For there was the hug at center ice with the Blueshirts enveloping Barclay Goodrow, who became a particular hero of the night by beating Sergei Bobrovsky from 30 feet at 14:01 of overtime to give his team a 2-1 Game 2 victory over the Panthers that squared the conference final at one-apiece before the next two in Florida.
The team that majors in hugs had two of them at the Garden on Friday and they might have been two of the most meaningful hugs — I mean huddles, no I mean hugs — of the season.
For there was the hug at center ice with the Blueshirts enveloping Barclay Goodrow, who became a particular hero of the night by beating Sergei Bobrovsky from 30 feet at 14:01 of overtime to give his team a 2-1 Game 2 victory over the Panthers that squared the conference final at one-apiece before the next two in Florida.
Then, there was the belated hug behind Igor Shesterkin’s net, about 100 feet from the first celebration. The goaltender, you see, did not allow himself to party until he saw an official signal a good goal after checking with the Toronto situation room.
“I was so happy, but I wait until the ref show that [it counts],” Shesterkin said, making the “good goal” motion with his right hand. “Sometimes you can lose a lot of emotion after [a goal is disallowed] so I wanted to wait.”
The Rangers were so much better in this one after Wednesday’s nothingburger of a 3-0 Game 1 defeat and not all the credit should go to Matt Rempe, who recorded nine hits in 10:06 of ice time that included five shifts in the third period and one in overtime, should it?
Well, no.
