‘Surreal’: Rangers rookie nets 1st NHL goal in comeback win vs. Canadiens
There were smiles all around in the New York Rangers’ dressing room after they overcame an early two-goal deficit and left Bell Centre with a 4-3 win against the Montreal Canadiens. No one was happier than rookie defenseman Matthew Robertson, whose first NHL goal early in the third period put the Rangers ahead to stay.
The 24-year-old, who was victimized by a bad bounce that led to Montreal’s first goal 1:33 into the game, teed up a straightaway slap shot that found its way past Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault at 4:11 to put the Rangers ahead 3-2.
“Surreal. I mean, it still hasn’t really kicked in,” Robertson said postgame, after getting his first NHL point in his sixth game. “I just shot the puck and it ended up going in. … It’s a roller coaster of emotions.”
Coach Mike Sullivan was especially happy for Robertson because of the way he rebounded from his early-game misfortune.
“That’s not an easy puck that he was handling,” Sullivan explained. “That was coming around the wall. We’ve got to do a better job supporting that, so we don’t give up a 2-on-1 in that circumstance, and that’s something that we’ll work at as a group. But as a young player, sometimes that can affect a guy, right?
“What I loved about his response is — when I say we learned a lot of things about our group, that’s one of the things that I’m talking about. It’s his ability to shake it off and just play.”
Matthew Robertson making most of opportunity with Rangers
Robertson was New York’s second-round pick (No. 49 overall) in the 2019 draft, but his path to the NHL has been, to borrow an old Beatles tune, a long and winding road. He spent two more years in junior hockey with the Edmonton Oil Kings and was in his fourth season with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford before getting a two-game cup of coffee with the big club late last season.
He made the team out of training camp as a seventh defenseman and was scratched for the first three games this season before stepping into the lineup when Carson Soucy went down with an upper-body injury. Robertson’s averaging 17:17 TOI in four games since and done nothing to hurt his chances of staying in the lineup when Soucy returns.
He showed poise and maturity to not let that unfortunate first goal sink his night on Saturday. The Puck skipped past Robertson at the left point, sending Montreal’s Cole Caufield streaking the other way. Juraj Slafkovsky finished off the 2-on-1 to put the Rangers in an early 1-0 hole.
“I thought, just watching him play the rest of the game, he was competing hard,” the coach said. “It didn’t affect his confidence or his swagger, so to speak. He’s a physical guy. He’s a mobile guy. He defends well, but the fact that he reacted the way he reacted, I think, just speaks to his maturity.”
Robertson said he’s “just trying to take it shift by shift. I’m not trying to look too far ahead and try to enjoy every moment and get better.”
Asked if he was showing something to himself with his play, Robertson replied that “for sure, it’s building confidence every shift you’re out there, every good play you make. I’m just trying to build off each and every shift, each and every game – just getting confidence in yourself.”
Robertson’s performance was a key part of might be a turning point in the Rangers season.
They allowed the first goal for the fifth time in seven games — but won for the first time. Their 7-0-2 point streak in Montreal is the second-longest in team history, behind only an 11-game run (six wins, five ties) from March 19, 1938 to Jan. 4, 1941.
They’re also 3-0-1 with 15 goals scored in their four road games; their problems have come at home, where the Rangers are 0-3-0 and have yet to score a goal.
“I thought it was a real gutsy effort by the guys,” Sullivan said. “When you go through some of the early adversity (shutout losses in each of their first three home games) that we’ve gone through here, I said to them after the game, ‘That game could’ve gone south fast.’ We get down two early like that, given the circumstances that we’ve gone through the last week or so, I just give the players a lot of credit.
“You learn about your group when you go through experiences like this. What we learned is that we’ve got a high character group in there. There’s a certain resilience to them that I think is admirable and necessary to win in this league. Couldn’t be more proud of them.”
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