The Rangers hit the mark with their on-ice ceremony honoring Mika Zibanejad ahead of his 1,000th NHL game Monday night.
Once the players hit the Madison Square Garden ice, however, the Blueshirts struggled to hit the mark on anything.
The result was a 2-1 loss to the Senators, the team that traded Zibanejad to New York July 18, 2016.
After a moving tribute video narrated by Zibanejad’s wife, Irma, fellow members of the leadership group presented the longest-tenured Ranger and his family with gifts from the organization.
Gifts included a trip to Greece for the whole family, a mini silver stick for his daughter, Ella, and a custom-engraved silver hockey stick for Zibanejad to commemorate the 1,000-game milestone.
The heartwarming ceremony bled into a stiff opening 20 minutes for the Rangers.
The Senators got a power-play goal from Shane Pinto and hit two posts before the home team even put one puck on net.
It was Juuso Parssinen, playing his first game since March 12 in Winnipeg, finally recorded the Rangers’ first shot on goal with 6:11 left in the first period.
The Rangers didn’t get another until they earned a power play later in the frame.
Parssinen then flipped the puck over the glass — the first of two such bench minors committed by the Rangers — ensuring his team finished the first short-handed.
The Rangers could only funnel two more pucks at Ottawa goalie James Reimer over the next 20 minutes, finishing with a mere nine on the night.
Four shots through two periods were the fewest for the Rangers since 1965-66, when the NHL started tracking shots per period.
While Conor Sheary got the Rangers on the board just over seven minutes into the final frame, the equalizer never came.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
