, 2 blocks, 21:20 of ice time), Vincent Trocheck(2 assists, one hit, one block, 14:25 of ice time, now has assists in five straight games)

3 Artemi Panarin(1 Goal, 2 assists, 16:46 of ice time,)

2 Jaroslav Halak(22 saves on 22 shots, +2.15 Goals Saved Above Expected, extended Rangers shutout streak to 130:51)

1 K’Andre Miller(2 goals, 2 assists, +\- 5, 2 hits, one block, 2 takeaways, 23:22 of ice time, 7.95 Game Score; Highest in single game this season)