Keith Kinkaid won 4-0 on Saturday, in which No. 71 recorded his eighth defeat in the NHL and the first since his 3-0 win against the Devils in Philadelphia on November 15. , 2018.
“It’s definitely very rewarding,” said the 31-year-old goalkeeper who signed a two-year free agent contract with Rangers after spending most of the past season at AHL as a member of the Montreal organization after five seasons in New Jersey . “My season ended in March last year and I trained a lot during the summer.
“I have been working with Benoit Allaire here, there is a lot of work to be done, but I knew that last year was a fluke and a somewhat unfortunate situation, so there is a good climate here. Everyone in this organization trusts me and I just want to prove to them that I can still play. I’m really excited for that. “
Kinkaid was promoted from the taxi squad on March 5 after an injury to Igor Shesterkin’s groin the night before. Alexandar Georgiev’s fights opened the door for Kinkaid, who has been unshakable in two games and two relief matches in which he compiled 1.53 goals against the average and 0.935 percentage of saves in 195: 55.
“He made the defenses he had to make, and he certainly made them on time,” said David Quinn of the performance of 18 defenses in which Kinkaid was rarely tested. “You never win a game 4-0 and you don’t let the goalkeeper contribute. He contributed.
“He is an NHL goalkeeper. We know that. You know you’re going to need depth this year – you need depth every year – and although it has been a little difficult for him for the past year and a half, we thought we had hired a guy who could play in the National Hockey League and help us, and he helped. “
The Blueshirts and Bruins hit 0 out of 5 in 9:16 in power play, the Rangers getting eight shots with the man’s advantage, B hitting five. While the first unit was time consuming, Artemi Panarin performed 7:04 and Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad each for more than 6:30 and Ryan Strome just 10 seconds below that, Filip Chytil was moved from the second unit.
Chytil managed just 21 seconds with the lead of the man while Quinn went with a second unit from Pavel Buchnevich, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere in the front with Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller in the back.
Brett Howden was a healthy scratch for the first time in his three-year career. The 22-year-old, who has played 113 consecutive games since returning from an injury at MCL on March 3, 2019, has two points and no goals in 25 games this season.
Julien Gauthier, whose game was up before Thursday’s game in Boston swallowed him, as well as almost all of his teammates, was also scratched at the front.
Jack Johnson was scratched in defense, while Anthony Bitetto was assigned to the taxi squad.
The Blueshirts are at home for a pair against the Flyers on Monday and Wednesday, before heading to DC for a consecutive game against the Caps on Friday and Saturday.