trade to the Islanders in exchange for a third-round pick was finalized<\/a>, the rest of the Blueshirts blue line adjusted to the shuffling to spark their victory.<\/p>\n\u201cI was super excited,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cWe needed the win. I think that was the biggest part, just to finally get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hours leading up to the latest Rangers loss served as a cautionary tale for what could follow in the days and weeks ahead, as the March 6 deadline nears. They were getting close to sending Soucy \u2014 acquired in the middle of season for a third-round pick \u2014 to the Islanders. Connor Mackey was called up from AHL Hartford to serve as the seventh defenseman. Urho Vaakanainen took Soucy\u2019s place in the lineup.<\/p>\n
Rangers center Vincent Trocheck #16 takes a shot on goal. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Vaakanainen capitalized on his chance to skate for just the fourth time since Dec. 21, as Cuylle deflected his shot from the point off a faceoff win just 9:45 into the opening period to give the Blueshirts an early lead. Elias Lindholm responded for the Bruins minutes later, but it took J.T. Miller just 26 seconds to hand the lead back to the Rangers \u2014 depositing a cross-ice pass from Gabe Perreault for his third goal in three games.<\/p>\n
For once, the Rangers generated a response. For once, they managed to keep producing chances and goals at the Garden, too, amid a campaign where they\u2019d collected just a 5-13-4 record entering the night. But then more of the same started materializing. Lindholm collected a loose rebound, spun around and whipped a puck past. Morgan Geekie snapped a tight-angle shot nearly nine minutes into the second period to give Boston a 3-2 lead, too.<\/p>\n
Rangers left wing Will Cuylle #50 celebrates his goal with his teammates during the first period. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
The Rangers had plenty of chances to equalize, to manage a third goal, to snatch the advantage back even before Geekie\u2019s decisive tally. They had 37 seconds of a 5-on-3 that led to nothing. Then, they finally generated it with Borgen\u2019s third goal of the season, before Robertson, on what Miller described as a \u201chigh-end play,\u201d won it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy for the players,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cI think to get a win at home in that fashion, I think, is a huge boost to the group. I think this group\u2019s been through a lot over the last three weeks or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the first shuffling of their roster now official, on an evening the organization celebrated its latest centennial theme night to honor Blueshirts legends who ushered the franchise through their 1994 Stanley Cup win and a golden era of the franchise, the Rangers provided, for most of the final two periods of regulation, yet another glimpse of how far away they are from returning to that point.<\/p>\n
Rangers left wing Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re #13 tips the puck during the first period. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Then, their final two goals turned Monday into a rare bright spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, I try not to think about it,\u201d Miller said, when asked if he thinks about this being the current roster\u2019s final days together. \u201cIt is what it is at this point. We have a close group in here. This isn\u2019t the position any of us thought we were gonna be in at the start of the season. It\u2019s a business, and we\u2019re just trying to treat it like normal days. We have a lot of fun together in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Matthew Robertson could do, after he pulled up and fired a shot past Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1785,4823,385,99],"class_list":["post-432215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}