Rangers Week Ahead features Mika Zibanejad’s 1,000th NHL game
Mika Zibanejad joins the NHL 1,000-game club on Monday night when the Ottawa Senators come to Madison Square Garden, kicking off the New York Rangers’ third straight four-game week.
Zibanejad will become the 418th player in League history to skate in 1,000 games. It will be his 719th with the Rangers, tying him with Hockey Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate for 13th place on the team’s all-time list.
“I don’t feel old, but I definitely feel experienced,” the 32-year-old forward told NHL.com. “I’ve been around for some time now.”
His game-tying power-play goal at 14:03 of the second period Sunday was his 280th goal with the Rangers, tying Adam Graves for fourth most in franchise history. He’s also ninth in assists (376), seventh in points (656), No. 1 in power-play goals (122), third in power-play points (243), tied for fourth in short-handed goals (14) and second in short-handed points (33). Zibanejad is No. 1 with eight overtime goals, seventh in game-winning goals (38) and eighth in shots on goal (2,003).
His 999th game on Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets was the first in the NHL for rookie goaltender Dylan Garand. He made 35 saves before the Jets scored twice in the shootout for a 3-2 win, handing the Blueshirts their fourth straight loss (0-3-1).
“It was pretty surreal,” Garand said postgame. “Really, just try to be present and then take it all in. It was everything you could ever hope and dream of, and you know it (stinks) to not get the win for the guys. But it was a dream come true.”
With Jonathan Quick day to day with a lower-body injury, expect Garand to see more action this week — especially with the Rangers finishing a back-to-back on Monday before playing every other night.
Who’s Hot
Zibanejad was one of the few Rangers to have a good week. He scored in the third period Sunday, extending his goal streak to three games and his point streak to four.
Who’s Not
Will Cuylle didn’t have a point during the week of March 9-15, when the Rangers won four in a row. And the power forward didn’t have any last week when they lost all four games.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
A third straight four-game week that caps a stretch of 12 games in 21 days.
Ottawa Senators at Rangers (March 23, 7:30 p.m., MSG/NHL Network)
One day after hitting the 30-goal mark for the fourth time with the Rangers, Zibanejad will play his milestone game against the team that selected him No. 6 overall in the 2011 draft. He became a Ranger in a trade that sent forward Derick Brassard to Ottawa on July 18, 2016, and haunted his old team since then.
“It’s the team that got me my first chance to be in the NHL and believed in me a lot,” Zibanejad explained. “To be able to do it against them, it feels like a full circle moment. If I could have asked or even thought about picking a team to do it against, that would be the team.”
Zibanejad has 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) in 21 games against Ottawa, including a goal and two assists in two games this season.
The Rangers are 5-1-1 in their previous seven games against the Senators. The regulation loss came on Jan. 14, when the Senators embarrassed the Blueshirts 8-4 at Madison Square Garden. The only positive note was that rookie Gabe Perreault scored twice.
Rangers at Toronto Maple Leafs (March 25, 7 p.m., MSG)
The Maple Leafs expected to be preparing for the Stanley Cup Playoffs by now after finishing first in the Atlantic Division last season. Instead, they’re getting ready for an early summer and hoping their captain, Auston Matthews, will be ready to go in the fall after having season-ending knee surgery earlier this month.
The Rangers rolled over the Maple Leafs 6-2 at the Garden on March 5 as part of their four-game winning streak. Cuylle scored twice, Alexis Lafreniere and Zibanejad each had a goal and two assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves. That victory ended a four-game losing streak to Toronto at MSG.
Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, son of former Rangers center Michael Nylander, had an assist in that game, giving him 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) in 26 career games against New York.
Chicago Blackhawks at Rangers (March 27, 7 p.m., MSG)
These Original Six rivals haven’t seen each other since Dec. 10, when the Blackhawks shut out the Rangers 3-0 at United Center. Spencer Knight made 21 saves for the shutout, and Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist. That goal was the first against the Rangers for the first player taken in the 2023 draft.
The win was one of the highlights of what’s looking like Chicago’s fourth straight last-place finish in the Central Division. They haven’t made the playoffs in a non-COVID season since 2017-18 – and haven’t won a postseason series since defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final for their third championship in six seasons.
Rangers captain J.T. Miller has 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 26 games against Chicago. He’ll try to add to those totals as the Blueshirts begin a seven-game homestand.
Florida Panthers at Rangers (March 29, 1 p.m., MSG/NHL Network)
It’s another early call on Sunday for the Rangers, who face the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs for the first time since defeating them 5-1 in the NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot Park in Miami on Jan. 2. The teams finish their season series in Florida on April 14, the Rangers’ next-to-last game.
The Panthers won’t be going for a third straight Cup championship this spring. They enter the week barely over the NHL version of .500 (34-32-3), and are 14 points out of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. In fact, the Panthers are just six points ahead of the last-place Rangers.
Zibanejad had the first outdoor hat trick and five-point game in NHL history, giving him 17 goals and 32 points in 33 career games against the Cats. Sam Reinhart scored in that game, giving him 17 goals and 31 points in 34 games against the Rangers.
