Mika Zibanejad ready for challenge of matchup with Jordan Staal in Rangers-Hurricanes Game 5
Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers celebrates his second period goal against the Carolina Hurricanes during Game Four of the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 in New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
RALEIGH, N.C. – Mika Zibanejad knew on Wednesday what was waiting for him Thursday night in Game 5 of the Rangers’ second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
A whole lot of close contact with Carolina center Jordan Staal.
“We are pretty sure who we're going to see tomorrow,’’ Zibanejad said Wednesday, before the Rangers left New York to head back to Carolina. “I don't think that changes. It’s been (the same matchup) in the regular season and the first two games there. So we're just going to do a job.’’
In the first two games of the series, played in Carolina, Zibanejad’s line, with wingers Chris Kreider and Frank Vatrano, found itself matched up just about every shift against Staal’s line, with wingers Nino Niederreiter and ex-Ranger Jesper Fast. In hockey, the home team gets the last line change on play stoppages, and Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour wanted Staal against Zibanejad.
And that seemed to work well for Carolina. Zibanejad’s line produced no goals and no assists in the first two games (the Rangers, as a team, scored only one goal in the first two games), and Carolina won both games.
In the two games at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers had the last line change, coach Gerard Gallant was able to do a better job of keeping Brind’Amour from matching Staal against Zibanejad, and that seemed to work well, as Zibanejad had two goals and Kreider and Vatrano one each in the two games in New York, and the Rangers won both, tying the series at 2-2.
But as the series shifted back to Carolina, it was Brind’Amour’s turn again to get the last line change, and that meant Zibanejad and Co. were potentially in store for a long night Thursday.
Zibanejad wasn’t looking at it that way.
“It's fun challenge,’’ he said of going up against Staal, et al. “They've done a good job for them all year. I think they've been pretty good the last couple of years for them, and I think you just (try) not worry about that too much.
“I think it comes down to what you do, and what you can control,’’ he continued. “You can't control how they play… I don't think it matters who is on the ice against you. I think that's just the mindset of taking care of business and taking care of the things that you can control.’’
Part of the reason the matchup has been so difficult for the Rangers is that the 6-4, 220-pound Staal, the Hurricanes captain, has dominated Zibanejad on faceoffs in the series.
Staal is one of the best faceoff men in the league – he won 57.3 percent of his faceoffs in the regular season – and he’s been great in the circle in the playoffs, winning at a 62.7 percent clip going into Thursday.
He’s done much of that damage in this series against Zibanejad, who won 52.3 percent of his faceoffs in the regular season, but was at 48.1 percent in the playoffs entering Thursday. In this series, Zibanejad had won 45.8 percent of his faceoffs overall (33-of-72) over the first four games, but only 36.6 percent (15-of-41) against Staal. That meant, against the Staal line, Zibanejad’s line was starting most shifts without the puck.
There are measures a coach can take to try and avoid particular line matchups if he really wants. He could go to the extreme of breaking up the line – putting Kreider and Zibanejad on different lines – or he could try and play games by putting another line on the ice for a faceoff and then as soon as play starts after the faceoff, trying to sub them off on the fly, and get Zibanejad, Kreider and Vatrano onto the ice that way.
Gallant has decided those kinds of measures are more trouble than they are worth, and so his attitude is that Zibanejad, Kreider and Vatrano are simply going to have to battle their way through the checking of Staal, Niederreiter and Fast.
“Obviously that's the matchup they want,’’ Gallant said after the Rangers’ optional morning skate Thursday. “So when they get the chance to do it, they'll do it. And if I can get away from it a little bit, I'll get away from it.
“But I'm not going to sit Mika on the bench because of the Staal line.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
