Just over two minutes remained in regulation Saturday night in Buffalo, the score was 2-2, and Mika Zibanejad’s rocket from the right boards handcuffed netminder Linus Ullmark, who left a juicy rebound to his right.
Vitali Kravtsov, lurking, lunged and whacked the puck toward the seemingly open left side of the net with a baseball-type hack as he hit the ice … only to be denied by Ullmark, who sprawled and made the save with his right arm.
The sequence took but a moment, but it will always serve as the indelible memory from the irrepressible Kravtsov’s NHL debut.
“I just tried to put the puck on the net,” the 21-year-old Russian said on Monday’s Zoom call that he conducted in English, without the use of an interpreter. “I tried to do my job. I saw the puck. Nothing crazy.”
Kravtsov, of course, was the ninth-overall pick of the 2018 draft, notably selected ahead of defenseman Noah Dobson and wingers Oliver Wahlstrom and Joel Farabee. He went through a gestation period in which he worked on improving his game away from the puck and made it to the NHL after posting 16 goals and 24 points for KHL Traktor this season.
Vitali Kravtsov during his Rangers debut on April 3, 2021. NHLI via Getty Images“The first day was hard. I was nervous,” said Kravtsov, who got 10:45 of ice playing on a line with Filip Chytil in the middle and Alexis Lafreniere on the right. “But after the second period, I felt much better.
“It’s much faster hockey. I need to be faster. The NHL is the best league. Everybody is so good and so skilled. I know the first game, it’s always hard.”
Igor Shesterkin is scheduled to get the assignment in nets for Tuesday night’s Garden match against the Penguins, marking this as the first time in the goaltender’s brief NHL career that he would start four straight games.
In his last seven starts beginning March 2 (two before and five after he went down with his groin strain), Shesterkin has gone 5-1-1 with a .937 save pct. and 1.99 GAA.
Blueshirts have won one of six (1-3-2) against the Penguins, who are 12-3-1 in their last 16 and within four points of division-leading Washington. The Rangers have a .876 save percentage against Pittsburgh, with Alexandar Georgiev at .826, Keith Kinkaid at .886 and Shesterkin at .918.
After wrapping up the season series with the Penguins on Thursday at MSG, the Rangers have two against the Islanders, four straight against the Devils and another one against the Islanders. The Blueshirts are not scheduled to leave the New York area until their final two games of the year in Boston, on May 6 and 8.
