New York. The fact that the New York Rangers broke a four-game losing streak against Los Angeles last night certainly delighted the fans in the Park – but that wasn’t the most important thing.
Even louder they were cheering for the fact that Mika Zibanejad no He injured himself, seriously as it seemed – but on the contrary he came back and scored his 31st goal of the season.
– I managed to get a little scared, but it wasn’t worse that I could play, the Swedish star heart tells Sportbladet after the 5-2 win.
Late in the second period, Mika Zibanejad went down to cover a snap from Kings’ backfield icon Drew Doughty — and hit the puck on one ankle, protected by little more than a thin layer of plastic and/or leather.
The 29-year-old Swede was then left lying on the ice in what seemed to be excruciating pain, before he was helped off in the dressing room – without being able to support his injured foot.
“I felt sick seeing it,” said Rangers coach Gerard Gallant, knowing full well that a serious injury to the team’s first-half would be utterly devastating and possibly have consequences for Patrick Kane’s impending streak too.
Gallant continues:
– So I was just as happy as the fans when it turned out he could play.
Because that’s what happened. With the start of the third period, Mika slid onto the ice again – to thunderous applause. The park even broke into a rhythmic “MIKA, MIKA, MIKA” chant once he was zoomed into a jumbotron.
– It was great, I really appreciated it. He says with a smile when we meet him in the dressing room afterwards, we have special fans here.
– Explosion… Well, it wasn’t the nicest thing I’ve been through and I managed to get a little scared. But it had better not be worse than that I can keep playing and feel fine now after that.
He couldn’t just play, Mika. In a solid game five and a half minutes into the final period, he hit one of his more difficult direct shots from the left penalty circle – making the final score 5-2.
Looking at what we’re going through now, I’m very proud of the way we played tonight, against a really good team. It’s impressive.
What Mika is pointing out is that while waiting for Patrick Keane’s aforementioned move to be officially completed, Rangers should be very careful with their squad to increase salary cap space next week and in tonight’s game, for example, they used just five players (which became four when K received Andre Miller penalty) and eleven forwards.
– It’s a special case, but we’ve been through something similar before and we know we have to try to get through this week. When the deadline expires on Friday, we can start focusing on finishing the regular season as well as possible, says the center from Mälarhöjden and then stop on a foot that doesn’t seem to hurt too much.
By the way, one of King’s goals was scored by Viktor Arvidsson in the garden.