There is still fight in New York.
It’s been a whirlwind of a week for the Rangers, who descended into a state of unrest amid a five-game losing streak that set off a siren throughout the organization.
Each loss seemed to hit like a gut punch, until the Blueshirts finally struck back with a nail-biting 4-3 win over the Canadiens Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden — delivered via a power-play goal from Kaapo Kakko with 24 seconds left.
Kaapo Kakko scores the game-winning goal with 24 seconds remaining to lead the Rangers to a 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Nov. 30, 2024.
“It was needed,” said Filip Chytil, who returned to the lineup — along with Chris Kreider — for the first time in seven games since avoiding a concussion. “It wasn’t the nicest win, but we get the two points.”
There has been something intangible missing from this team since the start of the season. For a majority of this game, however, the Rangers’ emotions seeped out.
They pushed. There was a sort of engagement on the ice we haven’t seen.
In terms of effort, no one could question the Rangers through 40 minutes in this one — albeit against an inferior Canadiens team.
Though it could not be entirely classified as a feel-good win.
The Rangers blew a third-period lead for the second time in three games, when the Canadiens scored twice less than 10 minutes apart to knot the game at three-all with 5:53 left in regulation.
Kaapo Kakko (24) is mobbed by teammates after scoring the game-winning goal in the Rangers’ win over the Canadiens.
But head coach Peter Laviolette put the kids in the driver seat in this one and deployed them accordingly.
Kirby Dach was hit with a four-minute double minor for high sticking Mika Zibanejad at the 17:20 mark, awarding the Rangers the man-advantage for the remainder of regulation.
A couple backhanded passes from Zac Jones and Will Cuylle landed the puck on the stick of Kaako, who buried his first power-play goal of the season with seconds left on the clock to secure the win for the Rangers.
Cuylle tripped Montreal’s Joel Armia leading up to the go-ahead goal, which drew the ire of the Canadiens from the bench to the press box.
Chris Kreider celebrates after Artemi Panarin’s goal in the first period of the Rangers’ win over the Canadiens.
Former Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton, at the helm in Montreal since 2021, was absolutely furious by the non-call.
“Sometimes when you’re trying to get out of something, that first one that you get out of might not be the prettiest,” Laviolette said. “It wasn’t tonight. We have to draw on the positives of what we were able to do from the physicality at the start, the fact that we kicked it up, we came back and we won it. Specialty teams factored into it. I think you just pull all those things out of it and just continue to work your way out.”
Montreal, tied for the second least amount of points in the NHL, suffered the six-game losing streak the Rangers were specifically trying to avoid on Saturday. That much was apparent.
So the Rangers finally gripped their fists and put them up to defend what is currently a very salvageable season.
Jacob Trouba makes a pass as Joel Armia defends during the second period of the Rangers’ win over the Canadiens.
This all while equipped with a newly minted lineup, which not only reached full strength, but also saw youngsters like Chytil, Cuylle, Brett Berard and Alexis Lafreniere get rewarded with ice time and opportunity.
The power play, dead in the water the last eight games, resuscitated the offense.
Curtailing an 0-for-14 skid dating back to the Jets game on Nov. 12, the Rangers went 3-for-6 with the man-advantage on Saturday.
After Artemi Panarin capitalized with the 5-on-3 advantage in the first period, Zibanejad notched his first power-play goal of the season to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead going into the second intermission.
Vincent Trocheck looks to skate away from Arber Xhekaj during the second period of the Rangers’ winn over the Canadiens.
Jacob Trouba’s efforts as the Rangers captain and top-four defenseman have naturally come into question amid the state of the team.
But there was No. 8, dropping the gloves with Montreal’s Josh Anderson less than two minutes into the game.
Whether it was in response to the hit he landed on Canadiens defenseman Justin Barron earlier in the season or an attempt to get both himself and the team into the game, the Rangers hooted and hollered from the bench in support of their captain.
The rest of the team followed suit, with several Rangers getting involved in post-whistle scrums throughout the rest of the game.
“It was a message from him that he was here to play,” Laviolette said of Trouba. “Our guys were ready to play.”
