Here are some takeaways from the Rangers' 3-2 victory against the Sharks.
Showtime is back better than ever. The New York Rangers secured a much-needed victory, defeating the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Thursday night.
The Sharks scored a fluky goal off of a deflection less than three minutes into the contest, continuing the Rangers early-game struggles.
While the Rangers didn’t necessarily play badly in the first period, they looked a little disjointed and more or less let the Sharks control the pace of play.
Mika Zibanejad was a player in desperate need of a goal and he delivered in a big way, burying a rebound off of an Adam Fox shot.
“It’s good for any player,” Fox said about Zibanajed scoring a goal. “He is a player who is heavily relied upon. It’s early in the season and some guys are getting off to hot starts. He is a guy who’s had a lot of success. It was a big goal for him to get that going and for the team to jumpstart us as well.”
Jumpstarting might be an understatement.
The second Zibanejad scored, there was just a different energy at Madison Square Garden. The fans were buzzing and the Rangers began to completely take over the game, with their flashy style of play on full display.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of getting the goal, no matter how you get it,” Zibanejad said. “You get a little bit more energy, the crowd gets a little bit more energy and everyone gets involved again. It was big for us and it was a good feeling.”
Jimmy Vesey and Vincent Trocheck found the back of the net in the second period, capping a dominant 20-minute stretch.
There was a lot that changed for the Rangers from the first to the second period.
“I thought in the second period we just made quicker plays, shorter plays or longer plays when we needed to,” Peter Laviolette said. “I also thought we got moving better in the offensive zone during the second period. In the first period I thought we were stale. You gotta move more than we did and we were able to do that in the second period and we generated from there.
There was some bad news that came from the night for the Rangers though.
Filip Chytil suffered an upper-body injury after a collision with K’Andre Miller and he was forced to exit the game.
Laviolette confirmed that Chytil is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and he’s being evaluated. The severity of Chytil’s injury is still unknown.
The Rangers are set to play next on Sunday night against the Seattle Kraken in what will be the start of a four-game road trip.
