PHILADELPHIA — These are the Black-and-Blueshirts — and at no time was it more appropriate for the Rangers to flaunt this 2023-24 identity with John Tortorella behind the bench.
He was behind the other bench, of course, behind the Flyers’ bench while the first-place Rangers rock-and-rolled to a 3-1 victory on Friday afternoon borne of the work ethic inspired by the new sheriff behind the bench, Peter Laviolette.
“I think the battle level has always been there but I think it’s been more consistent now,” said Mika Zibanejad, who scored not only his first five-on-five goal of the season, but his first two, Glory Hallelujah. “The way we help each other out, the way we play.
“When east-west happens, it’s very obvious we can make those plays but I think we’re a bit smarter with the puck and not inviting teams to counter against us too easily.”
Here’s how these nuts-and-bolts Rangers help each other. First, at 4:44 of the opening period, Nicolas Deslauriers attempted to goad Jacob Trouba into dropping his gloves from below the New York goal line to the neutral zone. The captain wanted nothing to do with it.
“Didn’t think it was necessary at that time,” said Trouba, who stood his ground while an overeager Garnet Hathaway bounced off him after taking a run at No. 8. “Not really a lot of thought into it.”
But Barclay Goodrow did not appreciate the exchange. And so Goodrow dropped his gloves and tangled with the Flyers winger. This is what Goodrow, who has engaged in three fights this season, does. This is a huge part of his added value. He always has a teammate’s back.
It was 2-0 by that point. Zibanejad picked the empty side by converting Blake Wheeler’s two-on-one feed off the rush at 0:45. Sixty-eight seconds later, Chris Kreider jumped on a hellacious giveaway into the slot by defenseman Travis Sanheim and beat Carter Hart for his 11th of the season.
So the Flyers, physical by nature as is any Tortorella team — or else — became chestier and chestier in a match that was contested in tight spaces. And when that man Hathaway — whom once upon a time the Blueshirts attempted to sign as a free agent but did not have the cap space to pull it off — crushed Ryan Lindgren into the boards at 17:19, here came Will Cuylle to the rescue.
The 21-year-old rookie swooped in, dropped his gloves and fought Hathaway. That earned him a two-minute instigator plus the five-minute major and automatic 10-minute misconduct. But that earned him far more than that. That earned Cuylle the admiration of his band of brothers and the coaches.
“We’ve got to stick up for each other out there,” said Laviolette, who had some pretty jagged-edged teams on the Island and in Carolina, Philadelphia and Nashville when he was behind the bench in those NHL ports of call. “One of our guys got whacked pretty good and he turned right around.
“For Will to turn around immediately like that, we’ll kill that penalty. We missed him for the extra 10 minutes but certainly the guys on the bench and the staff were really — you see somebody do that you’re really proud of someone stepping up for their teammate.”
The Rangers did kill that one off. They killed all six Philly power plays. Maybe all of the Flyers’ advantages were warranted but the Blueshirts certainly merited more than the two they were awarded. The disparity in power play time of 12:00 to 4:00 sure contributed to Philadelphia’s 37-19 shot advantage.
Zibanejad got his second by driving to the net and getting a one-hand deflection past Hart on another feed off the rush by Wheeler at 7:41 of the second. But that was one of the few and far between scoring chances the Blueshirts generated. The Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere unit was unusually quiet, the line producing two chances off the rush from the slot.
This was not an attack-counter attack kind of game. The Flyers closed to within 3-1 when Sean Couturier beat Igor Shesterkin on a deflection at 17:39 of the second but despite being outshot 14-3 in the third, the Rangers never buckled. Shift by shift, the Blueshirts refused to yield even as the Flyers were on the man-advantage for 5:18 of the period.
“We’re trying to engage in these battles, we’re trying to be competitive and hard in these battles,” said Laviolette, whose team had killed five penalties in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. “The sticks are down and they’re trying to dislodge pucks.
“I’d like to see [the penalties] come down for us, and I tell them the same thing. But in the same sense they are competing like crazy out there.”
Black-and-Blueshirts II, 14-3-1.
With the Big Bad Bruins coming to town Saturday afternoon.
Delicious.