What a night at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
For anyone that watched the pregame introductions, you could cut the tension with a knife. I’m convinced the training staff, coaches and players had ironclad orders to keep a straight face and refrain from acknowledging the crowd. Even Matt Rempe kept the poker face as the MSG faithful gave him a thunderous ovation. The whole bench looked like they were attending a funeral. Joonas Korpisalo looked like he just killed a man in broad daylight.
I can understand an ‘all business’ order if it did come from the powers that be. MSG was a house of horrors last season and this group needed to show some pride. The stakes were clear — win or lose, you simply cannot get shut out in your home opener. Score zero goals and guarantee the fans will boo, the media bull rushes the locker room with Pat LaFreida steak sandwich breath in your face and the ‘here we go again’ doubt starts to creep in.
They were shut out in the first game of the season on Tuesday. Seven new faces scattered across the lineup, a shortened training camp and a Cup contending team walking into the building for the home opener. Yeah, no pressure.
Right from the drop of the puck the Rangers were buzzing. It felt like Pavel Dorofeyev had five or six shots before Tampa got their first. He then rang a bullet off the post and somehow put it on a tee for Mika Zibanejad for the first goal of the year. How about that emotion from Mika? That celebration looked like a third period goal in the Eastern Conference Finals. Behind closed doors I’m wondering if this game was framed as a must-win, because that celebration was certainly indicative of it.
From there, the Rangers were off and running. After killing off a penalty, JT Miller made a great play to chip the puck ahead to Oliver Bjorkstrand who fed Dorofeyev for a one-T goal, his first as a Ranger and the second point of his night. He’s going to shoot the puck and he isn’t going to waste time doing it — that much is abundantly clear already. That kind of profile is an oxymoron in a Rangers sweater.
The Rangers headed into the locker room after the first period with a few gutsy penalty kills, a power play goal, an even strength goal and arguably most important, the Garden behind the home team for once. Even from the TV broadcast you could tell the Rangers were winning the fans over shift by shift. The groans and outbursts of last season seemed like a distant memory as they applauded the effort on the forecheck, the backcheck and everything in between.
Eeli Tolvanen got himself his first as a Ranger, the product of a greasy goal with traffic in front. Gabe Perreault added a prettier one shortly after, the result of a highly intelligent shot-pass from Adam Fox looking for a tip in front. Two different kinds of goals and two different ways this team can hurt you.
And then, just when you thought the night couldn’t get any better, Igor happened. With Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled, Igor Shesterkin took a puck off the back wall and fired down ice for the first goalie goal in the 101 years of Rangers hockey! Absolute masterclass of a call by Kenny Albert on the broadcast for such a sudden, historic moment as well.
To come into this game with the boogeyman hanging over everyone’s head about scoring in this building and to come out of it with five goals against a Vezina-caliber goalie and legitimate Cup contender in Tampa is a huge step in the right direction. “Igor’s Better” chants in the 3rd period at the Garden tell me last year’s boo birds and pessimistic curmudgeons have been replaced with the usual knowledgeable, optimistic diehards you see during the good times. It’s only the 2nd game of 84 but I saw what I saw.
And for what it’s worth, Igor sat down with Michelle Gingras in front of the entire arena and did the whole postgame interview in English. That’s new. A sign of confidence and good faith on his part. The culture is coming back.
Core memory at the Garden unlocked.
The goal was historic for the fans, but what it means for the locker room might matter even more. Every fan is going to remember where they were for the first goalie goal in franchise history and it definitely registered in that locker room too. It’s a reason to smile, to joke, to have fun with it. Playing professional hockey is a grind not many of us peasants can fully understand, so a moment of levity and pure joy hits different in ways we can’t fully appreciate from the couch. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff. The body language in the postgame Broadway Hat clip is telegraphing the vibes are all the way back.
Those that left the game early to catch the train or beat the traffic learned a painful lesson tonight. And honestly? I don’t feel that bad for them. Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy with over 10 minutes to go in the 3rd with Tampa on the power play, so clearly there was going to be plenty of time with the net empty to finish the game. Leaving any game early you paid hard earned money to attend is a head scratcher to begin with, but especially in this case. Every astute Rangers fan knows Igor can play the puck better than most forwards and is a showman enough to go for it. Credit to Mets field reporter Steve Gelbs though, man enough to admit the blunder publicly:
Again, this is only game two of 84 and the Rangers are right back on the horse in Detroit tonight. I’m not quite sure what this team is yet but I’m having fun watching New York Rangers hockey and it’s been too long since I’ve been able to say that. Who had any of this on their bingo card?
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