The Kids Lead in Rangers Win Over Chicago

Setting aside the ping-pong balls/lottery ramifications, the New York Rangers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 on Friday. If you like seeing rookies succeed, this was the game for you. In the victory, New York accomplished something the team hadn’t done in 94 years. Today, the Blueshirts face the Panthers, who are also at home this postseason. 

Game recap:

Rangers lines vs. Blackhawks:

Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Sheary
Cuylle-Trocheck-Sýkora
Raddysh-Brodzinski-Chmelař

Gavrikov-Fox
Borgen-Schneider
Fortescue-Robertson

Garand
Shesterkin

Scratches: Quick (upper-body injury), Laba (full contact jersey in morning), Vaakanainen (upper-body injury), Pärssinen, Iorio, Edström
IR: Rempe (thumb injury)

A few thoughts:

1) Rookies, rookies, rookies: the tweet below says it all. Adam Sykora in his second game, scored his first goal of the season. Drew Fortescue, in his debut, added a secondary assist. Dylan Garard, in his second start, won his first game. 

Sykora skated on a line with Will Cuylle and Vincent Trocheck, receiving 13:46 in ice time. Fortesuce, who completed his rookie lap with the BC contingent, family, and friends present at the contest, was paired with Matthew Robertson and saw 17:23 of playing time. Garard was solid once again, making the case to be the second goalie behind Igor Shesterkin next season. In addition, Jaroslav Chmelař notched his first career assist.

2) Noah Laba, listed as week-to-week, made a surprising return to full practice yesterday. Jusso Parssinen was sent down to Hartford, indicating Laba is likely to play today. Laba, another rookie who debuted this season, is listed as the fourth-line center between Jonny Brodzinski and Chmelař, making Taylor Raddysh a healthy scratch. 

Fortescue is paired with Braden Scheider, and Matthew Robertson, yes, another rookie, is moving up to play with Will Borgen. No other changes are planned.

In case you missed it, that was six rookies listed, not counting Gabe Perreault. Meaning, when Garard starts, seven of the 20 skaters are rookies. Not all will make it, but a good start for the future. 

3) Ping-Pong Balls: With the win over Chicago, New York moved into a tie with the Blackhawks, both having 67 points with nine games remaining. The Blueshirts have the third-best lottery odds while the ‘Hawks are second. Calgary is three points ahead of New York, and both teams have the same number of contests remaining. 

St. Louis, Florida and San Jose all have 73 points. The Blues and Panthers have 10 games remaining while San Jose has 11 contests left.

As we have seen, standings placement does not guarantee remaining in that lottery spot. Last season, the Islanders finished 10th and the Rangers 11th, separated by two points, or one win. The Islanders won the Matthew Schaefer lottery, netting the first pick, while the Rangers stayed put and traded the pick, retaining this year’s selection instead, which looks wise.