It’s been 18 games on a line together for Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Blake Wheeler, and they’re beginning to mesh.
The Rangers’ top line has generated a couple pretty goals lately, including a go-ahead goal in the second period of the club’s eventual 4-3 overtime victory over the Sabres on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
“Everything,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of what he’s liked about his first unit. “I’ve talked about Blake, I feel like he’s playing his best hockey for us right now. He’s moving his legs. He’s generating. Kreids did a really good job of being involved in the offense, the forecheck, around the net, near the net. Mika was incredible out there tonight. The way he drove through the neutral zone, attacked the game, constantly attacked the game.
“The whole line. It was really good. They were reliable and good defensively, but they were on the attack the entire night.”
After scoring the first goal of the Rangers’ 4-3 loss to the Oilers on Friday, Kreider, Zibanejad and Wheeler gave their team a 3-2 lead at the 7:13 mark of the second period.
On the rush, Wheeler fed Kreider, who put the puck on net before Zibanejad cleaned up the rebound for his 13th goal of the season.
Zibanejad extended his point streak to seven games by leading the Rangers with a three-point night on Saturday.
After posting a goal, the primary assist on Artemi Panarin’s power-play goal and the primary assist on Kreider’s OT winner, the Swedish center now has seven goals and seven assists since his point streak began.
“I think we’ve had enough time together now,” Zibanejad said of his line. “We’ve got to know each other and know how we’re successful together. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
Will Cuylle dropped the gloves with Erik Johnson after the Rangers rookie took out Ryan Johnson with a hard hit along the boards in the second period. The Sabres defenseman took exception with the hit and challenged Cuylle to fight, which clearly swung in the 21-year-old’s favor.
The Rangers earned a power play out of the sequence as Johnson was hit with an instigator penalty as well as a 10-minute misconduct. Jeff Skinner was also assessed a 10-minute misconduct presumably for something he said to the officials.
“He stepped up,” Vincent Trocheck said of Cuylle’s fight. “Against a guy, veteran in this league, big guy. He made a nice hit and then answered the bell. I thought he did a great job.”
Rangers captain Jacob Trouba donated $100,000 of his artwork sales to the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
“That was always kind of part of the plan,” Trouba said of selling his artwork for charity. “Just finally got there, finally sold enough to donate the money. Hopefully, there’s more coming and we can donate more.”
After Saturday’s game, the Rangers will be off from game action for the holiday until Wednesday, when they face the Capitals at the Garden.
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