For the second night in a row, the New York Rangers walked away with a 4–0 win at Madison Square Garden against a low-scoring opponent — this time against the New York Islanders, and with Igor Shesterkin in net.
“Massive to get these two points,” Mika Zibanejad said. “I feel like the way we’ve been winning the last couple weeks, we’ve been winning differently and that should be a good sign for us.”
Monday’s win moves the Rangers one point ahead of the Ottawa Senators for the third Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. And their 66 points match that of the Detroit Red Wings, who have amassed that total in one fewer game and remain in possession of the final playoff spot.
“Anytime you get into these games, teams can definitely gain an advantage,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Playing playoff hockey, fighting for their lives, scrapping for their lives.
“A long way to go. There’s a lot of teams that are right around us. You got to stay consistent with the way you play and hopefully that consistency leads to wins, but oftentimes it’ll be against the team that’s fighting just as hard as you are.”
And J.T. Miller, like he did in his half decade with the Vancouver Canucks, continues to drag his team into the fight. Here are Monday’s biggest takeaways.
Back-to-back shutouts against poor opponents
It’s important to consider that the Islanders and Predators are not exactly offensive superpowers.
On Sunday, Jonathan Quick shut out the Nashville Predators, the league’s worst offensive team, with 34 saves. On Monday, Shesterkin was tested 21 times by an Islanders team that is 27th in the league with 165 goals for this season. He responded with his fourth shutout of the season.
Shesterkin’s shutout was nearly spoiled early, as Anders Lee’s sharp angle goal was disallowed because of an offside. The play at the blue line was close, though, so this was a blessing for Shesterkin.
Each half of the Rangers’ goaltending tandem recording a shutout in back-to-back games is a confidence booster for the club, considering Shesterkin’s struggles in the crease this season. He ranks 31st in the league among goalies who have played 21 games or more with a 2.86 goals against average, and he’s 20th with a .906 save percentage.
These still aren’t stellar numbers for the soon-to-be highest paid goalie in the league — one who three days earlier conceded three goals on 16 shots against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a playoff-bound team that is a closer comparable to the matchups the Rangers face down the stretch — and if they leapfrog Detroit for a playoff spot.
Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller combine for 4 points
J.T. Miller continued his run of dominance Monday, notching a goal and an assist. He’s now up to 14 points in 11 games since the Rangers acquired him from the Canucks a little over a month ago.
This is exactly what Miller does. He produces at a prolific rate and leads by example. He’s injected life into a club that looked dead in the water a few weeks ago. Most notably — even though he did not record a point on Monday — is the resurgence of Zibanejad, who has been paired with Miller since the feisty forward’s arrival.
Miller centered Zibanejad and Will Cuylle on Monday, and the trio was excellent. Cuylle scored the opening goal — which held up as the game-winner — late in the first period on a fluky Zac Jones point shot that bounced off his helmet.
“I felt like it was slow motion,” Zibanejad said. “I saw it go over and no one saw it, so it was kind of funny, but it was a big goal for us.”
“A real beauty,” Laviolette said. “One he’ll remember probably for the rest of his life.”
A few minutes later, Cuylle took a big hit as he cleared the puck on a penalty kill, allowing Sam Carrick to set up Will Borgen for the Rangers’ second goal.
“He’s been playing really well,” Zibanejad said. “I don’t think he’s doing anything that we didn’t know of him already. People tend to notice it more when it results into goals and points, but if you look back at the games he doesn’t score, he doesn’t have points, I would say he does that over and over again anyways.”
“He’s been really good,” Laviolette said. “His speed, his physicality, the fact that he’s chipped in offense all year. He’s been a big part of the penalty kill now. His role just keeps expanding, and he’s growing into it, and certainly had an impact in the game tonight, taking the hit to make the play.”
The new top-six combinations spread out the scoring — Artemi Panarin played on the top line alongside Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière, and all three hit the scoresheet.
Playoff implications
Helping the Rangers’ chances was the Senators’ 5–4 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday. The Rangers will host the Capitals, who are second in the league and lead the Metropolitan Division with 86 points, on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s game begins the Rangers’ biggest test of the season, and one that will show what they’re truly made of. The Capitals are the first of 11 straight games against playoff-bound or fringe opponents, a stretch that includes matchups with the league-leading Winnipeg Jets, and the Rangers’ current achilles heel — the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Ottawa Senators.
New York plays a back-to-back this weekend on the road in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon, and at home Sunday evening against Columbus.
It only gets tougher from here.
