The New York Rangers have officially found their mojo back if they hadn’t already.
A few weeks ago the Rangers wouldn’t have won this game. However, on Saturday night, New York scraped away with a 1-0 shootout victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Igor Shesterkin was the driving force of the night, hence he recorded a shutout, but the score does not give justice to how the Rangers played.
The Blueshirts had stretches where they generated a ton of high-quality scoring chances and sustained heavy pressure in the offensive zone.
Defensively, the Rangers played a tight and steady game, not giving Columbus an abundance of space.
It was a back and forth affair as the two teams battled it out into overtime and then a shootout.
Vincent Trocheck scored in the shootout and Shesterkin delivered with three crucial saves en route to a Rangers victory.
Something is changing in New York. The Rangers are clicking on all cylinders and have refound their confidence.
“Confidence is coming back, or is back,” Vincent Trocheck said. “We are just playing better hockey all around. Whenever you play a smarter, better brand of hockey, you just feel more confident about your game.”
How did confidence just ignite within the Rangers’ locker room?
First off, the new additions of Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen have helped solidify the defense although it did take some time and the team is structured in a different way.
The simple answer is that the Rangers are winning again and wins fuel confidence.
“You have to do the right things in order to get a win and at the end of the day it’s the winning that helps build the confidence,” Peter Laviolette said. I do think it’s starting to build because we are putting wins in the column.”
These wins are also shifting the overall energy and mood around the Blueshirts. The Rangers are rejuvenated and suddenly find themselves back in the playoff hunt.
“You ask any team when they are winning games, it’s just a lot better vibes, a lot better energy I think,” Adam Fox said. “It was easy for us to kind of pack it in when things were going bad and we were dropping in the standings, but we know the team we have in here. We know what we are capable of.”
The Rangers will be back in action on Sunday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
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