When the output of a top player is so far from pale around the middle of a season, the advice for him is to forget about tracking numbers, because when everything is said and done, the statistics will not line up.
But the second period of a field hockey game on Wednesday night is coming, and Mika Zibanejad would beg to differ.
Because after eight weeks of wandering in the wilderness, Zibanejad exploded for three goals and three assists in Rangers’ seven-goal blast in the middle of 20 minutes after a crushing 9-0 win over the Flyers to tie the NHL record for points in a period established by Bryan Trottier v. Blueshirts on 23 December 1978.
For Zibanejad, it was a reverse performance, which returned to his extravagance of five goals against the capitals at MSG on March 5, which represented the zenith of a season of 41 goals, 75 points (in no more than 57 games , no less) which had him on the precipice of the stature above the title.
But then came this season. Then came the off-season training challenges in a pandemic. Then came COVID-19 which hit in early January and cost Zibanejad the first week of training camp.
Then came a season in which the 27-year-old Swede looked as if he had never been on skates before; a 10-minute sharp bank in New Jersey on March 4; and the first 27 games, in which he scored a total of three goals and eight assists. Even recently, as the center’s game has improved, there has been one goal (and six assists) in the last eight games.
Then Wednesday night.
“Obviously it wasn’t maybe what everyone expected, including me, obviously, but I just tried to work and trust myself,” said Zibanejad, who scored an abbreviated goal, a power goal and a five-on-five goals during the second period explosion. “In the last week or so, I’ve felt better in my game and got a lot of support and all the help I need from the boys on the ice.”
Zibanejad scored the Blueshirts’ sixth, seventh and eighth goals, all against relief goalkeeper Carter Hart. He scored a separatist shortie on a deke on his right hand at 8:27, climbed from the top in close to the power play at 14:29 and then completed the trick by leading to the net on the right to finish a gift and – I’m going with Chris Kreider at 6:37 p.m.
“I was just trying to get through this. It was not easy. That’s what it is, “Zibanejad said.” But it’s just one game. Overall, I’ve felt a little better in the past. Obviously, production is a big part of it. “
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