A parade depicting the history of the Battle of New York is on full display at a New Jersey football field, the first of its kind in more than half a century of hockey fratricide.
Mark Messier was home as well, and so was Brian Trottier. Adam Graves was here, John Tonelli was here. Some were from Dynasty, some were from 1994, and there was Henrik Lundqvist. But at the moment, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Matt Barzal and Matt Martin were also on the ice.
These teams have played outdoors once before, and it was a bit pedestrian when the Rangers won 2-1 at Yankee Stadium in 2014. There were no pedestrians at this Sunday afternoon game at MetLife. The Blueshirts came back from a 4-1 deficit early in the second inning. They trailed 5-3 late in the third inning, but Artemi Panarin’s goal 10 seconds into overtime gave them a 6-5 victory.
That’s one second better than JP Paris’ performance in 1975. Yes, this settles the deciding game of his playoff series and also settles the mid-February dispute. But he’s among 79,690 people who say they had tickets to the extravaganza. That’s the number that would fill a stadium with a wall of sound that Phil Spector would be proud of.
“It was such an epic game that I had to hold back my tears,” said Panarin, who chased down the puck from the OT draw when Noah Dobson found the back of the net and beat Ilya Sorokin with a chip to win. “It didn’t happen,” he said through an interpreter. “I have to say that the atmosphere was moving and couldn’t be compared to anything else.
“I would like to thank the fans for giving me such moving airwaves.”
These outdoor games have become the NHL’s signature event. They represent Holidays on Ice. This was the league’s 41st foray into the elements, and one of its most memorable. Maybe it’s the snowglobe effect of the first Winter Classic in Buffalo, where Sidney Crosby was the winner in the shootout. At the 2012 Winter Classic in Philadelphia, Lundqvist denied Danny Briere at 19:40 of the third period, preserving a 3–2 Rangers victory.
And the Blueshirts, who have been heavy on the power play for the last month, came up short at 15:52 and 18:31 of the third period after head coach Peter Laviolette pulled Igor Shesterkin for a 6-4 lead. There was a game where we scored two points. The Islanders downed one man three times in the final 9 minutes, 24 seconds of regulation to take advantage.
New boss Patrick Roy isn’t the same as old boss Lane Lambert, but the results on the ice are becoming eerily similar for this Islanders team that can’t hold onto a lead. This team is the antithesis of Lou Lamoriello’s teams for decades. This was not a point.
The spectacular rally in inclement weather tended to camouflage how underpowered the Blueshirts looked until they fell behind 4-1 in the first 21:03. Shesterkin was leaked after making a three-game mini-resurgence. The Blueshirts were losing the puck battle. They were at a disadvantage in front of both nets.
However, the Rangers came into the match having won six straight games and improved as a team with boundless confidence. Their leading players took control. Panarin was in great form, scoring 32 goals. So was Vincent Trocheck. Coach Kreider redirected Panarin’s drive for a 5-4 goal at 15:52, his eighth point in the past 11 games. At 18:31, Mika Zibanejad tied the game with a one-timer low in the left circle after a great feed from the super-skilled Adam Fox.
This was literal star power under the stars.
The Rangers will make some calls ahead of Tuesday’s game against Dallas at the Garden. Jimmy Vesey started on the right side along with Kreider and Zibanejad, but was only given the third opening shift. That’s when Laviolette started juggling, with Matt Lempe sitting down and Kaapo Kakko going up for a spin, taking No. 26 with Barclay Goodrow and Adam Edstrom while Panarin did a double shift with BFF. I moved it back to the 4th row.
Of course, this was part of an 82-game schedule, but it was separate from the regular season routine. This was a significant event for the NHL. This was a distinctive event in the history of the Battle of New York.
The Rangers scrawled signatures all over it.
John Hancock didn’t think anything of Artemi Panarin.
