With the reeling Sabres carrying their 13-game losing skid into the Garden on Monday night, there were instances of the Rangers playing down to their opponents as they often have this season.
However, the Blueshirts continued to connect the dots on offense and pulled out a 5-3 victory, sending the Sabres on their way with one more loss to bear.
There was a glaring need for familiarity throughout the lineup to start the season, and it appears the Rangers are beginning to establish it. Because in the last six games, the Rangers have outscored their opponents 26-11 — including 18-6 in the last four.
“I think the biggest reason why the offense is coming is [Mika] Zibanejad, now you have that line playing like they did last year and they’re going to contribute,” acting head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the top line, which combined for two goals and two assists. “I think [Ryan] Strome, [Artemi] Panarin, throughout the year, [have been] pretty consistent.
“But now with Zibanejad playing as well as he is with [Chris] Kreider and [Pavel Buchnevich], they’re one of the best lines in the league right now.”
From the power play, penalty kill, even-strength and at five-on-three, the Rangers have been finding ways to put the puck in the back of the net recently. And there will be another offensive weapon in their arsenal soon enough, with Vitali Kravtsov expected to join the team as early as Tuesday should he clear the remainder of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols.
While their offense is revitalized, the Rangers are still getting caught flatfooted coming out of intermissions. The Sabres scored all three of their goals within the first five minutes of the second and third periods.
Buffalo scored two early goals in the third to tie it up 3-3, but the Rangers were able to rely on the players who have been — and should be — driving their offense after struggling to do so earlier in the season. Behind two power-play goals from Kreider and two goals from Kaapo Kakko, including an empty-netter, the Rangers prevailed.
“I feel like we kind of make it a little bit too complicated, we’re trying to do a little bit too much and obviously that can’t happen,” Zibanejad said of the team’s slow starts in the last two periods. “Even after one-nothing I think [goaltender] Keith [Kinkaid] saves us and keeps us in this game and big ups to him. Obviously it’s got to be a lot better, but we come away from this one with two points and we’re happy with that.”
Adam Fox, skating in his 100th game with the Rangers, recorded a goal and two assists — including one on Kreider’s go-ahead tally at 5:47 of the third. And Panarin was Panarin, registering a three-assist night.
Just 2:53 into the game, all 6-foot-4 of Julien Gauthier barreled into Sabres netminder Carter Hutton, sending him to the locker room favoring his left leg. As a result, Dustin Tokarski — who had a one-season cameo with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in 2018-19 — filled in for his first NHL appearance since Oct. 8, 2016.
So when Rasmus Asplund gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 3:52 of the second, the possibility of losing to a Sabres team that is in the cellar of not just the East but the entire NHL — and now without its starting goalie — must have awakened the Blueshirts. They quickly turned around and scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead into the final 20 minutes.
The difference between the Rangers at the start of the season and the Rangers who won on Monday was the offensive chemistry that allowed them to do so.
