‘Special talent’ starting to get hot again for Rangers
Filip Chytil seems on the verge of another hot streak.
The Rangers’ 19-year-old forward picked up his second goal and fourth point in the past five games during the team’s 4-3 win over the Blackhawks on Thursday night at the Garden. Chytil has eight goals and 17 points in 45 games, with his points coming in concentrated stretches — like a five-game goal-scoring streak in mid-November.
“I feel great,” Chytil said after he scored his goal on a flying right-wing rush and then a spectacular top-shelf shot, as his line with Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast has shown some early returns. “I think it’s good chemistry with Quickie and Stromer, and it’s great we can help the team win games and score goals.”
Chytil, the No. 21-overall pick in the 2017 draft, has never been short on talent. But it seems the difficultly has come in dealing with the grind of a NHL season.
“It’s a big jump from where he was two years ago,” coach David Quinn said. “This is a guy who’s not going to be 20 until September. I think sometimes people lose sight of that.
“But he’s a special talent, boy. He’s a guy that can create offense on his own, he’s got great stick skills. The thing I like about him is he’s been hounding the puck more lately, he’s been stopping on pucks, doing all the things that guys learn to do when they get to this level — because the game forces you to do it. No matter how much a coach says something you have to really suffer before you learn a lesson. And he’s learning lessons, for sure.”
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The Rangers had been pleased about the recent success of their penalty kill, having killed 14 straight in the three previous games. (Well, the Islanders’ Anthony Beauvillier scored the instant a power-play ended in Brooklyn this past Saturday, but it counted as an even-strength goal.)
Then the Blueshirts gave up two power-play goals to Chicago on three chances.
“Our PK, we talk about how important it is, and not really getting the job done tonight,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “That’s why it’s a close game tonight. It starts with me, on the PK, coming up with the big saves.”
The lineup was the same for the second straight game, with defenseman Brendan Smith a healthy scratch for the eighth time in the past 10 games.
Neal Pionk (lower body) missed his second straight and third in the past four, while Kevin Hayes (upper body) missed his eighth straight and is not expected to play before the break, which begins after Saturday night’s game in Boston.
Rookie Brett Howden, recently demoted to fourth-line center, got two shifts in the third period for an ice-time total of 6:40. The only player to get less time was his winger, Cody McLeod, who got one shift in the third and finished with 4:37.