For 40 minutes, it looked like a reprieve for the Rangers, the rare night when they could temporarily escape their reality — the cellar of the Eastern Conference — of a lost season, encounter some glimmers of hope and snag a rare home win in regulation.
Even when they blew a two-goal lead, the Blueshirts still started overtime with nearly a full power play.
But with this edition of the Blueshirts, not even that can go right. They watched as Matvei Michkov scored the winner 2:10 into overtime with a gassed power-play unit stuck on the ice, falling 3-2 to the Flyers on Thursday to spoil the returns of defenseman Adam Fox and goaltender Igor Shesterkin from injuries and the returns of J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck from Team USA’s gold medal trip.
The resumption of their season following the Olympic break ended with the Blueshirts (22-29-7) opening a four-game homestand on a sour note.
“They just didn’t have any juice,” Sullivan said of Fox, Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, who were all on the ice for the entire extra frame.
But until it all fell apart, just about everything went right for the Rangers. The night all started with the returns of Shesterkin and Fox, who both took their spots in the lineup for the first time since Jan. 5.
Trocheck and Miller were honored pregame for their gold medal, along with head coach Mike Sullivan (USA head coach), assistant coach David Quinn (USA assistant) and president and general manager Chris Drury (assistant GM) — who was greeted with nothing but boos given the current state of the Rangers team he’s directly responsible for.
Shesterkin, at times, looked like his vintage self. Fox manned his spot on the power play and with the top defensive pairing, though Sullivan said they’re still “capable of another level.”
For Fox, it marked just his fourth game since Nov. 29, as his brief return from a shoulder injury was followed almost immediately by a stint on long-term injured reserve for a lower-body injury. He felt “a little helpless” just watching as The Letter 2.0 — when Drury signaled a retool — dropped and he couldn’t do anything.
“[Fox has] missed a lot of hockey, so it’s gonna take him some time to get into the game speed, the game timing, things of that nature,” Sullivan said. “He’s missed so much time. I would anticipate Foxy getting better with each game that he plays.”
Even with the Rangers’ stars acclimating, they still took a 2-0 lead behind unlikely contributors. Fourth-line center Sam Carrick flung a puck from the boards that somehow got past Samuel Ersson for the Blueshirts’ first goal — and his fourth of the season — midway through the third period.
Alexis Lafrenière, in the middle of another disappointing season with his name swirling in trade rumors, scored 1:23 into the second period too.
Shesterkin, until allowing the trio of goals across the final two-plus frames, turned aside shot after shot, including some tricky rebounds.
Three minutes into the second, Carl Grundstrom and Jamie Drysdale had chances that Shesterkin stopped, and another Flyers shot went wide. When Owen Tippett’s shot gave Noah Cates an open lane from the right side, Shesterkin managed to knock the puck away with his glove.
Eventually, Michkov scored his first tally on the power play later in the frame, Trevor Zegras tied it just 39 seconds into the third and Michkov won it with his second after the Blueshirts failed to capitalize with the man-advantage for the third time Thursday.
The Rangers had a chance to push all of their pressing issues aside for another day.
They had a chance to make sure a celebratory night at the Garden ended that way when fans spilled out the exits and onto the streets.
They had a chance to forget that their roster might look entirely different a week from now when the March 6 trade deadline arrives, to still emerge with a win even as young players — such as Noah Laba and Brennan Othmann — received extra chances with the penalty kill because Sullivan wanted “to see what they’re capable of” while using Zibanejad, Miller and Trocheck less in those spots.
That, as much as the Artemi Panarin trade and The Letter 2.0, is a clear sign of a retool.
Instead, by the time overtime ended, their season-long problems had come right back into focus.
