Rangers put on an offensive spectacle in dominant win over Penguins

Rangers showed Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins just how dangerous they can be.

The cautionary tape should have lined the Rangers bench on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, where the home side toppled the Penguins in a 6-0 win that swelled their lead over Pittsburgh to 12 points in the league standings. metropolitan division.

Each Ranger unit that jumped over the boards and onto the ice might have had its own warning label:

Danger – able to dominate games.

That includes both power play units, which went 1 for 4 on the night, and penalty kill, which was a perfect 5 for 5. And the same could be said for Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who has made 33 saves and has been dialed for a handful of games now.

The Rangers dominated from the puck drop. They even chased Pittsburgh starter Tristan Jarry off the ice less than halfway through the second period.

The Penguins have had a front row seat to the evolution of the Rangers this season.

From the December 20 Rangers squad, which had yet to be bolstered by the star additions of Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko, to the work-in-progress Blueshirts that lost in overtime at Pittsburgh on March 12, the Penguins have experienced a club that attracted a lot of big names, but generated so little chemistry.

However, the Rangers who took the ice against the Penguins on Thursday and Saturday at the Garden have finally started to put it all together.

Pittsburgh was ultimately collateral damage in the Rangers’ pursuit to gel their star roster — and Saturday was their most compelling performance yet.

Their loaded top six was particularly bright in this victory. Totaling four goals at five against five, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Tarasenko and Chris Kreider all landed on the scoresheet.

Rangers captain Jacob Trouba also scored his third goal in the last six games on a sharp angled shot.

Zibanejad, who finished with a goal and two assists, scored Rangers’ first goal for a third straight game. Returning a backhand shot past Jarry, Zibanejad gave Rangers a 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the game.

It was also the 10th first goal of the season for the Swedish center, who is tied with Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings and Mikko Rantanen of the Avalanche for the most in the NHL.

Rangers have been spoiled by Zibanejad’s consistent, two-way play this season. He currently leads the club with 36 goals and is just five goals away from equaling the record tally he posted in the 2019-20 season.

Tensions erupted on the ice in the teams’ third meeting in seven days.

Malkin pushed Braden Schneider face-first into the boards in the first period, earning the Penguins two minutes ahead for roughing and two minutes for boarding. Rangers, particularly Ben Harpur, were the exception and it caused a bit of a fight in the corner.

After the Rangers got a power play, Panarin fired the puck from the left face-off circle to make it 2-0 before the first intermission.

The beautiful on-paper Rangers line-up is starting to roll off the page and onto the ice.

It was only a matter of time.

Above all, it is at the right time.