The Rangers’ top stars keep showing up at the right time

It’s been the same story over and over again for the New York Rangers in this 2024 postseason run. The best players are making the big plays in the big moments. 

After the first period of Game 3, the Rangers had no business being in a one-goal hockey game. The Carolina Hurricanes outshot them by 17-7, and the score could have easily been 3-0 in favor of the home team.

“I think we shot ourselves a little bit by taking the penalties, that’s on us – we got to play a cleaner game and that feeds them, it fuels their offense.” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said.

He wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance in the opening frame and he was vocal about his dislike of the Canes’ first goal which was due to a defensive breakdown.

“They’re a good team. They’ve got speed, size, physicality – they play an aggressive brand of hockey,” Laviolette continued. “When you’re down in a series, your back is up against the wall – you’re gonna fight for that. We knew it was coming, I wish we handled it a little bit better.”

Goaltender Igor Shesterkin battled hard, even when his team wasn’t at its best. It was expected that Carolina would have the kind of start that they did in Thursday night’s game, considering that they were down 2-0 in the series and were back on home ice, where they have been dominant in the postseason. Entering tonight’s contest, Carolina had a 15-4 record at PNC Arena since 2022. But one of those losses was in Game 7 against the Rangers that same year. 

“When a team is throwing heat at you – and they’re controlling the play as they did in the first period, your goaltender has to be your best player,” Laviolette said. “He certainly was for the first period, he was for the game, and he had to continue to make more saves after that.” 

On the flip side, the Hurricanes group of forwards has a reason to be frustrated with everything they’ve done to try and beat Shesterkin. But they just don’t seem to have answers, especially on the power play, which is now 0/15 in the series. 

“He’s world-class,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said about the Rangers goaltender. “When they do have their breakdowns — and we get to him, he’s been sharp,”

Beyond Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafreniere have also continuously stepped up in times of need—not only with their play but also with their emotion.

“I’m just so happy,” Panarin said after scoring the game-winner. “It’s a lot of emotion, I can’t really explain it.”

Panarin has been criticized extensively over the past few seasons for his lack of playoff production, but he has shut up all of those haters through the first seven games. It’s evident that the Rangers forward is having fun without losing sight of the ultimate goal.

“I would say the last three years I have enjoyed hockey more than before, especially today. I love everyone, but Game 4 is more important,” he said with a big smile.

Despite not showing up on the score sheet, the Rangers got an extra boost from Filip Chytil, who showed up on the ice for the first time since Nov. 2nd when he suffered from a head injury. Chytil’s return to the team was unexpected, but it was a decision that he didn’t take lightly. It was killing him to not be with the team for most of the year when he went back to Czechia to try and recover.

“I was watching on TV from home and I was happy for everyone with this club, but I was feeling like something was missing,” Chytil said. “When I started to feel better – I just said that I wanted to be with the guys. This team is amazing and you can see how we play in the playoffs right now.”

So there’s plenty of reasons to smile for the Rangers, who find themselves one win away from advancing to the third round. And they’ve done so without dropping a single game, something that is extremely rare at this point of play. But you can bet on one thing – they’re not going to lie down and relax in Game 4.