In Boston on Saturday, the New York Rangers made some level of amends for a pitiful loss to the Bruins on Thursday night.
Chris Kreider had a goal for the New York Rangers
After dropping a 4-0 decision in the first game of a two-match set, the Rangers responded with a 4-0 win of their own.
“I mean, it was definitely a huge boost getting him back, not only for the game but for around the locker room, around the guys again,” New Yorks’s Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought the whole team really came together today. A real team win. We played really, really solid over the 60 minutes and I think [Panarin’s return] definitely had something to do with it.”
Keith Kinkaid made 18 saves for the shutout, his first since 2018.
“It feels good to get [a shutout] three years later,” Kinkaid said. “I just think the way we played today is the way we need to play going forward. We didn’t give them much. We kept their guys in check. Our commitment on the forecheck, getting back, you see guys picking their pockets on the backcheck and our commitment to our structure in the ‘D-zone’ was tremendous today. We need to keep putting our best foot forward there.”
K’Andre Miller scored early in the opening period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead,
“I feel like we’re skating every game, but I think today and games like this one we’re a lot closer to each other, we have a lot more purposeful plays as far as getting in on forecheck,” Zibanejad said. “When you’re close and you’re coming with speed through the neutral zone, it’s easier to get the pressure and to be able to carry the puck into the zone as well. All around a really, really good effort today.”
Boston dropped to 14-7-4.
“You know what we call it is A-and-B games,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You can have a B-game. You’re not always going to have your A-game, but you better bring your [darn] B-game and at least do something to help a team win, whether that’s block a shot, kill a penalty, check well, etc. And we just didn’t have that. We were well down the alphabet after A and B tonight, unfortunately.
“That snowballs on you, and then it becomes incumbent on Jaro to sort of pick up the pieces and I think he did his job as best he could. Unfortunately, we didn’t respond for him or give him a break or get something going at the other end.”
Chris Kreider opened it up to 2-0 with a strike in the middle frame.
Pavel Buchnevich scored to make it 4-0, and that point, Boston goalie Jaroslav Halak was ready to swing a stick at someone on his side.
Artemi Panarin was back in the lineup and kicked in an assist in the win.
“Having [Panarin] back does so many things not only on the ice, but just mentally,” Rangers head coach David Quinn said. “I think our guys certainly hold him in high esteem. He’s a well-liked teammate. He’s a great teammate. Our guys were dying for him to come back for a lot of reasons and you put him in our lineup and all of a sudden, we’ve got a little more swagger. Just proud of our guys.”
Ryan Strome also scored in the third period to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.
Halak made 29 saves in the loss, and was an unhappy goalie leaving the ice at the final horn.
“Probably more so a mental lack of focus,” the Bruins’ Matt Grzelcyk said. “It’s kind of unacceptable. I think we’re trying to build a little more consistency in our game and get a winning kind of roll from there. It seems like we’re the next night not as sharp as we need to be.”
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