NEW YORK – When is it okay to lose?
For New York Rangers head coach Gerard Galant, it was a thriller Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, defeating his club 2-1 from the New York Islanders.
Well, all the more so from the hands of goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin, who made 29 saves per night, including a stunning save by Artemiy Panarin at the start of the game, which caused audible “uh” and “ah” from the crowd after many repetitions. shown on the scoreboard.
How good was it?
“Holy, yes,” said Islanders head coach Barry Trotz. “It may have been one of the best, if not the best saves I’ve seen in a long time, and I’ve been here a long time. But, it doesn’t surprise me. He is capable of this and shows the reasons. He is so athletic. I’m not surprised by anything with him. “
In short, the Rangers simply stumbled upon a hot goalkeeper. Their 60-minute effort will help get the job done most nights, so there was no reason to panic after a heavy defeat complicated by game winner Kyle Palmieri with a score of 2:44, which remained in regular time just after the sequence in which Islanders forward Oliver Wallstrom seemed to have gone clear forearm into Ryan Lindgren’s head.
“I thought we played great,” said Galant, who didn’t seem to see well the controversial sequence that led to the game’s victory.
“From start to finish I thought we had a great hockey match. So the disappointment is to lose 2-1, but you play so most nights you will succeed. (Both goalkeepers) were great, they both made some really good saves. (Sorokin) was wonderful. I remember the save on Panarin in the first period. The goalkeeper today was great and it was a good hockey game. Back and forth and two pretty equal teams tonight, but unfortunately for us, they got a rebound at the end. “
With the exception of the collapse of epic proportions, the Rangers will be one of four playoff teams leaving the capital’s division. Entering the list of games this weekend, they had 16 points in fifth place for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they have 20 competitions left in the schedule to close the gap.
They are also likely to remain buyers as the term of trade approaches. The newly acquired Frank Vatran made his debut for his team on Thursday night, recording one shot on goal during the 14:47 ice time, and Galant said after the game that he “looked very good” in the second line with Panarin and Ryan Strom.
So, this is not a situation of “every point”, except for sowing and the advantage on the ice in the first round. So the Rangers will have such overall performance, knowing that more often than not it will lead to two points.
“I will accept the efforts we have made tonight,” said Rangers defender Jacob Trumpet. “We don’t like the result, but I won’t take it much, but some of the wins we got this year in the game we played. We can gain a lot from this game. “
