The Rangers And Canadiens Were Going At It On Saturday
Some good old-fashioned Original 6 matchups usually deliver the goods in the NHL, but there was some serious animosity between the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
I don't know if the Rangers were still a bit riled up after losing to the Philadelphia Flyers on Black Friday — extending their losing streak to five games in the process — but whatever the case, there was some serious nastiness on display.
It didn't take long for this to manifest itself because, within two minutes of the opening faceoff, we got a heavy-weight tilt for the ages at center ice between Rangers captain Jacob Trouba and Habs forward Josh Anderson.
Of all people, ex-NHLer PK Subban got some fantastic video of this one, and you've got to watch to the end just to see Rangers legend and man with the best hair in hockey Henrik Lundqvist's reaction.
I'd give that one to Anderson almost without question, but what a fight. The part where they broke apart and then re-engaged. Just awesome.
Of course, usually, when that kind of thing happens so early in a game, it's a harbinger of more to come.
And it was.
In the second period, there was another flare-up of animosity that probably had Lundqvist fired up and that was when Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick didn't like how the Canadiens players wound up practically on top of him after a whistle and took matters into his own hands.
Believe it or not, that scuffle didn't result in any fight majors. Just a whole bunch of roughing minors.
This game was a close one which probably added little fuel to the fire. The game was 3-3 late in the third and looked like this one was headed to OT… but Kaapo Kakko had something to say about that.
That's a big win for the Rangers to snap that losing streak, and they will now be looking to claw their way back into the race at the top of the Metropolitan Division, which right now is between the New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, and Carolina Hurricanes.