The Rangers are now 3-0 post-trade deadline, and last night might have been the game of the year. Igor Shesterkin‘s swagger is back, with back-to-back shutouts, as the Rangers blanked Carolina in a playoff-esque style game. Adam Fox just loves to score goals in Carolina, netting the eventual game winner and only goal early in the first period.
Igor is, of course, the first star both from the game and among the fanbase right now as he has completely turned his game around from his January struggles. After a 28 save performance, he had this to say to reporters:
“Today’s my mom’s birthday. Couldn’t play a bad game on her birthday.”
The man is finally confident again, and he’s got his swagger that he so desperately was looking for a couple of months ago. With the playoffs drawing near, there is no better time than now for him to start getting hot. He didn’t do it alone last night, as the team defense in front of him along has been fantastic with the acquisitions the team made. The stops Igor had to make though, he looked as confident as ever.
Speaking of the defense, I think a conversation has to be made that Braden Schneider should be paired permanently with K’Andre Miller. I don’t know what it is exactly about the pair’s combined skill sets, but they just seem to have a natural chemistry with each other. Both have been playing their best hockey this season since being paired together.
I trust the coaching staff to be keeping an open mind, but it’s going to be really unfortunate –if this pair continues to look great– if Jacob Trouba comes back he’s immediately paired with Miller again. The Rangers desperately need another pairing that performs consistently to take pressure off of Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren.
With such a rough schedule this week, one of the stories was how the Rangers were going to look in their back-to-backs, especially against Carolina. That’s been answered, emphatically. They are looking more and more like the team that started the year, and not the team that struggled most of the winter.
This is now a balanced lineup, finally taking the stress of the Artemi Panarin line. The Rangers are really putting it together at the right time and the beat will continue this week with still 3 more games to go in this crazy stretch.
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