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Neither can live while the other survives. Let's dive into a weekly recap at the World's Most Famous Arena.
It's the Law of the Garden — when one team is having a good run, the other must be miserable. In January, the Knicks dominated and the Rangers floundered. In February, the Rangers are undefeated and the Knicks are 2-5 with more injuries than Uncle Jack after a ski trip.
New York Rangers
The Games
Friday, February 9th | Win 4-3 (OT) at Blackhawks
Shesterkin's first start in 13 days looked a bit rocky at the beginning. The Blackhawks scored on a screen from the top of the left circle just 2:30 into the game, which had the always-reasonable Rangers fans on Twitter ready to trade Igor for a second-round pick. But New York responded quickly, building a 3-1 lead by the midway point. Everything seemed wrapped up heading into the third period against the crappy Blackhawks, but the Rangers played like they were already asleep on the plane. After a truly awful 20 minutes, the Blackhawks tied the game late and forced overtime. Thankfully, Zibanejad picked a good time to snap a 7-game goalless streak and got the game-winner. It was a win, but it didn't really feel like one.
Monday, February 12th | Win 2-0 vs. Flames
A totally different story than the Chicago game. The Rangers were engaged and sharp from the jump. They had excellent chances early, but got robbed by Markstrom a few times. Will Cuylle cashed in on a rebound after crashing the net hard in the second period. That's all the team needed as Shesterkin shut the door from there, making 30 saves in his first shutout of the season. A vintage Igor performance, and one that certainly silenced some of his recent critics. Jimmy Vesey added the empty netter to seal it. Some of the Flames best chances came shorthanded late in the third. The Rangers power play continued to look disjointed, and Adam Fox basically passed the puck directly to the Flames penalty killers twice. Tense moments in an otherwise great effort.
Thursday, February 15th | Win 7-4 vs. Canadiens
Another weird one. The Rangers started out super slow, trailing 1-0 heading to the locker room after the first. Without Jonathan Quick, they definitely could have been down by a couple more. The bad vibes continued as Blake Wheeler suffered a nasty leg injury and had to be helped off the ice. My guess is we won't be seeing him again this season. But maybe that sparked the Rangers because they exploded with four-straight goals in four minutes early in the second period. After jumping out to a 3-goal lead, they decided to stop playing defense and allowed the Canadiens to hang around a bit longer than they had any business doing. Zibanejad and Kreider played their best game of the season (without their right winger Wheeler). Kreider put up a hat trick.
The News
With Blake Wheeler going down with what looks like a serious leg injury, the trade deadline just got even more interesting. It seemed like the Rangers' top target would be a 3C to replace Chytil. But now the more urgent need is going to be a 1RW to play with Zibanejad and Kreider. Wheeler's absence will certainly hurt the Rangers' depth, but it didn't seem like he was the best fit on that top line anyway. And in fact, they looked the best they have looked in weeks when Vesey moved up to fill that spot for the remainder of the Canadiens game. It will be interesting to see what the team does at the deadline. They are clearly doing some cap maneuvering as they waived Tyler Pitlick earlier in the week and recalled Adam Edstrom to take his roster spot.
The Good Signs
It's very hard to complain when the team has won 6 in a row. A couple of Zibanejad goals were nice to see, as he really needs to get out of whatever funk he has been in if they are going to stand a chance in the playoffs. The same goes for Shesterkin, who has still had limited work since the All-Star break, but posted a very convincing 30-save shutout this week. Hopefully he builds on it with some big divisional games coming up.
The Red Flags
The power play is utter trash now. I'm not sure how they went from the most lethal man advantage unit in the league to barely being able to enter the zone, but I hate it. They are also now down 2 of their top 9 forwards with Wheeler's injury on Thursday night. They still are loaded with talent, so these injuries thankfully aren't season-killers. But they are now significantly less deep which makes the trade deadline even more crucial for GM Chris Drury.
The Play of the Week
Chris Kreider's hat trick against the Canadiens.
New York Knicks
The Games
Saturday, February 10th | Loss 125-111 vs. Pacers
In a tale of unrequited love, the Knicks longed for a win but were left at the altar by the Indiana Pacers in a 125-111 defeat. Despite Brunson's heroic 39-point return, the Knicks' efforts were thwarted by the Pacers' sharpshooting from beyond the arc. New York continued to miss its key players like Robert Hur missed the whole point. Ultimately, they had no rhythm in a dance where the Pacers were grinding with their girl to early 2000's hip-hop all night long. Alec Burks' 22 points in his return to the Garden couldn't mend the broken heart of a team missing the harmony of its full lineup. The game slipped away like a love note lost in the wind, leaving the Knicks and their fans to pine for what could have been in a night where Cupid shit his diaper again.
Monday, February 12th | Loss 105-103 at Rockets
In a finale more ghastly than a date night to the theater with Lauren Boebert, the Knicks were left nursing sore groins after a controversial 105-103 kick in the plums by the Rockets. After Brunson tied the game at 103 on a clutch jumper with 8 seconds to play, he was called for a foul during Aaron Holiday's desperate buzzer beater. Replays showed that Brunson never touched Holiday (sounds kind of like my Valentine's Day), but that didn't matter to the refs. Of course, he knocked down the first two shots and intentionally missed the third to try to run out the clock. One of the refs initially gave the Knicks a super-late timeout with like 0.1 seconds left, but then they decided the game was over instead. This was a complete bungling and the third straight Knicks loss.
Wednesday, February 14th | Loss 118-100 at Magic
In a Valentine's debacle that left the Knicks standing alone with wilted roses and a half-empty bottle of spermicidal lube, the team fell 118-100 to the Magic, marking their fourth consecutive loss. With only nine players fit for the dance, New York seemed more like a group of middle school wallflowers than a basketball team. Paolo Banchero french kissed their girlfriend and put up 36 points, including six 3-pointers, getting the kind of action the Knicks could only dream of. Coach Thibodeau, making a face like someone who's date ate too much garlic bread, lamented poor all-around team defense. Heading into the All-Star break, the Knicks, battered and bruised like Lauren Boebert's date's pipe, are hoping for a reset.
The News
The biggest news of the week was the drama surrounding the terrible ending of the Rockets game. The Knicks clearly got hosed by an awful call, which the referee admitted he got wrong. It won't do any good, but the Knicks officially filed a protest with the league, asserting that they shouldn't have lost. They're right, but it won't matter. In other news, Bogdanović made his Knicks debut and Burks had a good showing in his first game back as a Knick. Hopefully this is a sign of a deeper, more balanced team once all of the regulars are back in action.
The Good Signs
Thank god it's the All-Star break and the Knicks have 8 days off.
The Red Flags
Losing four straight would probably fit the bill as a red flag. But it's hard to be too angry considering how many injuries have piled up. We'll resist the temptation to read too much into anything the team did this week, and will reserve judgement until after the first few contests after All-Start Weekend. Too bad Brunson has to go to the game, he's been getting his ass kicked lately and it would probably be better if he sat on the beach in Punta Cana for a week and recovered.
The Play of the Week
Usually this is reserved for the positive stuff, but hard to find that in a winless week. Here's the insane ending to the Rockets game.
Garden Memory
I will put a fun moment that I saw in person at MSG here every week. This was a hilarious one that I was in the building for. Artem Anisimov scored a pretty sweet power play goal and celebrated by using his stick as a rifle and pretending to shoot the Lightning goalie. All hell broke loose and it was captured by HBO's 24/7 cameras.
Sphere Watch
It was a wild week at the Sphere, following the Chiefs' Super Bowl LVIII victory in Las Vegas on Sunday. During a drunken postgame rampage, the team and their inner-circle hopped the circular fence and broke in. Jason Kelce molly whopped a protesting Bono, while Rashee Rice handcuffed The Edge to his half stack. Taylor Swift then put on a private performance for Chiefs Nation, who were blown away by her intimate rendition of "ME!". Patrick Mahomes shocked his teammates with a perfect Brandon Urie impression. After showing up fashionably late, watching Taylor and Travis make out on the 580,000-foot LED screen, gagging a little, and doing a few Jägerbombs, Joe Biden took the whole gang out for steak and eggs at the Peppermill.