There were just over two minutes to go at the Garden on Sunday, the Rangers were leading the Islanders, 4-2, and Filip Chytil was on the hunt for the puck that happened to be on the stick of defenseman Scott Mayfield.
Mayfield is the Islander who sent Chytil to the locker room for a spell with a knee-on-knee hit in the Sept. 24 exhibition game and then inflicted serious damage to Ryan Lindgren’s jaw when No. 55 came to his teammate’s defense.
Sunday, as Chytil chased after the puck, he unleashed a two-hander that caught Mayfield’s right wrist. It was as vicious a play as I’d ever seen from Chytil and it sparked barking between the players before No. 72 went to the box.
So I asked Chytil after the game if the slash had been payback. He said no, he insisted it was not that at all.
“I was after the puck. I didn’t see it was him, it was a big slash and of course I’m not happy for that because our guys had to kill a penalty in the last two minutes,” Chytil said after his team did kill that penalty and emerged with a 5-2 victory. “That was not the best thing I did.”
If you’ll pardon me, I’ll give priority to my interpretation of what I saw on the ice over what I was told in the room 15 minutes after the fact.
If you’ll pardon me, that was one of the very best things Chytil did.
You know how I feel about the Rangers and retribution.
There is no time like the present for Chytil, who has no time to waste. He is playing at a different level, playing at a different pace than his teammates. He is ferocious with and without the puck. Other than Igor Shesterkin, he has been the Rangers’ best player by leaps and bounds.
“It’s my mindset, and I believe it’s the mindset of the other guys as well, to come to the rink every day and work hard to be the best version of myself,” Chytil told me a week ago. “Don’t be too satisfied with what you are accomplishing because it can go away.”
Watching Chytil practice as he chews up the ice with a mix of joy and purpose elicits flashbacks from No. 72’s first training camp in 2017 when he burst onto the scene as a barely 18-year-old, dominated and demanded a spot on the opening night roster. It was as good a camp as I’d seen from a kid since maybe Marc Savard in the late 90s. Marc Staal had a pretty good one, too, as an 18-year-old.
But the 21st selection of the draft — born just 10 days before the cutoff date and the youngest player chosen in the first round — was a sight to behold. He was strong, he was fast, and in the words of his very first NHL linemate, Mats Zuccarello, “Can make plays no one else can do.”
We all know about the stops and starts through Chytil’s eight — eight! — seasons in the organization. Only Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad precede him. He speaks like a self-assured leader. He has a sense of where he is.
And he’s playing like an unbridled colt, again, galloping across the ice, flashing back to the days when all things seemed possible. Flashing ahead to the present in which Chytil has earned more and more responsibility and has earned more ice time from head coach Peter Laviolette.
Good news, bad news: Chytil is outplaying Zibanejad.
Good news, bad news: Chytil is outplaying Vincent Trocheck.
Good news: Chytil is outplaying pretty much every center in the NHL.
He has scored four goals and added four assists while he’s been on the ice for 10 goals scored and one against in 137:55 at five-on-five with an xGF percentage of 64.75 that is fifth in the NHL.
And before Laviolette shook up the combinations for Sunday, Chytil’s unit with Kaapo Kakko on the right and Will Cuylle on the left had been on for nine goals for and none against with the league’s leading expected goals ratio among lines with at least 100 minutes of ice time.
Ice time is not Chytil’s concern.
“I’m just done thinking about that. It’s always up to the coach,” said Chytil, whose team next faces the Sabres at the Garden on Thursday. “I’m only focusing on the shift right ahead of me.
“I’m coming on the ice with a clear head because I know the player I am and what I can do out there. Sometimes we have more shifts, sometimes we have less, but that’s not up to me. It’s up to me to play my game, create, score goals and do the things I can accomplish.”
The Rangers are 8-2-1 but haven’t really impressed anybody. But Chytil sure has. He might have even made an impression on Scott Mayfield.
