Tuesday truly was fight night at the Garden. The New York Rangers‘ 4-1 win over the Devils was secondary by far to the Igor Shesterkin-Jacob Markstrom bout in the third period. Shesterkin won the fight on all three cards, as did New York on the scoreboard.
Game recap:
Rangers lines vs. Devils:
Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Sheary
Cuylle-Trocheck-Sýkora
Brodzinski-Laba-Chmelař
Gavrikov-Fox
Fortescue-Schneider
Robertson-Borgen
Shesterkin
Garand
Scratches: Quick (upper-body injury), Vaakanainen (upper-body injury), Raddysh, Iorio, Edström
IR: Rempe (thumb injury)
A few thoughts:
1) Shesterkin – Igor hit a saturation point with goalie interference, taking matters into his own hands, literally and figuratively. Paul Cotter made contact in the crease, resulting in a group response, including from Shesterkin. Markstrom raced down the ice to engage with Shesterkin and was summarily defeated.
All the season’s frustration emerged in that moment for Shesterkin. That had clearly been building and he reacted quickly to the contact. Time will tell if this proves to be a future galvanizing moment. But in the short-term, the fire Shesterkin showed may indicate that this team is still united and has each other’s backs. https://youtu.be/p2VG6L0QCW8?si=N0my3EJ4FBgzBSYS
2) Steven A McDonald Extra Effort Award: Mike Zibanejad, who scored his 33rd of the season on a mridiculous tic-tac-toe passing play with Adam Fox and Gabe Perreault, is this year’s recipient. Zib has now won the award three times. Sam Carrick likely would have won if he hadn’t been traded, and Tye Kartye, based on his style of play, could be a future winner, if he sticks in New York. But Zibanejad rebounded from last year’s debacle to be a consistent scorer and leader on-and-off the ice.
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