Don’t look now, but the Rangers may be heating up.
Maybe there were asterisks next to the club’s wins over the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights and the reigning champions in the Avalanche, who were both missing key players when the Rangers beat them both in their buildings last week. It’s also easy to point out the Rangers still gave the Devils a point when they beat the No. 2 team in the NHL in overtime on Monday.
But Thursday night’s 3-1 win — the Blueshirts’ fifth in a row — over the surging Maple Leafs at the Garden, however, came with no disclaimer.
Toronto entered the game on a three-game win streak and had gone 12-0-3 in its past 15 contests for a third-place ranking in the NHL. All of the Leafs’ big guns were in their lineup. It was a high-spirited matchup and the Rangers earned each of the two points fair and square.
No bullet points. No speculation. Just a decisive win from start to finish with one of their most complete performances of the season.
“If you look at since they’ve had their core together, every year they’ve been one of the top teams in the league,” said Jimmy Vesey, who played 30 games for the Maple Leafs in 2020-21 and scored twice against his former team Monday night to help improve the Rangers to 16-10-5. “No different this year. They’ve been rolling. It’s definitely a ‘measuring stick’ game. We were feeling good about ourselves, too. I think it’s a big win for us and knowing how we have to play to win those big games.”
There was a lot to like about the win. The second power-play unit, which was graced with a whole 59 seconds of ice time with the man-advantage, opened up the scoring with a goal from Filip Chytil. Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, who were kept together after uniting in Monday’s game against the Devils, showed real signs of promise. Vesey scored the game-winner and the insurance tally in the form of an empty-netter, while goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced.
As a team, the penalty kill was stellar. It fought off all three of the Maple Leafs’ power plays, which gave the unit an 11-for-13 record over this five-game winning streak, while generating some offense in the process. The Rangers also prevented Toronto’s Mitchell Marner from extending his 23-game point streak and Auston Matthews from building on his eight-game tear, for that matter.
The Rangers even won their first game while wearing the Reverse Retro Liberty jerseys after previously going 0-4 in them.
“The mood has been a little better in here,” Vesey said. “Obviously, that might be a result of getting a few wins. But we’re in high spirits right now and going into every game it feels like we’re going to win. We talked about, I think [Chris Kreider] used the term ‘stacking wins,’ and it’s five in a row now. Got a few more before Christmas break and we’re looking to finish strong.”
Vesey continues to earn every penny of the veteran minimum $750,000 contract he signed after impressing during his professional tryout at the start of this season. With the game tied at 1-1 in the second period, the 29-year-old forward made an aggressive move to the net and buried the puck past Toronto goalie Matt Murray to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 15:33.
Special teams was a highlight for the Rangers in general. In their first and only power-play opportunity of the night, the second unit of Jacob Trouba, Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov and Chytil essentially split the time with the top unit, which hasn’t happened many times — if at all — this season. Chytil sniped one just under the bar for his first power-play goal since Jan. 2, 2020 to put the Rangers on the board.
“Finally,” Chytil said. “It only took me 31 games to score a [power-play] goal. No, but we have an unbelievable first unit, so we have to be ready whenever we get there. Just have to do as much as we can and today we get a chance to be there almost a minute. It makes a difference. Make some plays, you have more time to do something there. I’m happy that we scored a goal and we have to be ready whenever [we have] a chance.”