Somebody other than Derek Stepan scored a shorthanded goal
Kevin Hayes! It was Kevin Hayes.
Throughout his 446 NHL games, Derek Stepan has scored 112 goals. Seven of them have been shorthanded. Five of those seven - including his shorty in the win over the Boston Bruins - were the five most recent shorthanded goals the New York Rangers, as an entire team, scored, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
He scored their final shorthanded goal in 2014-15 and all three of the team's SHGs last season. Stepan was the first player to register five consecutive shorthanded goals scored by the Rangers since Theo Fleury scored five in a row in October/November 2000, all within a three-week span.
Fleury was just on a whole other level, wasn’t he?
But at long last, someone other than Stepan scored a shorty. That someone was Kevin Hayes, as he netted the second shorthanded goal of his career in what turned out to be the game winner.
Hayes actually got pretty much no penalty kill time last season, while Stepan was third in ice time for forwards. The season is young yet, but Hayes has already jumped up from 1:55 to 16:26 in shorthanded minutes, so that’s definitely encouraging.
And yup - Stepan is still one of the top forwards on the kill. How could he not be? Shortys for daaaays.
