Mika's Magic

When the 2019-20 NHL regular season started, there wasn't much hope for the New York Rangers. A lot of people, myself included, had them on the outside looking in as a playoff team. The team even said so itself, that they were going to be in a rebuilding mode. But, here we sit on March 11th (the day of this writing), with the Rangers sitting just three points out of a playoff spot. A big reason for that? Mika Zibanejad

Don't get me wrong, Artemi Panarin has been a huge reason for the success of the Broadway Blueshirts this season. He leads the team in assists and points and could be a possible contender for the Hart Trophy as league MVP at seasons end. At the same time, Mika Zibanejad has quietly carved himself out an outstanding season. Last night in Dallas, he reached the 40 goal mark, becoming the 20th player in Rangers history to score 40 goals in a season, and the first one to do it since Rick Nash in 2015. He also became the fastest player to hit the 40 goal mark in a Rangers sweater, breaking Jean Ratelle's 48-year-old record with one game in hand,. Mika has a real shot to break Jaromir Jagr's team record of 53 goals, which was set back in 2006.

What he's doing this season is quietly and quickly becoming the stuff of legend on Broadway. That mark of 40 has Mika 5th in the NHL for the race for the Rocket (which is given to the NHL goal scoring leader), sitting eight behind Alex Ovechkin and David Pastranak. He's already tied his career high in 74 points, which he set last year. Oh and he's done all this despite missing the first 13 games of the year.

Getting to play with a guy like Artemi Panarin has been doing wonders for Mika, you can see it in his game. He's getting more scoring chances and looks and has been able to cash in on them. He's just as much of a factor, at least from an offensive point of view, as to why the Rangers are sitting where they are in the standings. He's playing above what fans expected out of him this season and you can't be playing much hotter than Mika is right now.

He can rewrite the Rangers goal record for a single season, and rewrite his career highs in points as well. When your hot, your hot. Mika's been hot most of the year and is a major factor for the boys from Broadway doing what there doing. If this is what they're getting out of him this year, its going to be more intriguing to see how he plays when the Rangers add more pieces down the road. If this is only a taste of things to come, then the Rangers are going to be a major threat for quite some time.