Kevin Shattenkirk gets some redemption in Rangers’ win

This was a bit of a new look for the Rangers, who are now seemingly listening to first-year head coach David Quinn as he demands they shoot first, crash the net second, and ask questions later. And it was also a big piece of redemption for one of the club’s most important players.

So in the immediate aftermath, it was funny to see defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk smiling a toothy grin as his head swam underneath the too-large beige Broadway Hat and he took an awkward selfie in front of his locker. Boy, how that healthy scratch last Thursday couldn’t seem further away after Shattenkirk registered two assists and scored the game-winner in the third round of the shootout to cap off a 3-2 victory against the Avalanche on Tuesday night at the Garden.

“He shows what a pro is,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “Not a lot of guys can respond the way he did. … That just proves what he’s made of, and I’m really happy for him.”

This was just the second win for these nascent Rangers (2-4-0), but it does seem like they are starting to take to Quinn, who is trying to change the mentality just as much as he is changing the systems. He had demanded his team have a gritty offensive mindset, and it paid off with them peppering the Avalanche (2-2-2) with 43 shots, 41 of them stopped by the terrific Semyon Varlamov.

But Varlamov could stop neither Mats Zuccarello nor Shattenkirk in the skills competition, and when Lundqvist denied Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog on the final attempt, it gave the Blueshirts some much-needed good feeling.

“I kind of enjoy the fact that there are important points already,” said Lundqvist, who was terrific once again in making 31 saves. “It sounds a little silly after just a few games, but it’s hard to catch up and we want to stay in the [playoff] race here. It’s important to win games when you have the possibility to win.”

Lundqvist made that a possibility with two jaw-dropping stops in sequence on Matt Calvert and Matt Nieto with about 20 seconds left in the second period to keep a 2-1 lead. But after a Rangers icing, the second double-deflection of the night beat Lundqvist, this one touched last by Nathan MacKinnon with just 12.6 seconds remaining in the period, tying it 2-2 going into the third.

“I think it’s a reflection of where we’re at right now,” Quinn said. “We’ve got to learn to manage the game better. … That’s the next step for us, to learn how to manage a game and understand circumstantial hockey.”

What Quinn would also like is to be able to rely on Shattenkirk to be the on-ice leader most thought he would be when he signed here in the summer of 2017. But a knee injury derailed his first year, and he was still recovering from the Jan. 18 surgery as this season started. As Quinn is quick to point out, the recovery was just as much mental as physical.

But when Shattenkirk assisted on Chris Kreider’s power-play goal 12:07 into the first, it got him going. His pace picked up, and he got a secondary assist on Kevin Hayes’ second-period goal at 10:53 which gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

“Getting that assist on the power-play goal, after that, it kind of felt like I was playing my game again,” Shattenkirk said. “From that moment on, I felt like I was moving my feet and making the simple plays that were right in front of me.”

The Rangers need everyone to do that if they don’t want this to be a lost season, which continues with the second leg of this back-to-back on Wednesday night in Washington. It could help if Shattenkirk can lead the way.

“Last Thursday was a tough pill to swallow, but I think it helped me,” Shattenkirk said. “When you get to sit back and analyze the game a little bit and realize where you need to be better, it’s important that you take that and learn from it.”