Almost 80,000 New York hockey fans packed MetLife Stadium on Sunday to watch the Rangers and Islanders face off in the battle of the Big Apple, and to say it lived up to the hype would really be selling it short.
Sadly for the Isles, the highly anticipated duel ended in heartbreak when they couldn’t protect a two-goal lead late in regulation.
In a rally that has to be seen to be believed — and rivaled the comeback Hideki Matsuyama pulled off from six strokes back to win at Riviera within the same hour — the Rangers never gave up, finagled their way into a two-man advantage for an equalizer, and saw Breadman Artemi Panarin get rewarded for extraordinary hustle on the wild game-winning goal.
A beautiful screen and deflection by Chris Kreider cut the Islanders’ late lead to 5-4 at the 15:52 mark of the third period.
Then, I mean…if you leave Mika Zibanejad open for one of his signature one-timers on the power play, you’re asking for trouble. Get a load of this MetLife Stadium crowd.
Haven’t heard an eruption like that since Aaron Rodgers jogged onto the turf with the American flag in Week 1 of the football season. Feels like yesterday. Except we’re exactly one week removed from Super Bowl Sunday and yet another Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs victory.
The end of football season usually brings with it a sense of ennui and low-key dread from a person whose living largely revolves around happenings in the NFL. However, we’ve got the post-All-Star period for the NHL and NBA to look forward to, with MLB Opening Day not too far away, in addition to all the NFL free agency, Combine and draft stuff. That first week or two post-Super Bowl, though? Tough sledding.
…Something like this happening is such a welcome relief. Two intrastate rivals battling outdoors on the ice, delivering one of the best pound-for-pound NHL games of the 2023-24 season, if not the best thus far. The Rangers are now on a run of seven straight wins to surge atop the East’s Metropolitan Division, only one point off the Panthers for the conference’s No. 1 seed.
Matsuyama on the course. The New York Rangers on the ice. Not the worst Sunday of sports. All told, a damn good encore to Super Bowl LVIII if you ask me.
We really should’ve known the Rangers weren’t going to let the early fisticuffs from Matt Rempe go to waste in a loss.
