Rangers Recap: Shootout Night in Toronto

The Rangers got a hard earned point in the standings, but an annoying shootout loss none the less in Toronto. There were quite a number of great things for the Blueshirts, as the line of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafrenière continues to be one of the best lines in the entire NHL with 6 combined points. Sometimes, you just take the positives and run with it.

As an aside, the shootout stinks though and even when the Rangers win in a shootout, it feels dirty. The 5 minute 3 on 3 these teams always put out is electric, they just need to expand the OT period to 10 minutes. Someone will score.

Lafrenière –now just a goal away from tying his career high– opened the scoring with an absolute dart that would have won him a game of 3 bar on one shot.

Trocheck recorded his 500th NHL point and scored twice, one off a great feed from Lafrenière in the slot, and the game tying goal off a juicy rebound, and Panarin was Panarin and had another multi-point game this season.

The Rangers will need the rest of the lineup to find this sort of magic too, but make no mistake, this is going to go down as one of the best forward lines in Rangers team history when it’s all set and done.

In net, Igor Shesterkin mad 31 saves on 34 shots, a solid night in his first loss in 8 games. He made multiple key saves, and looked calm, cool, and collected. The only thing he’d want back is the Max Domi shootout attempt where he bit pretty hard on the move. Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves respectively for Toronto in a solid effort on the other end.

Onto another story heading into the game, the legend of Matt Rempe might be jumping the shark as he was goaded into another meaningless fight at the hands of Ryan Reaves; who was itching to fight him the entire night. I’m at the point where I just want to watch Matt Rempe play hockey, and I think he can.

Reaves on the other hand, cannot play hockey anymore and in order to stay relevant has to win the punching the face competition and talk a lot in the media about how tough he is. Rempe was exposed a bit, but overall was fine for a rookie did well most of the night. He’s a kid, after all. The Reaves fight was very clearly staged and it was something even Sam Rosen felt awkward calling.

Despite the loss, last night was fun. It would have to be either the first round or the Conference final, but could you imagine a playoff series between these two teams? That would be fun.

To lose to the Leafs isn’t the worst thing in the world. There is a ton of top 6 firepower in that lineup and they are a legitimate Cup contender. Auston Matthews didn’t score last night, another positive for the Blueshirts, as defensively they were fine and Shesterkin was solid again. Loses happen, and it is becoming abundantly clear the Rangers need reinforcements.

Chris Drury, you’re up.