On the time of the break, Mika Zibanejad had simply began to show round his season.
His sturdy play continued with Sweden within the 4 Nations Face-Off — wherein he centered their prime line and scored a aim in two video games earlier than lacking his nation’s last match attributable to an sickness.
With the Rangers embarking on a 27-game quest to climb into the playoff standings when their season resumes Saturday in opposition to the Sabres, Zibanejad expressed a need to construct on his promising stretch from earlier than the NHL’s pause and his cameos with Sweden — and he’ll stay on the crux of the Blueshirts saving their season.
In his last 19 video games earlier than the break, Zibanejad collected 16 factors and benefitted from time on the wing alongside J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin.
“Obviously, got some energy coming from [4 Nations], and I think the way I’ve been playing before the tournament and then the way I played in the tournament — the two games I’ve played — was good,” Zibanejad stated after the Blueshirts practiced Friday in Tarrytown.
The expertise representing Sweden — his first time on the best-on-best worldwide stage — doesn’t evaluate “to anything,” he stated.
The 4 Nations event energized Zibanejad and added to his pleasure about doubtlessly skating for Sweden within the Winter Olympics subsequent 12 months.
He even added a aim throughout their second recreation, stepping right into a unfastened puck within the slot after a Finland turnover.
The final six weeks have been dotted with strides for Zibanejad, however the first three months of the 31-year-old’s marketing campaign have been stuffed with struggles.
Zibanejad opened 2025 with a six-game level streak, although, and he added two targets and eight factors throughout the Rangers’ final 5 video games earlier than the break.
He frolicked each on the wing and at heart, and the Panarin-Miller-Zibanejad trio will function an possibility for head coach Peter Laviolette to think about conserving intact throughout the ultimate stage of the common season.
Zibanejad’s means to play each positions provides the Rangers choices, too, Laviolette stated.
“You’d certainly like to see him pick up where he left off,” Laviolette stated Friday. “He played well in the tournament, and he was certainly playing well for us.”
After the Rangers despatched defenseman Zac Jones to AHL Hartford on Thursday on a conditioning task and recalled defenseman Matthew Robertson, Laviolette stated that “it’s a good thing” for Jones to play video games and log constant ice time — which he hasn’t been in a position to do with the Rangers this season.
“He wanted to go as well,” Laviolette stated, “and I think that that’s a good thing he’s going to get an opportunity to go down and play some games. … At some point, you just want to play and so it’s a good opportunity for him to go down and get some minutes.”
Jones, the Blueshirts’ third-round choose in 2019, informed The Publish’s Larry Brooks in January that getting scratched over and over “f–king sucks” and that he feels as if he’s “rotting away a little bit.”
He didn’t play in 19 consecutive video games between Dec. 23 and Feb. 5.
However for the following two weeks, he’ll get an opportunity to rediscover a rhythm with the Wolf Pack.
The Rangers have collected at the least some extent in six of their final seven highway video games.
