Media Bytes: Goalies Gone Wild, The Kids are More Than Alright, Tamper Time Again
Sykora is "a real one." Lafrenière is trending toward staying. And someone floated Brady Tkachuk again. Here's this week in Rangers media.
Welcome back to Media Bytes, a weekly column from Blueshirt Banter. Every Sunday, we’ll help you start the week right with a quick catch-up on the latest stories and developments around the New York Rangers and the broader NHL media landscape.
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Goalies Gone Wild
1. Though the New York Rangers’ season has long been lost, Igor Shesterkin’s thrilling fight with Jacob Markstrom continues to reverberate around the league—and especially among Rangers media. On this week’s Up in the Blueseats podcast, both Mollie Walker and Brian Boyle had nothing but rave reviews for the moment.
“I think that the whole room needed something like that, not only in a regular game this season, but especially at home,” Walker said, alluding to the morale boost it provided. “I think it meant a lot for them to put on a show like that for the fans, which they haven’t really been able to do much this season.”
Boyle agreed, using the moment to remind fans that while fighting doesn’t play the defining role it once did, it still belongs in the game.
“I think the NHL right now is the most entertaining it’s ever been. But the fighting still has to be there,” Boyle said. “It doesn’t have to be the centerpiece or the main course, but those organic melees between two teams that had high aspirations and it just hasn’t gone right for them… it was unbelievable.”
Walker agreed, adding that fighting remains an X-factor for the NHL and a pillar that “makes it different from every other sport.”
“It’s entertainment value—and that’s what the league is here to do: sell tickets and broadcast games. This is a huge part of getting eyeballs on the sport,” she continued. “Two goalies underneath all that padding getting so angry they skate the length of the ice just to get in on the action? That’s always going to sell tickets.”
Sometimes the most memorable moment in a lost season is simply two goalies deciding they’ve had enough.
