This is finally the ‘different Filip Chytil’ Rangers have coaxed out
Same number 72 on the back of his jersey. Same name, too. But perhaps a different player? Coach David Quinn thinks so. And so to a certain extent, so does Filip Chytil himself.
“It seems in the week he’s been out, it’s been a different Filip Chytil,” Quinn said after reinserting the winger into the lineup for Sunday’s 3-2 Garden shootout defeat to the Capitals following a pair of healthy scratches. “He’s gone to another level with his work ethic and demeanor, and I thought this would be a good game to get him in.
“It wasn’t the [original] plan to bring him back for this game, I knew he’d be out for more than one, but didn’t know whether it would be two, three or four. What he was doing on those days determined how long it would be.
“I certainly liked his approach to this game.”
Chytil opened the game on the fourth line with Lias Andersson and Brendan Smith but took most of his late turns on a remodeled unit featuring Brett Howden and Chris Kreider as his linemates. He finished with 13:31 of ice time that included 0:55 on a third-period power play. He also was tabbed in the fourth round of the shootout but was denied off a move.
“I did feel different,” the 19-year-old told The Post. “We had a lot of talks. The season is so long. I never played so many games. When I was out, I worked hard in practice and when I watched the games, I tried to focus on the details of what the coaches want from us. I tried to do that in this game.”
Chytil set up Pavel Buchnevich for the 2-2 tying goal at 14:20 of the second period with a pass while down on the ice, after he’d been knocked down in the slot by Dmitry Orlov.
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“I just want to be here for the guys,” he said. “The season is so long.”
When Chytil was first scratched last Sunday in D.C., the coach had talked about slippage in the rookie’s work ethic, though he later noted that Chytil certainly wasn’t trying to be lazy. Quinn suggested that young players sometimes need to redefine their own definition of hard work.
“I think that’s true,” Chytil said of Quinn’s observations. “What the coach says is true, always.”
Quinn might want to put those words on next year’s training camp T-shirts.
Howden played 10:16 in his first game since missing 15 straight with the sprained MCL he sustained Jan. 29 against the Flyers.
“It was a tough game to be thrown into after being out for so long but I thought as the game went on he got acclimated and looked like he was feeling more comfortable,” Quinn said.
Smith did double duty on the wing and defense, moving back on the penalty-kill unit and also during a 10-minute stretch in the second period when Kevin Shattenkirk left for repairs after taking a puck to the face.
Quinn opened with the same defense pairs as on Friday against Montreal, with Marc Staal teamed with Tony DeAngelo, Libor Hajek with Neal Pionk and Brady Skjei with Shattenkirk. But the coach flipped Skjei and Hajek early in the first period so he could match up better (in theory) against the Caps’ top two lines centered by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom.
Brendan Lemieux, who struggled, was dropped to the fourth line and got just 8:02 of ice (2:20 in the second and 1:52 in the third) after logging 15:24 and 12:28, respectively, in his first two games as a Ranger. Andersson, also dropped to the fourth line in a switch with Howden, played 9:16 (2:16 in the third).