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#Rangers’ first line shows what it’s made of: ‘Big step forward’

#Rangers’ first line shows what it’s made of: ‘Big step forward’

This was between the first and second period of Friday’s scrimmage. Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich dropped to their knees, gathered in a tight circle, and talked. There were gestures. There was communication.

And one shift in the second period, there was dominance and a Kreider goal from the slot, a one-timer off a dynamic exchange with Buchnevich. And then an immediate second dominant shift and a third in the scrimmage that represented the closest the Rangers have come in their two weeks on the ice to NHL-like conditions.

“It’s good for us to get back to the things we were doing before all this happened and just try to get comfortable with each other again,” said Zibanejad, whose game has been building during this prep period for the tournament. “It’s fun to be out there with them, so I’m super, super excited.”

Some of those dominant shifts came against the Libor Hajek-Brandon Crawley defense pair, and not Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin-Dougie Hamilton tandem, but still, one step at time.

The Rangers will charter to Toronto on Sunday to begin life in the hub bubble. The players and staff met following the scrimmage to discuss the protocols, opportunities and routines developed by the league.

“We’ve been going through what the details are going to be in the bubble, going back-and-forth to the rink, things like that,” Zibanejad said. “But I think, at the same time, we’re kind of going there with an open mind and going to try to adjust to it as quickly as we can.

“It’s a situation no one has been in before, I can’t stress that enough, so it’s going to be a different situation, a new situation, and a different experience for everyone. So we’re going to have to be able to adapt as quickly as possible, stay safe and make sure we follow everything as we’ve been advised and basically just go from there.”

From a hockey standpoint, the Rangers did get going in Friday’s scrimmage. The pace was quicker. The sharpness was clearer. The compete level was more meaningful. The physicality was worth more than a mention.

“I thought we took a big step forward, creating more of a game-like mentality, more of an August 1 [2020] mentality,” David Quinn said of the three-period, 45-minute affair. “I thought there was definitely more physicality, and I really liked our intentions; little things like faceoffs and hold-ups and line changes and things like that.

“I thought there was definitely more purpose and a game-like feel throughout the scrimmage to what we’re going to have to do on the first. I liked our pace, I thought our guys approached it the way we’re going to have to approach it [for Game 1]. We have to take a step every day to get closer to doing what we’re going to have to do on the first of August.

“It’s really that simple because, as we’ve alluded to, time is of the essence,” said the coach. “We don’t have a lot of it so we have to take advantage of every practice, physically and mentally, and our guys did a good job of that. It was a good step forward for us.”

The Blue Team that had Henrik Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev split the chores in net recorded a 4-1 victory over the White Team for which Igor Shesterkin went the distance. Lundqvist allowed one goal, a penalty shot to Vinni Lettieri. Shesterkin allowed three, one a softie on a Brendan Lemieux left-wing drive, with Blue padding the score with an empty-netter.

“I thought the scrimmage was good,” Zibanejad said. “There was better intensity and I thought the intentions were better. That’s what we were talking about right after [the scrimmage] and have been talking about this week.

“We’re trying to prepare and make sure we’re doing what we need to do on Aug. 1. If you’re not going to do it then, you’re not going to do it now. That’s the mentality we’ve been going with.”

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