Igor Shesterkin was the story of the game for the Rangers, stealing two points in Toronto. Despite the Rangers basically no-showing for the entirety of the game, Shesterkin kept the Rangers in it, making spectacular save after spectacular save. You might say this was his first true taste of the traditional Rangers defense.
Joking aside, the Rangers were atrocious. This was expected, as mentioned in the game thread, as they were down two top six forwards and Toronto is very good. The domination was expected. Artemiy Panarin got the OT winner, but he was exceptionally bad in the second period, with passes leading directly to Leafs chances. This might have been his worst game as a Ranger, but he made up for it.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, the last time the Rangers were looking to compete and had a new head coach was when Alain Vigneault took over. In October, they were getting crushed, losing games 9-2 and 6-0 before making a run. Adjustments take time.
Rangers 1, Leafs 0 – Turnover rocket
Mika Zibanejad scores his first goal of the season to give the #NYR a 1-0 lead pic.twitter.com/lpm2Njxeqv
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) October 18, 2021
John Tavares with the turnover, right to Mika Zibanejad. He still has one of the best shots in the league.
Rangers 1, Leafs 1 – Someone named Bunting
MICHAEL BUNTING 🚨
FULL FORCE!!! pic.twitter.com/BuCcptSqwE
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) October 19, 2021
Michael Bunting got this one in front, where Patrik Nemeth had him tied up, but didn’t tie up his stick. Not much else to this one.
Rangers 2, Leafs 1 – Panarin
Finally, the Rangers win a face-off and Artemiy Panarin scores his first goal of the season to win the game in overtime #NYR pic.twitter.com/2Tid0oCcBW
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) October 19, 2021
Panarin was bad all game, but got the winner in the 3 on 3 overtime that took years off our lives. What an OT period that was. Credit Shesterkin for keeping the Rangers in it, stealing two points.
Game Flow
I guess the Rangers took a nap in the second period. That was just bad. It continued to start the third, but then the Rangers remembered there was a hockey game going on. Let me know what you think of these game flow charts.
Games like this will happen. Toronto is a top offensive team, playing against a shorthanded team with a new coach, a revamped bottom six, and still dealing with obvious adjustments. At least they have two days off and play a far worse team in Nashville coming up.
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