BOSTON _ In the closing moments of the March 19 game against the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden, as the Rangers tried desperately to score the tying goal, Pavel Buchnevich fired a shot from the high slot that Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard saved, prompting Buchnevich to collapse to the ice in frustration. The Red Wings would get an empty net goal, and though Brendan Smith scored in the final seconds for the Rangers, the Blueshirts ultimately lost their fifth consecutive game.
That left Buchnevich visibly distraught after the final buzzer.
"We'd just lost too much games at that point _ five in a row, or something like that," Buchnevich recalled Wednesday morning, after the Rangers held an optional morning skate before playing the Bruins in TD Garden. "I was just tired of losing... I just wanted to win that game. Losing every time is a downer."
The Rangers lost, 6-3, to the Bruins on Wednesday night for their seventh loss in eight games and 13 of 15. David Pastrnak had a hat trick and two assists and the Bruins scored four power-play goals at TD Garden. For Pastrnak, it was his third hat trick of the season. Long Beach native Charlie McAvoy got in on the action, scoring the Bruins' sixth goal.
Buchnevich didn't score Wednesday, but as the Rangers play out the string, he has been one of the team's most productive players. The Russian winger entered Wednesday's game with a career-high 18 goals, with 15 assists for 33 points, in 58 games played. He had six goals in 11 games entering Wednesday.
Asked the reason for his improved play, Buchnevich pointed to his deployment lately on the No. 1 line, with top center Mika Zibanejad, who scored his 29th and 30th goals of the season in Boston.
"We're kind of similar players _ I understand what he wants, he understands what I want," Buchnevich said of Zibanejad.
Still just 23, Buchnevich is one of the young players who is still developing as the Rangers conclude the first full season of their all-out rebuild. And while things seem to be going well for him now, he doesn't see this as a successful year for him personally.
"The full year? No. Of course, no," he said. "I didn't expect, before the season, I would (be a healthy scratch) four times, and play for a month on the fourth line. It's hard. You expect for your season to _ I got (43) points last season, I expect to beat those numbers, help the team to improve. I think I played well lately _ the last, maybe, 15 games, or month-and-a-half. Tough start."
He hopes now to get to 20 goals for the season, though he hopes even more to reach 100 points for his career (he had 96 going into Wednesday). He frets about the fact he has fewer assists than goals, but said he thinks he and first-year coach David Quinn are finally on the same page.
"We've figured out, right now, with coach, what he wants from me, and what I can do," he said.
"I think it's just the evolution of any relationship," Quinn said of he and Buchnevich getting to know each other. "I mean, any time there's a new coach, there's a learning curve for the player and there's a learning curve for the coach. I also brushed up on my Russian, so that might have helped the cause. He probably brushed up on his English a little bit more, so we met somewhere in the middle."
