So , how about we start a list of the Rangers’ elite skill guys over the last decade?
“Rick and Gabby, obviously,” Marc Staal said, referring to Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik. “Nikolay Zherdev was really talented, no question about that.
“And if you want to go way back, Michael Nylander, with his little plays out of the corner.”
What say you, Chris Kreider?
“We’ve got Rick Nash on our team,” No. 20 said after the Rangers extended their winning streak to five games with Wednesday’s 4-2 Garden victory over the Bruins. “And since I’ve been here I’ve been lucky enough to play with guys with tremendous skill like Marty St. Louis and Brad Richards.
“Oh, and Gabby. My God.”
OK, then, enough of memory lane.
What then of Pavel Buchnevich, the 22-year-old sophomore winger who opened the scoring with a spectacular goal at 9:53 of the first period after a change-of-pace move on his backhand beat Zdeno Chara to the net from the right side before he shifted to the forehand to roof it over Tuukka Rask?
“Oh, for sure,” said Staal.
“Incredibly skilled,” said Kreider.
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“So impressive,” said Henrik Lundqvist. “I could see his skill last year, but he’s more confident now. He’s more determined to make things happen.”
The Rangers don’t have a Sidney Crosby or an Evgeni Malkin or a Connor McDavid or an Auston Matthews. Don’t have a Nikita Kucherov or a Patrik Laine. They don’t have a game-breaking talent. Or maybe they will in Buchnevich. Maybe they do.
“He’s a very impressive person,” said Lundqvist, who played perhaps his finest game as the Bruins constantly drove to the front and created havoc around the net through the third period as they attempted to rally from 3-1 down. “I spent some time with him in Florida talking with him the other night and I could see how much more confident he’s become, not only in hockey but in life.
“Moving here from Russia at his age is not easy. It isn’t just the language, it is an entirely different culture and way of life here. He’s very intelligent and picks up on things very quickly. It’s fun to be around him. It’s fun to watch him play.
“He’s been huge for us.”
Buchnevich, who has recorded six goals in his last seven games and seven overall, is no onqe-trick pony. He can snipe from the circles. He can dart in from the boards. He can skate. He is learning how to use his 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame to his advantage in shielding the puck, in battles and on his defensive assignments.
He always seems to be around the net and on the puck. Last season’s issues with his back and core appear to be a thing of the past following a strenuous offseason program.
“He’s very Russian-like with lateral plays, mobility, his wide pulls and his edge work,” said Kreider. “He’s a lot of fun to play with.”
The Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Buchnevich unit was intact for the first six games of the season. Despite their obvious chemistry, the trio had accounted for just one even-strength goal scored by Zibanejad as the Rangers took a 1-5 pratfall out of the gate. Coach Alain Vigneault shuffled things. Buchnevich spent the next six games on the fourth line — Guess what? It didn’t kill him — before the original first line was reconstructed five games ago.
“That’s part of being a young guy in the NHL,” Kreider said. “From my own experience, you’re a little disappointed if you’re not on a top-three line, but that’s part of it. There’d be an issue if you weren’t frustrated, right?
“Pav wants to play. We all do. We all want to contribute.”
The Rangers had their way through the first 20 minutes against a Boston team that played without the injured Brad Marchand, David Krejci, David Backes, Andrew McQuaid and Ryan Spooner. The final 40 was a dog fight.
“We knew they’d be hungry as heck and tough to play against,” Kreider said. “We knew we were going to need to tough it out.”
And they did, winning what became a meat-and-potatoes game on a night that the flash and dash of Buchnevich gave the team an early leg up.
“He’s pretty happy-go-lucky,” Staal said. “At the same time, though, you can see that he wants to be called on. He wants to be on that first line. He wants to be on the power play.
“You can see that he thrives on that. He wants to make a difference.”