1st Period
- 06:36 Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby (35) ASST: Jake Guentzel (36), Jared McCann (16) 0-1
12:49 New York Brendan Smith (4) 1-1
2nd Period
- No Scoring
3rd Period
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- 02:28 Pittsburgh Nick Bjugstad (14) ASST: Patric Hornqvist (19), Marcus Pettersson (23) 1-2
- 12:34 New York Brady Skjei (8) ASST: Kevin Shattenkirk (26) 2-2
- 13:50 New York SHG – Vladislav Namestnikov (11) ASST: Neal Pionk (20) 3-2
- 17:25 Pittsburgh Jake Guentzel (40) ASST: Sidney Crosby (65), Justin Schultz (13) 3-3
Overtime:
- 02:09 New York Ryan Strome (19) 4-3
Stats:
- Well, the season is over. Year one under David Quinn finishes with an OT winner which is a nice cap to how this team played and worked all season. The focus this year was on development and the creation of a culture based around working hard, winning and competing. It wasn’t always pretty, they struggled defensively but they have hopefully set a foundation to build on.
- Last summer the Rangers re-signed Ryan Spooner and Vlad Namestnikov even though neither looked like they fit in the long-term plan. Spooner was dealt for Ryan Strome and Strome has now put himself firmly into the middle of the Rangers rebuild. He’s signed through next season at $3.1 million and that is a bargain if he is able to continue developing like he did this year.
- Outside of Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich is probably the player currently on the roster to be most excited about. He, like Strome, was terrific in the last stretch of the season and I wouldn’t be shocked if the Rangers investigated more of a long-term deal with him this summer than a bridge.
- So much is focused on Chytil and Andersson and Howden because they are rookies and embody so much of what this rebuild is about. Chytil and Howden both showed flashes this year of being long-term Rangers and it will be interesting to see how they come to camp in the fall.
- Andersson is by no means a bust or anything of the sort as he finishes the first-year of his entry level deal. The issue with Andersson was that he was made out to be NHL ready last year but that was clearly not the case. Once that label was put on him expectations were set and he has not met those expectations so far. Again, Andersson has only played around 50 games in the NHL and won’t turn 21 until next season starts.
- Alex Georgiev has certainly earned at least 30-35 starts next year if not more. Henrik Lundqvist is still the starter but Georgiev has earned a bigger share of the net for next season.
- So overall this was a Rangers season that went as expected. They competed most nights, struggled to defend, got good goaltending during stretches, traded a bunch of guys and did just enough usually to lose. It’s hard to make predictions about next season without knowing who will join Mika Zibanejad up front, or possibly Erik Karlsson on defense, but the expectation will be to be better and much closer to, if not in the Wild Card.