New York. The Rangers from Manhattan were suddenly the masters of the National Hockey League.
They won Saturday’s runaway “Series Final” against Boston by somewhat astonishing 7-4 numbers and thus sailed to the top of the table.
– Of course it feels good, we are playing better as a team now compared to previous years, says Mika Zibanejad to Sportbladet.
Things didn’t go as expected, an early series finale between the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden.
Such battles are usually tight and well organised, but after a fairly conventional – albeit unexpectedly goal-laden – first period a pure wild west show erupted in the arena known as the most famous in the world.
It swung, swayed and cascaded across the ice in a wild, undeniably fun procession.
There were also goals.
Above all, Rangers kicked pucks at Linus Ullmark who was having more fun in the afternoon and in the end the home team won 7-4.
“Maybe they had to put in some effort and take some chances, so the game was kind of open and because we had a lot of fast players, there were a lot of one-on-one sequences and free positions,” says Mika Zibanejad when we met him afterward.
– But it was the work we did before that that made it open that way. We didn’t play our best game, but we played well enough to win and certainly continued our scoring momentum.
Rangers are at the top of the league
With the win, Mika and his friends were able to easily surpass the competitor in the table with ease. They’re on the same score, but the Bruins have one more game. Yes, the truth is that the Rangers moved to the top of the league overall — at least until Vegas’ game against Arizona the next night.
– It’s early in the season, but still. “Obviously it feels good,” Micah continues.
-What are we doing better this year? For starters, we have confidence now. He builds on every victory. But I think the big difference is that before we were more dependent on individual performance. Now we play better as a team, we have more structure and breadth and everyone contributes.
Unlike what happened in Philadelphia the day before, the Swedish No. 1 midfielder did not score against the Bruins, but he was responsible for a very impressive play against the gem of a score by defenseman Kandre Miller.
His compatriot Erik Gustafsson also contributed an assist.
