It’s not easy, as Mr. Richard Starkey once remarked about hockey teams enduring starving goals, and he was sure of it.
But in the classification there is no column to represent [corporate name deleted] degree of difficulty. Each victory looks as beautiful as the next, even if it is achieved in a toothpick contest.
So the Rangers embraced their 3-2 win over Philadelphia on Thursday night, which maintained a losing streak, which had grown to four games, albeit with a losing point thrown into the mix.
It is true that they were forced to the max by a team that had not played in 11 days and did not have six regulars on the COVID protocol list, but the point is that the Blueshirts persisted and came out on the other side with a couple of essential points for the mental health of the club, even if the Flyers scored the competition with only 1:14 for the regulation of the additional attack. The Rangers weren’t about to argue.
“I just think we didn’t break,” said Brendan Smith, who had scored the goal 2-1 from the goal at 8:21 of the third. “With a lot of younger teams, you’ll see them break up after a team achieves the goal of a draw, but it was good resistance, it was a good effort to respond and not fall into ourselves.
“It simply came to our notice then. We really needed it. We just have to keep pulling the strings. ”
Alexandar Georgiev did not face a large volume of shots, in fact only 22 at night, but was exceptionally strong in breaking his own four-game losing streak (0-2-2) while deflecting a half-dozen shots. golden opportunities. Artemi Panarin, who had missed the previous two games with an upper body problem, made a tour de force, throwing a total of 16 attempts, eight on the net, before becoming the decided one. the shooting that Kaapo Kakko became outside the starting point.
The powerful play even went so far as to score a goal, his first since checking the notes here, Doug Harvey was ready and Camille Henry was preparing for the goal for the tips. Well, wait, no, it hadn’t been six decades, just six games, since February 1st. Colin Blackwell’s high-slot redirect beat Carter Hart at 3:24 of the second period to deny the Flyers ’starting score with a goal-scoring just 59 seconds from the contest.
Check the scorers again: Smith and Blackwell. The Blueshirts have scored six goals in their last five games. Two from Blackwell, one from Smith, one from Kevin Rooney, one from Julien Gauthier (scratched Thursday) and one from Pavel Buchnevich. This does not represent a plan for the success of the Rangers. Still, the importance of this victory that, at least temporarily, revived good feelings diminishes the need to extrapolate.
“I’m very proud,” coach David Quinn said. “It simply came to our notice then. Losing can wear you down. I don’t care … how beautiful it looked or what. I don’t care how it came to fruition, but we needed two points and we got two points, and that’s what mattered. “
We told you the Flyers were an exhausted club. The fact is that the Rangers had a defense that included guys who were sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth in the depth box when the season started: Smith, Jack Johnson, Anthony Bitetto and Libor Hajek. Everything was needed in the absence of K’Andre Miller (offside for a second straight game with upper body problems), Jacob Trouba (missing the first with a broken thumb who kept blocking a shot on Tuesday) and Tony DeAngelo (no explanation) necessary).
Smith hid when it was suggested that the Rangers had launched an “impromptu defense” and probably had every right. But still, it was Adam Fox (a 30:17 ice maximum) and Ryan Lindgren (23:39) at the top, with Johnson-Smith and Bitetto-Hajek below.
“What happens is that when the guys have a chance to get in, you want to prove yourself and stay in training. It’s been that way for years and years and years,” Smith said. you said, “Makeshift,” but everyone tries to improve and strives to get that job done and keep it.
“For us it wasn’t really like trying to be simple. We want to play a simpler game and get records on the net and help our forwards. I don’t like all the improvisation, but I like how we responded. I thought we were playing well as a D body. “
Smith cited co-workers Johnson, Bitetto and Hajek for their strong play before referring to Fox and Lindgren as Batman and Robin.
Holy Makeshift, the Rangers won a game. It may not have been nice and it wasn’t easy, but they sure won it.