New York. It was like a Hollywood movie premiere when Patrick Kane made his debut with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden last night.
But the hungry Ottawa Senators crashed the party by defeating the Manhattan Stars 5-3.
It was a great experience, but everything won’t work out perfectly overnight, says the guy they call Showtime.
Not since Jaromir Jagr arrived in New York nearly 20 years ago has a bigger star than Patrick Kane made his debut for the Rangers midway through the current season, so the mood was in the least excited when the 34-year-old American, after sixteen years and a total of 1,297 A game with the Chicago Blackhawks, slid last night on the ice at Madison Square Garden.
After a few hours, it was greatly toned down, because the premiere was not a success.
Kane and the other stars put up a number of great attacks, and the crowd could see the kind of feeling he had in his wrists, but they were fit to die for, especially during several long power plays – and at the same time the home team were risky on defense without stopping Candre Miller and injuring Ryan. Lindgren, so the fast and furious Senators came back from 1-0 and 3-2 to win 5-3.
– It was a very nice experience, I will never forget the crowd’s reception, says Kane when he met the biggest press gathering of the season in the Rangers dressing room afterwards.
– I haven’t played in a while and I’m feeling a bit rusty and of course it would have been more fun if we had won. But it will take some time before everything works perfectly, and it won’t happen overnight. I need to be able to do some training sessions and get to know the guys a little bit.
Coach Gerard Gallant thinks so too.
– We saw good things five by five but playing our strength hurt us. It was too close and consisted of too many passes. Sure, nice, but you have to put the disc in the basket, too, he says.
– But it would probably be nice if we could put the trade deadline behind us and get some daily life back and we could train and play together.
Mika Zibanejad grabbed two assists and former Ranger Derek Brassard celebrated his 1,000th NHL game with two goals over his old teammates.