A bunch of kids at Madison Square Garden just beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. And I’m not using that term as some sort of insult.
The New York Rangers picked up their fourth win of the season on Tuesday night against a Lightning team expected by many to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final this season to quickly erase the memories of a 7-4 Sunday beatdown at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
While the Rangers were considered to be one of the most improved teams in the East after an offseason that brought in Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba, and Adam Fox, this is still a team amid a rebuild. So those illusions of grandeur that includes the postseason in 2019-20 might be a bit premature.
The Rangers are still full of holes. Their depth down the middle is suspect and their defense, while improved, still isn’t doing veteran goaltender Henrik Lundqvist many favors.
Tuesday night, however, provided a promising glimpse that the Rangers are going to be for real soon.
But for that to happen, head coach David Quinn — who was given the Rangers job in part because of his ability to develop young players — has to let the kids discover their respective games through their playmaking abilities rather than reinvent their game.
It didn’t look like that was the case as the second-year head coach quickly drew the ire of the Blueshirt faithful after Sunday’s loss to the Bruins.
“Skill certainly is a huge component of this game, but if you have no battle in you, I don’t care how skilled you are – you’re not going to be productive. This game is all about what can you do when someone’s trying to stop you from doing it.”
On Tuesday night, the kids not only answered the call, but they were able to play their game. The results were glowing.
No. 2 overall pick and 18-year-old Kaapo Kakko played one of his best games of the season on the third line alongside 21-year-old Brett Howden and 23-year-old Brendan Lemieux. He scored his second goal of the season to get the Rangers on the board.
Filip Chytil, who was called up from AHL Hartford, scored what proved to be the game-winning tally with a nifty one-handed redirection past last year’s Vezina Trophy winner, Andrei Vasilevskiy. He’s only 20 and surely doesn’t want to get back on the merry-go-round that would send him back to Connecticut.
Vasilevskiy was outdueled by a 23-year-old goaltender in Alex Georgiev, considered the air apparent to Lundqvist once the legend decides to hang up his skates.
Defenseman Ryan Lindgren, 21, was called up with Chytil and replaced veteran blueliner Marc Staal, who was a healthy scratch for the first time in his 13-year career on Tuesday night.
He played a direct hand in New York’s third goal of the night, springing Chris Kreider on a break that resulted in 21-year-old defenseman Adam Fox’s first-career NHL goal.
The talent is there, but it’s on Quinn to get this thing right and move them in the right direction.
And yes, it could happen even with the Rangers missing the playoffs this season.
Growing pains are a part of life in the NHL.
