Mika Zibanejad and the New York Rangers crushed the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night. In fact, it was so bad that the verb ‘crush’ might not be enough to fully describe it. It was a pummeling, a 9-0 victory that won’t soon be forgotten. These are the kind of games that leave scars, and it was Zibanejad that will have left the majority of them in the minds of the Flyers. That’s because he scored a ‘natural’ hat trick in the second period as well as picking up three assists, all in the second period alone.
That was part of a seven-goal period for the Rangers, further extending a 2-0 lead they had jumped out to in the first. The six ‘points’ tied the all-time NHL record for most points in a single period. Pavel Buchnevich also got in on the fun, scoring twice and setting up a pair of goals as well. To make things even more interesting, the Rangers were without practically their entire coaching staff due to Covid-19 protocols, underlining even more how embarrassing a loss it will be for the Flyers.
