It’s hard to imagine New York Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton read the tea leaves and knew his roster would perform as they have this season.
Maybe he saw the 3-7-1 club that started the season.
But he could not have predicted the 9-1-1 club they are right now.
Wednesday night saw Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves to backstop the rebuilding Rangers to a 5-0 win over the New York Islanders.
“It couldn’t be better. Great time to get a shutout. Big win for the boys against our rival team. I’m just very happy and thankful for the team. They played great defense today,” Georgiev said.
The win ended a dreadful losing skid to the Isles dating back to 2016.
“I think eventually when you lose so often to someone you’re going to win one eventually,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “The odds just were in our favor. I think usually when you do break through and win a game, it usually happens like that. That’s a good hockey team. That’s a really good hockey team, and we were very opportunistic tonight. I thought they had some Grade A’s where they missed the net. It could have been a different game. I’m certainly not ignorant to that. We’ll take it, that’s for sure.”
Filip Chytil proved that goal scorers just need that one.
On Wednesday night he scored with 29 seconds gone in the game for his fifth consecutive game with a goal. He scored after his attempted pass came back to him and he had an open net.
“It’s something special,” Chytil said, “and I’m happy that we beat the Islanders after a long time.”
Cody McLeod and Neal Pionkalso scored in the first period to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.
“We were going with our style, how we want to play,” Chytil said, “and finally we beat them.”
Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider added goals in the win.
“If you’re not working hard, [Quinn] doesn’t play you, so it’s a trickle-down effect for sure,” Hayes said. “We have guys that are out of the lineup that are good players. He demands hard work and I think that’s the biggest factor in the 9-1-1. We’re getting good goaltending and we’re not a fun team to play against.”
One who has worked harder since being sat earlier in the season is Kevin Shattenkirk who had two assists in the win.
Mika Zibanejad also had two assists in the victory.
The Isles dropped to 10-8-2 and have lost two straight being outscored 11-2.
“The last two games have been awful and we’ve got to figure out a way in the next day and a half here to be ready to go against [the New Jersey Devils],” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “That first 20 minutes has got to be good. Tonight, down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game, you really put yourself against the wall.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Rangers highlights]
Robin Lehner made 22 saves in the loss.
“We can’t put it on one thing. It’s all of us, all four lines. We’ve got to be ready to roll, especially on the road in an environment like this where it’s a big important game. We have to be the ones that set the tone and dictate the play, and tonight they did that,” Anders Lee said after the game.
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