3 Rangers takeaways after keeping playoff hopes alive by embarrassing Islanders 9-2
The New York Rangers are still all but certain to miss make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But they did sweep the Battle of New York.
One night after an embarrassing 8-5 home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers humiliated their archrivals, the New York Islanders, 9-2 at UBS Arena on Thursday night, completing a sweep of the season series for the first time since 2003-04 and keeping their slim playoff hopes alive. They outscored the Isles 23-5, winning each of the four games by at least three goals.
The win kept the Rangers’ microscopic playoff hopes alive. However, the Blueshirts could be eliminated before they take the ice for their next game against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon if the Montreal Canadiens get a point in their road game against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.
The nine goals were the most the Rangers have ever scored against the Islanders in a road game and matched the most they’ve had against their local rivals in any regular-season game. The Rangers scored nine times for the fourth time in the past 30 years and matched the Pittsburgh Penguins (against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 12) for the most goals in a game this season.
The Islanders came out looking like the Rangers on most nights in recent weeks – disinterested, sloppy and uncompetitive. With starting goalie Ilya Sorokin sidelined with a lower-body injury (likely for the rest of the season), backup Marcus Hogberg was neither good nor well-supported. The Rangers lit him up for four goals in the opening period and never looked back.
Meanwhile, the Rangers resembled the group that won the Presidents’ Trophy last season in the opening 20 minutes. They were hustling, winning puck battles, forcing turnovers and capitalizing on them for easy goals. They forechecked with vigor and backchecked like it was a playoff game.
“Anytime you can score early, get the momentum early, it’s big for the game,” said center Vincent Trocheck, who scored the third of the Rangers’ four goals in the opening period.
Following the big first period, Jusso Parssinen’s second-period goal made it 5-0, and after Maxim Tsyplakov’s power-play goal with 54 seconds left in the middle period got the Isles on the board, Brett Berard sandwiched two third-period goals around one by Isles forward Hunter Fasching before Alexis Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin added goals in the final 4:06.
“The start was really good. I thought we were just good defensively and on attack,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we have been starting games a lot better, but it’s nice when you can put up some goals and get rewarded like that.
“Then, I think, just finishing strong, too, I thought the third period was good.”
When the Islanders finally started generating some pressure in the second period, Igor Shesterkin looked like the goalie who won the Vezina Trophy four years ago. He finished with 44 saves, including 19 on 20 shots in the second period.
“Every night you know what you’re getting out of him,” Trocheck said. “We can always rely on him when we make mistakes, and tonight was no different.”
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3 Rangers takeaways from 9-2 victory against the Islanders
Here are three takeaways from the Rangers’ wipeout of their local rival.
1. Where has this team been?
As much as Rangers fans enjoyed seeing the Blueshirts toy with their suburban rivals again, they had to be shaking their heads and wondering why their heroes couldn’t have played like this when the games mattered more. After all, they had lost their previous three games while being outscored 17-6.
But on this night, the big guns came out firing – Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Trocheck each had a goal and an assist in the first period; Adam Fox and J.T. Miller each chipped in two assists in the opening 20 minutes. The power play needed just 29 seconds to score on its only opportunity of the game after going 3-for-35 in the previous 13 games, and Shesterkin played like the goaltender who will become the NHL’s highest-paid player at his position next season.
Yes, it helped that the Islanders didn’t have Sorokin, one of the League’s premier goaltenders. Hogberg was awful, though his teammates gave him no help, handing out turnovers like parking tickets during the Rangers’ four-goal first period.
This wasn’t like beating the San Jose Sharks, the worst team in the NHL, 6-1 on March 29. This was walloping their biggest rival, in their own building, in a game that was basically over after the first period. Ten players had multiple points, the first time the Rangers have been in double figures in multi-point scorers since Oct. 24, 1979.
2. Sweep dreams
There almost certainly won’t be a playoff trip for the Rangers, so they’ll have to settle for four wins in as many games against their suburban rivals.
This was the fourth time the Rangers have swept the season series from the Islanders since they entered the NHL in the fall of 1972. It’s also the most dominant the Rangers have ever been against the Islanders during a season series — they won all six games against the 1972-73 expansion Isles, but two of those wins were by one goal.
The only time the Blueshirts were more dominant was in the first round of the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when they swept the best-of-7 series and outscored the Islanders 22-3.
The stakes weren’t high this time, considering each team figures to be heading home for the summer next week, but Trocheck said there’s still something extra about beating their archrival.
“Any time you play New York-New York, it’s always a game you want to take pride in,” he said.
3. Too little, too late?
Kudos to the Rangers (37-35-7) for rebounding from their monstrosity of a showing against the Flyers at the Garden 24 hours earlier. They blew the game open early and were never threatened and kept piling up goals. Good teams stomp on opponents when they’re down, and the Rangers did just that against the Isles.
The bad part is that when they wake up in the morning and head for Raleigh, they’ll be six points behind the Canadiens (39-30-9), who will be going for their seventh straight win when they visit the Senators on Friday night.
“We know what the situation is,” Trocheck said. “We have to just focus on each game, try to get better, whether it’s a push to make the playoffs or a push to make ourselves better going into next season.”
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