RALEIGH, N.C. — When Filip Chytil watched the Rangers from home, whether it was during his recovery trip home to Czechia or in New York, the 24-year-old center said he felt like something was missing.
So once he was cleared to play from his fourth suspected concussion, which had kept him out of the lineup since Nov. 2, all Chytil wanted to do was be with the Rangers.
He worked and worked and worked in practices.
It sounds like he advocated for himself to play, as well.
And then there he was, following goalie Igor Shesterkin out of the PNC Arena tunnel for Game 3 warm-ups in the Blueshirts’ second-round series against the Hurricanes before his team prevailed, 3-2 in overtime.
“It was pretty awesome,” Vincent Trocheck said after the win, which gave the Rangers a 3-0 stranglehold on the series. “It’s emotional. Obviously, it was tough for him earlier in the year. It was tough for all of us to see him go down like that. All we could really do was support him. Seeing him come back, came back to New York about a month ago and came on the ice, looked great, felt great.
“Looked like the old Fil, and he kind of spoke up and said that he felt he could play again. Obviously, if he’s able to play, he makes our team better so, we want him out there.”
Despite being medically cleared since mid-April, Chytil has had to work his way back to be as close to game shape as possible. He’s been a full participant in practice for nearly a month, but he has only rotated in on lines.
Chytil looked like himself playing on the left wing of the Rangers third line with Alex Wennberg and Kaapo Kakko.
He even made a slick between the legs pass to himself on a drive to the net when the Rangers were up 2-1 in the third before Carolina goalie Pytor Kochetkov made the stop.
“A lot,” Chytil said of how the support helped him. “I was there with my girlfriend the whole time, we both went home. Of course, It gives you so much energy. That was [an] amazing time. Of course, I would like to be here, but I was looking at the things I could control and I did it. I have amazing people around me at home. I have amazing people here. When you connect it together, the result is that I’m playing in the second round in the third game against Carolina. Nothing better.”
With Chytil back in after missing 78 straight games, in both the regular season and the playoffs, Matt Rempe was a healthy scratch for the first time since April 11.
Artemi Panarin’s overtime winner was his fourth game-winner of the playoffs, tying Frank Boucher (1928), Brian Leetch (1994) and Mark Messier (1994) for the most in a playoff year by a Ranger.