One year ago, the Rangers played what turned out to be the final game of their 2019-20 season in Denver, where Pavel Buchnevich’s goal with 13 seconds left in regulation earned them a point in an overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 11, 2020.
The next day, March 12, the NHL announced it would pause its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A year later, the Rangers were on the road again, in Boston Thursday for a game against the Bruins at TD Garden. And there would be no late-game heroics for the Rangers in this one. The Bruins scored two goals in the first period and two in the second to chase starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev and deal the Rangers their third straight loss, 4-0, in the opener of the teams’ two-game set. They face each other again Saturday afternoon.
Where that OT loss to the Avalanche last year brought the Rangers within two points of a playoff spot at that point, Thursday’s loss dropped them nine points back of the closest postseason position. They are 10-12-3, sixth in the East Division (top four teams qualify). They are slipping further away from a playoff spot, rather than getting closer.
David Pastrnak opened the scoring for the Bruins, blasting a one-timer past Georgiev at 4:14 of the first period for his 12th goal of the season. A short-handed goal by Patrice Bergeron at 17:34 of the period made it 2-0, heading into the first intermission.
David Krejci, goalless in his first 19 games of the season, scored on a power play at 3:31 of the second to make it 3-0, and Jake DeBrusk, returning to the lineup after having been a healthy scratch in the Bruins’ last game, scored at 4:52 to make it 4-0. That was all for Georgiev, who was replaced by Keith Kinkaid.
Before the game, Rangers coach David Quinn shared his memory of the day the NHL season ended prematurely.
"I vividly remember about an hour before the game getting word that the NBA had paused their season,’’ Quinn said. "We certainly knew what was in store for the NHL once that happened. We had just come off a great win in Dallas, going back-to-back playing Colorado, and scored a goal late to tie it, and were looking forward to Phoenix to complete the road trip and make a push to make the playoffs. And unfortunately, that never happened, and the world certainly changed for everybody that day. And that seems like it was three years ago, not a year ago.’’
It was only a year, but what a difference a year has made for the Blueshirts.
Mika Zibanejad, who scored his 41st goal in that game against the Avalanche, has three goals in his first 25 games of this season.
Henrik Lundqvist, the backup goaltender that night in Denver, is sitting this season out, following open heart surgery. But even before the surgery, he had left the Rangers, getting bought out of the final year of his contract before the season, and signing a free-agent deal with the Washington Capitals.
Artemi Panarin, who led the team in scoring and was a Hart Trophy finalist in 2019-20, missed his ninth game Thursday after taking a leave from the team Feb. 22. The Rangers hope he can play Saturday.
They’ll also hope Igor Shesterkin, who missed his fourth game with a groin injury suffered in a game last Thursday against the Devils in New Jersey in the first game of this six-game road trip, will be able to play Saturday.
