The Three New York Rangers Leading The Charge During The Playoffs
The New York Rangers played a terrific game one against the Tampa Bay Lightning winning their first game one of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. During the first round the team lost at home against Pittsburgh 4-3 in overtime, and in the second round, they lost 2-1 on the road against Carolina. In this series, they started off on the right note.
The New York Rangers have had a lot of different players step up this postseason.
Filip Chytil scored two goals in game one against Tampa Bay, Igor Shesterkin gave up just two goals and Frank Vatrano had a two-point night. So many players are stepping up when the team needs them the most and that is exactly what winning teams need in the playoffs.
For the Rangers though three players stand out when it comes to who is leading the charge for the team. Let’s talk about them.
1. Mika Zibanejad
Mika Zibanejad has been one of the biggest stars of the postseason. He has scored eight goals and dished out 13 assists good for 21 points in just 15 games this postseason. he is helping out the team any way he can and has been a threat all postseason.
Zibanejad makes something out of nothing. Just take a look at this amazing goal he helped set up early in game one of the conference final:
Zibanejad has a six-game point streak going dating back to game four of their series against the Hurricanes. Only two of the Rangers’ nine wins so far have come in a game where Zibanejad failed to register a point.
2. Igor Shesterkin
The goalie has found his way. After a rocky round one series against the Penguins in which he gave up four to six goals in the first few games, he has since found himself only giving up three goals once since round two started.
Shesterkin is facing off against the greatest goaltender in the world in Andrei Vasilevskiy. Yet in game one he didn’t look scared or anything. He was dialed in and put up some terrific numbers.
Last night against the Lightning he made 37 saves and in each of his last three games he has made 37 saves on 39 shots.
3. Chris Kreider
The last player to mention here has to be Chris Kreider. Kreider is picking up right where he left off with a great regular season and has had nine goals in 15 playoff games for the Rangers. The Rangers are one of the newer teams in the hunt this postseason considering how their rebuild pretty much has just come to an end, yet here they are proving they are one of the top teams in the league.
That success in large part has to be credited in part to Kreider for helping to lead the charge.
If the Rangers are to win three more games and make it to the Stanley Cup Final it is in large part going to be because of the play of these three players, and some other all-stars like Adam Fox, Artemi Panerin, and many others.