Mika Zibanejad is on a hot streak for the Rangers and here's why

CHICAGO – Mika Zibanejad is a cerebral player, according to his coach, Mike Sullivan. The 32-year-old Swede thinks the game on a high level.

Sometimes, though, he thinks too much.

Like last season, when he got off to a slow start, had some bad games and couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was a game where he actually had to leave the ice before taking a faceoff because he said he "just felt off." Ultimately, the season spiraled out of control for him, and the Rangers.

But when he’s not overthinking things, Zibanejad is the type of player who can get hot. And right now, he’s not overthinking things.

Entering Wednesday’s game against 12-11-6 Chicago, Zibanejad was on a seven-game point streak (four goals, five assists), and he’d had points in nine of 10 games, and 13 of 15. The Rangers were 8-5-2 in those 15 games, compared to the season’s first six games when Zibanejad had just one goal and no assists, and they were 2-3-1.

So what sparked the apparent turnaround?

“The puck goes in,’’ he said Tuesday after practice. “Really. I thought early on, the first part of the season… the chances were there. I thought my game was there. The pucks didn't go in for me. The pucks didn't go in for us as a team. And now we're getting some bounces.

“I think we've been good the last few games here, with ‘Bread’ [Artemi Panarin] and ‘Laf’ [Alexis Lafreniere] too,’’ he said. “I thought we've been able to build… some chemistry.’’

Chemistry with Panarin, the Rangers’ most skilled player and their leading scorer, has been elusive for Zibanejad since Panarin arrived as a free agent in the summer of 2019. Then-coach David Quinn – who’s now back as an assistant to Sullivan – put the two together on the top line to start the season, but they never seemed to mesh.

Over the years, every subsequent Ranger coach has tried, at times, to play Zibanejad, the team’s top center, with Panarin, the top winger. But it hasn’t ever worked.

It’s looking good now, though, albeit in a small sample size. Sullivan put the two together – with Lafreniere – after the Rangers’ hideous 4-1 home loss to Tampa Bay on Nov. 29, and the team responded with perhaps its best game of the season, a 3-2 overtime win over Dallas, which had the second-best record in the league.

The Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafreniere line didn’t score that game, but it was dominant. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers outshot Dallas, 7-3, out-attempted the Stars, 18-7, and had more scoring chances , 6-0, when that line was on the ice. In their four games together entering Wednesday, the trio had combined for five goals and nine assists and the team went 2-0-2.

“This is probably the best we've played together,’’ Zibanejad said. “Troch [Vincent Trocheck] has had such good success with those two, and… for me… it's like, overthinking. It’s coming in and being like, 'How do I keep these guys happy?' Like, ‘How do I not try to copy what Troch is doing, but what can I do to help them out, and help them be successful?'"

Zibanejad admitted he’s perhaps deferred to Panarin in the past, and that may be why it didn’t work. Now, though, he says “I think I’ve been playing a little bit more,’’ meaning he’s not just passing the puck to Panarin and waiting for him to do something. Sometimes he keeps the puck and tries to make a play himself, or he passes it and demands it back. Or he passes it to someone else.

And a large part of the reason for that, he said, is because Panarin has told him that’s what he needs to do.

It’s only been four games, but right now, Sullivan likes what he’s seen.

“One of the reasons why it has an opportunity to be successful for us is [that] Mika, I think, is a cerebral player, and he has really good offensive instincts,’’ Sullivan said. “So he can play a dynamic game off the rush, which I think plays to one of ‘Bread's’ strengths. And he can play a possession game, which I think is complementary to Bread's game.

“I also think he's a cerebral player defensively,’’ he continued. “He's committed to playing on both sides of the puck. And I think he adds that element to that line.’’

Blue notes

After LW Adam Edstrom missed the previous four games with a lower-body injury, the Rangers placed him on long-term injured reserve.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.