Rangers Roundup: Strome fight sparks team, needed break, and more
The New York Rangers scored a rousing victory over the visiting Panthers on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
It’s a recipe for Blueshirts’ wins we’ve seen often. A dash of hits, a pinch of forechecking, a healthy serving of Chris Kreider on the power play, and a whole lot of Igor Shesterkin stopping pucks.
Yet last night, against the NHL’s best team in the standings it was a something a little more subtle.
Ryan Strome fight sparked the Rangers
In the first period, Mason Marchment was sandwiched by Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba having the wind knocked out of him. He took exception and decided to get his payback against Ryan Strome in the second period with a blindside hit from behind. No penalties were called on either play.
Strome put that hit in his memory bank and decided early in the third period with the Ranges up by a score of 3-2 to get his retribution. At the time, the Panthers were making a push in the offensive zone when Strome told Marchment, ‘you wanna go?’
It was a great middleweight bout with Strome landing significantly more punches on a much taller opponent. He also scored the all important take down and TV cameras picked up a nice cut on his hand from those haymakers.
After the game, Gerard Gallant was asked about the fight.
“It was perfect,” he said recognizing the timing. “He did the job and I would never tell a guy to fight but you can’t not respond after a guy hits you like that. Stromer did a great job.”
New York closed out the rest of the period strong with two more goals for the win.
Rangers need the break
New York will now have two week off before their next game against the Boston Bruins on February 15. According to the head coach, the team will reconvene for practice starting on February 11.
“Personally, I think we need it,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said of the break. “We played so many games on the road (26), played 47 games, second most in the league. I don’t mind it. The good part about the (All-Star) break is we’re coming back and we’ve got four great days to practice before we play our first game. We’ll practice on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th and we play on the 15th. Those are four good days.”
The Rangers are 30-13-4 for 64 points and are tied for 4th overall in the NHL’s standings.
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