Matt Gilroy appears to be well on his way to making the National Hockey League’s New York Rangers’ opening day roster after leading the Blueshirts in ice time in his return to Boston on Saturday and surviving the team’s first round of cuts after the game.
Three days after netting a highlight-reel goal against the New Jersey Devils, the 2009 Hobey Baker Award winner looked just as comfortable in the Rangers’ 5-2 preseason win over the Boston Bruins as he did the last time he skated on the TD Garden ice as a member of the Boston University men’s hockey team.
Gilroy, who is competing with fellow rookies Michael Del Zotto and Bobby Sanguinetti for New York’s final two defense spots, performed solidly at both ends of the ice in his third NHL game, disrupting several odd-man rushes on defense and consistently jumping up on offense.
Gilroy has been so impressive that even before two of his competitors were assigned to Hartford of the American Hockey League, The Daily News said, ‘one of [the roster spots] appears to be his to lose.’
The 25-year-old rookie has also captured the attention of his coach, John Tortorella. He called Gilroy ‘one of the better-fit athletes we have’ after the three-time All-American finished first in the team’s three-mile run two weekends ago. Newsday notes that in practice last Monday, Tortorella called for a drill involving ‘you, you and Matt.’
‘Other than his skill and skating, we all know that he has that, I like his mindset,’ Tortorella said after Saturday’s game. ‘He’s constantly up the ice. Did he make some mistakes? Yeah, he made some mistakes tonight, but it seems like he can get back and cover himself up.
‘That’s the type of guys [sic] we want to start developing. We want to allow him to go. We’ll harness him, we’ll teach him the game along the way here, but it’s nice to have that mindset of being aggressive and trying to make something happen.’
That aggressiveness has been evident in each of Gilroy’s last two games. On Wednesday night, he took a pass near center ice, blew by a Devil defender and beat goalie Yann Danis with a beautiful backhander to the top corner for his first professional point.
On Saturday night, Gilroy showed patience with the puck and a willingness to move deep into the offensive zone to create scoring chances. The first of these chances came 8:30 into the game when he faked out Boston’s Shawn Thornton at the right point, brought the puck down low and tried to jam a wraparound under Tim Thomas’ right pad.
With just under six minutes to go in the second, he again sidestepped a Boston forward at the blue line, brought the puck down the right wall and took it below the goal line.
Instead of trying a wraparound this time, Gilroy stopped on a dime behind the net and backhanded a centering pass to forward Ales Kotalik, who fired a shot that was deflected into the back of the net by Enver Lisin. Although Gilroy wasn’t credited with an assist, the Rangers’ fourth goal would’ve never happened without him.
‘Coach Tortorella and [Mike] Sullivan want me to jump in and make offense,’ Gilroy said. ‘I think it plays to my strengths. I was wide open. I just spun around and found Kotalik right in the slot. I gave him a bad pass, but he was able to control it and get it on net, and it went in.’
The North Bellmore, N.Y. native also made several standout plays on defense, including breaking up a 3-on-1 with seven minutes to go in the first. Max Sauve stormed down the left wing and into the Rangers’ zone with Zach Hamill in the middle and Marco Sturm on the right. Gilroy stayed with Hamill despite Sauve’s attempts to draw him out of position and was able get a stick on Sauve’s centering pass.
Despite his early success and his two-year, $3.5-million contract, Gilroy said he does miss being at BU.
‘There’s nothing like being with the guys,’ he said. ‘That’s the biggest difference here, is that kind of everyone goes their separate ways once you leave the rink. In college, there’s always someone. Everyone sticks together and eats together, especially on game day. Game day here, it’s like you do your own thing, but in college it was always a team thing. I do miss that.’
Gilroy also said he’s not worrying about whether or not members of the New York media think he’s a favorite to make the team.
‘I just work hard, and hopefully [the coaches] notice that,’ he said. ‘I still have a whole week to get by. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I’m part of the Rangers. That would be a dream come true.’
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