This was a throwback to one of those ye olde Patrick Division playoff matchups, in which opponents went back-to-back through four sets of games of the first two rounds.
Here were the Rangers and Capitals grinding it out in Washington on Saturday, with no space allowed and no quarter given a night after the Capitals had prevailed in a similar type of taffy pull by the strength of two late strikes from the incomparable Alex Ovechkin.
Beat the Blueshirts that way once, credit to the Capitals. Beat them twice that way within 27 hours, well, not on acting head coach Kris Knoblauch’s watch.
Or, for that matter, on Mika Zibanejad’s.
For it was a revived Zibanejad who made a brilliant play in chasing down Brendan Dillon, hacking the defenseman’s stick before shoving him off the puck before retrieving it for his own and whipping a short-side riser past Ilya Samsonov at 17:28 of the third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead in a game they salted away 3-1, with the aid of Brett Howden’s empty netter.
That was the type of elite work on which Zibanejad and the Blueshirts lived last season, when a late charge garnered an invite to the 24-team cotillion under the bubble. The music died in Toronto, but the squad is beginning to hum again.
“I think they’re very committed. I think they feel that they have an opportunity to make the playoffs and they need to play well throughout the final stretch,” said Knoblauch, now 2-1 behind the bench while filling in for David Quinn, who will continue to be away from the team in COVID-19 protocol through at least Friday. “I think there’s also some belief they can play like they did the second half last year when they went on quite a roll.”
Keith Kinkaid was outstanding in net, poised and in total command when he faced the few flurries that his team’s five-man defense allowed. The commitment to play through the body and be on the right side of the puck was manifest. So too was the Rangers’ dedication to avoiding turnovers or sloppy puck management in the critical areas of the ice. They gave next to nothing away for free.
“I thought we were smart with the puck,” Zibanejad said. “They’re a really good team off the rush, and we just had to make sure we didn’t feed their offense.
“Everyone came back. Everyone played hard and contributed in different ways and I think that’s what we’ve done since obviously the Philly [9-0] big win and in the last two games as well. We’ve been pretty good.”
The defense and goaltending were stout in limiting Washington to three goals in 120 minutes, all of them off put-backs from the slot. But one goal wasn’t enough to win on Friday, and the one goal deposited into the bank by Pavel Buchnevich at 17:49 of the first period Saturday for a 1-0 lead wasn’t going to be enough once John Carlson scored on a whirling backhand to tie it at 5:55 of the third period.
Knoblauch, who had (or got caught with) his fourth line on against Ovechkin’s unit for both of the Great Eight’s goals on Friday, cut his bench down in this one and rode his — or Quinn’s — horses down the stretch. This was not a cookie-cutter job from behind the bench.
Alexis Lafreniere got one 34-second shift over the final 12:45 and finished with a season-low of 7:53. Filip Chytil got two shifts worth 1:10 over the final 12:45. Brendan Lemieux did not get on the ice in the final 9:10. Libor Hajek sat for the final 11:48 and Brendan Smith was off for the final 8:34 as the club went with four defensemen through crunch time.
Meanwhile, Adam Fox was on for 5:12 of the final 9:55 and played 10:17 in the third period for a game total of 28:00. Zibanejad was on for 2:48 of the final 5:31 for a sum of 21:10. Zibanejad won the faceoff to set up Buchnevich’s first-period goal and then blocked shots before getting the winner.
“We got the puck out and I was basically just chasing their D and trying to stay on him,” said Zibanejad, who has 10 points (4-6) in the past five games. “I got a push, I don’t know if he got caught in a rut or something, he fell, and I was able to get the puck and try get it on net. It went in, so it’s nice.“It obviously feels nice when you can contribute offensively. That’s what’s expected of me, obviously, but I’ve said this before, I’ve been feeling pretty good these last few weeks. I feel like myself again.”
The Rangers are looking somewhat spiffier as well.