Filip Chytil got 10:02 of ice time, Alexis Lafreniere 8:11 and Julien Gauthier 7:16, meaning the collective sum of 25:29 for the Rangers’ third line amounted to seven seconds more than Mika Zibanejad had for himself on a night when three of the top six had season-high totals and two others had their second-most ice times of the season.
Can you say, playoff race?
David Quinn most certainly can.
“We’re in a position where it’s all about winning, we want to win hockey games and that’s kind of where we’re at,” the Rangers head coach said after Zibanejad’s strike at 4:32 of overtime ended Thursday’s 3-2 victory in Buffalo, a contest his team had dominated through the final 40 minutes of regulation. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.
“We’re playing in the National Hockey League and we want to win hockey games and we found a way to get two points which, when you’re this deep into the season, is all that matters.”
It might be an optical illusion, what with the Bruins holding three games in hand, but the Blueshirts have somehow snuck within three points of Boston for the final playoff spot. Honestly, the Rangers and Bruins in the same sentence about a playoff race? Strange things are happening, for sure.
And this was a strange one. The Rangers never quite seemed to get their collective “A” game going, yet they outshot the Sabres 47-23 overall and, more to the point, 36-10 over the final 40 minutes of regulation. They kept control of the puck for shifts at a time, for three or four shifts at a time actually, took a 2-1 lead at 6:17 of the second when Chytil flicked one up top from the lip of the crease. And they avoided descending into despair when the Sabres’ Tage Thompson whizzed one by Igor Shesterkin to tie it with a mere 3.6 seconds showing on the clock in the third.
The Rangers took 47 shots and probably could have increased that sum by another 10 or so if they hadn’t so stubbornly adhered to Col. William Prescott’s order not to fire until able to see the whites of the goalie’s eyes — in this case, Dustin Tokarski’s.
Then again, these are the Rangers and they are not apologizing for it.
“When you get 40-plus shots I think you have to be pretty happy with your effort,” said Ryan Strome, who recorded an assist on Colin Blackwell’s goal at 6:40 of the second period to tie Rod Gilbert’s 52-year-old club record for forwards with his 10th consecutive game with a helper.
“I think sometimes we tend to shoot more for quality not quantity and sometimes it helps us and sometimes it doesn’t. I think especially with our top guys you can’t micromanage it. You have to trust that we see the right play and we’re going to make the right play.
“I think you see that through the lineup, we’re making those passes that not a lot of teams can make,” said Strome, who has 33 points (11-22) in 35 games. “When we mix in our speed and everything else we can do, we can be a dangerous team at times.”
Quinn said the reason the third line — the Greenhorn Line, by any other name — received less than its usual complement of ice was because of its struggles in its own end in the first period. Another reason, of course, was the fact that the first power-play unit, on which not one of the kids resides, hogged almost all the man-advantage time, as usual, with Strome, Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider (and point man Adam Fox) all taking between 6:13 and 6:25 of the club’s 8:00 with the man advantage while going 0-for-4. But that’s the way it is. By the way, it would be that way even if Vitali Kravtsov makes his NHL debut on Saturday.
But after sitting for much of the second, the kids created chaos in front of Tokarski by barging to the net (the most notable work done by Gauthier, the one who would come out for Kravtsov) before Chytil got the go-ahead score.
“What should I say? Every shift we’re out there, we just want to score a goal,” said Chytil, who played his most assertive match since he broke his hand in the season’s fifth contest. “I think we had a good game.
“As I said the other day, we can’t control whether the coach puts us on the ice or not. We have to have to be ready any time.”
The kids were ready when called upon. The team managed to control its emotions in a contest it owned but could not quite seal. The Rangers persevered, they won, and they picked up two points in the race.