Daily Report – 3/16/26
Rangers
Should the Rangers have beaten the Minnesota Wild on Saturday? No. A team isn’t supposed to win when they get outshot 48-18. But most teams don’t have Igor Shesterkin minding their net.
With 46 saves, Shesterkin held down the fort as the Rangers defeated Minnesota 4-2. The win marked the Rangers’ first four-game win streak of the season. As of Saturday, their 6-1-2 record since February 26 represents the second-most points in the NHL.
“Not anyone in the league is allowed to touch Shesterkin,” said Vladislav Gavrikov, who registered his first career three-point game with a goal and a pair of apples.
Carrying a 4-1 lead into the third period, the Rangers had to grind to snag their victory. At one point in the frame, a large scrum ignited after Joel Eriksson Ek knocked Shesterkin to the ice. The way Shesterkin’s teammates defended their goaltender shows the camaraderie that has finally formed in Mike Sullivan’s dressing room. Once Shesterkin hit the deck, his teammates didn’t think twice to defend their trusty tendy.
The key to the Rangers’ recent success – their four-game win streak with at least four goals in each of those games – is a product of a newly-adapted forecheck-oriented style of offense. When Artemi Panarin, who is returning to the Garden tonight for the first time since being traded, was a Ranger, the team’s offense revolved around him. That meant a priority was placed on scoring from the perimeter, not from in front of the net.
During the last few seasons of Chris Kreider’s Blueshirts tenure, the Rangers focused mightily on scoring goals off deflections. Now, because the Rangers are finally crashing the net to score goals, it feels like Chris Drury might – might – deserve some credit for the trades he made. Skaters like Kreider lack enough offensive physicality.
For years, I have written about how the Rangers need to adopt a more physical style of play. Finally, thanks to Sullivan (with a little help from Drury), the Rangers are establishing a foundation of goal-scoring that will benefit them for years to come.
Drury recently signed Tye Kartye off waivers, and his seven points lead the Rangers since March 7. Kartye has succeeded because he came to the Rangers having already been trained to crash the net. The timing worked.
This is not to say that players like Kreider or Panarin – two of the greatest Rangers in the Modern Era – held the franchise back. However, it is not a coincidence that after Panarin was traded, the Rangers started scoring more goals. There is a reason why Zibanejad, a strong two-way forward whose one-timer plays all over the ice, stayed while his friends were traded.
It is the same reason why it took three-quarters of this season for the Rangers to start winning consistently.
All season, Sullivan must have been training his young players to turn forechecking into goal scoring. He must have trained them in this new style of play, which his veterans initially struggled to adopt because they were more accustomed to the old system. This is one reason why the Rangers have played so poorly this season.
Finally, it’s all coming together.
“I just thought we had the right intentions,” Sullivan said proudly after Saturday’s win. “We were playing a north-south game. We were playing a straight-ahead game. I think when we play fast, we are fast.”
I said this about the Gerard Gallant era and even about the Peter Laviolette era, despite the Rangers' regular-season success in 2024: They needed more size and strength in their game. Although not all hockey players are considerably large, with the right strategy, anybody in the NHL can play like a larger man.
Take Alexis Lafrenière, for example. Many fans believe Gallant ruined Lafrenière. Perhaps all Lafrenière needed was a “north-south” style of hockey.
With seven points and a league-leading five goals in his last four games, Lafrenière was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week today. He has played a key role on a team that has led the NHL in scoring since the start of March. In that span, the Rangers’ power-play unit has achieved the NHL’s second-best conversion rate.
“For a lot of the first half of the year, we couldn’t see the puck going to the net,” said captain JT Miller. “I think, right now, we’re executing on a lot of the plays. Obviously, we’ve got some guys stepping up and playing really well, also.
“Just high execution. Finally getting those pucks to go in that net that we were missing in the first half of the year.”’
The Rangers scored off the rush, off a forecheck, off a partial breakaway, and off a deflection on Saturday. Each goal came from a shot below the dots.
Tonight, Artemi Panarin will return to the Garden as the Rangers host the Los Angeles Kings (7 PM, 6 PM CT – MSG, Gotham Sports).
Schedule
7:00 PM (6:00 PM CST): NYR vs. LAK; MSG, Gotham Sports
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Rangers (Bruce Kluckhohn)
