Have you ever heard of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" It's about four turtles from New York who take on the Foot Clan and Master Shredder, taking down numerous enemies in the process. That includes Krang, Baxter Stockman, and Slash (the forgotten turtle). The gang takes their adventures through various parts of New York City, including Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers.
So what would a Vegas Golden Knights version be? Would Mark Stone be Leonardo, Jack Eichel be Raphael, Reilly Smith be Donatello, and Jonathan Marchessault be Michelangelo? The fancast would be fun to speculate, especially with the endless list of Golden Knights to work with.
Fancasting aside, they're playing the Rangers on Sunday in New York. That means a potential matchup against the solid Igor Shesterkin, who stymied the Golden Knights in the last contest. The Russian netminder stopped 29 of 30 shots on January 11, getting a big win at T-Mobile Arena.
This time, Sunday's game will be a contest in the Big Apple. But instead of being at 3:00 AM, it's at 3:00 PM PST at the Garden. But let's look at the series from an all-time perspective and see who has the upper hand. Does Vegas have New York's number or are the Rangers dining on "Golden Knights Soup?"
The Vegas Golden Knights have an all-time record of 8-5-0 against the New York Rangers
One would expect an "Original Six" team to be more competitive against its expansion counterpart. Given that team hasn't been in the league for long, the more tenured club should have a solid strategy in place to take down the newbie. However, that's not the case between the Vegas Golden Knights and New York Rangers.
The Golden Knights have an all-time record of 8-5-0 against the Rangers. There have been two occasions where the largest margin of victory has been four goals for the expansion team. The first time happened on January 6, 2022, at T-Mobile Arena, in a 5-1 victory over New York. Jonathan Marchessault had two goals while Mark Stone, Mattias Janmark, and Brett Howden chipped in one goal each.
The second time also happened at T-Mobile Arena in January, this time happening on January 18, 2024. The Golden Knights thrashed Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers, 5-1. This time, Ivan Barbashev had two goals while Marchessault, Howden, and Keegan Kolesar chipped in a goal each.
The worst defeat came on December 8, 2019, by way of a 5-0 shutout. Again, this came at T-Mobile Arena (you're probably getting the subtle theme here), where New York had two power play goals in the contest. Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Jesper Fast, Jacob Trouba, and Mika Zibanejd all scored for the Rangers.
The Vegas Golden Knights hope to kick some shell on Sunday against a New York Rangers team that just added J.T. Miller. They have Brandon Saad to counter, which helps the lower lines for the road team. If Saad leads the Golden Knights to victory, you can bet everyone in Las Vegas will be saying, "Cowabunga!"