For the New York Rangers, this time of the season is becoming more crucial as the other top teams in the Eastern Conference keep on winning and their lead in the Metropolitan Division is shrinking. As of this writing, they only have a two-point lead over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Rangers just defeated one of the other top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins by a final score of 5-2. Now, they will return home to Madison Square Garden to face another top team in the East, the Florida Panthers on Saturday (March 23).
These are the games where your star players need to show up and this would be a great time for Mika Zibanejad to turn his game up to another level. This time of year has been labeled as “Mika March” since this is when he plays his best hockey. While this was the case over the past few years, it hasn’t happened yet this season. We are going to look back on his career during the month of March to see where he was succeeding and what he can do to end this month on a high note.
March 2020: The Birth of “Mika March”
During the 2019-20 season, Zibanejad truly had a breakout season. He ended the shortened season with 41 goals and 75 points in 57 games played and he would have had more if he also didn’t miss time with an injury. However, he truly exploded during the month of March with 11 goals and 13 points in six games. This even included his famous five-goal game against the Washington Capitals on March 5, 2020. This is where “Mika March” was born for many fans. He was just scoring at a non-stop pace and when the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak, he was the hottest player in the league and was leading the charge for the Rangers, along with Artemi Panarin, as they were trying to push for a playoff spot when that season ended.
Even before March 2020, Zibanejad was scoring at a good pace during the month of March in his first three seasons with the Rangers. In 44 total games played in March between the 2016-17 and 2018-19 seasons, he scored 16 goals and 33 points. He had always played well at this time of the year, but he truly broke out in 2020 and he was in conversation for the Rocket Richard Trophy as the top goal scorer in the entire league because of the 11 goals he scored. This was truly when Zibanejad entered the conversation as a true top-line center in the NHL.
2020-21 Through 2022-23: Continued Success
After the success he had in March 2020, that success would continue over the next three seasons. During the 2020-21 season, which was also a shortened season due to COVID-19, Zibanejad struggled through most of the first two months of that season. Then when March came around, he turned his game around. He had two three-goal, six-point games against the Philadelphia Flyers in back-to-back games against them. This is what sparked him to play well for the rest of that season. He finished March with nine goals and 21 points in 16 games and finished that season with 24 goals and 50 points in 56 games played.
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The 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons were also great for Zibanejad in the month of March. In 2021-22, he scored six goals and 16 points in 15 games played. In 2022-23, he scored seven goals and 18 points in 16 games played. He would finish those seasons with 29 goals and 81 points in 81 games played and then had 39 goals and 91 points in 82 games played. Although he was hot heading into the playoffs, the Rangers were unable to win the Stanley Cup during those seasons as they were eliminated in the 2022 Eastern Conference Final by the Tampa Bay Lightning then they were eliminated in the first round of the 2023 Playoffs by the New Jersey Devils.
2023-24: Not Much Success So Far
This season has been a strange one for Zibanejad. While his numbers look good with 22 goals and 58 points in 68 games, it’s way down from what he did over the last two seasons. His goal-scoring has also been lackluster this season, as he has gone stretches at a time without scoring a goal. He even went 31 games without scoring a goal at five-on-five, which is just not acceptable for a top-line center in this league. So with March coming around, many thought this would be the time for him to break out, but so far, it hasn’t been the case. Zibanejad has scored four goals and six points in 10 games so far this month. This is not the breakout that many were anticipating to happen. He has continued to struggle and while he did break that 31-game drought this month, he should have never had a drought like that at all.
So what is it going to take for Zibanejad to finally start playing at a more consistent level? Do he and Chris Kreider need to be separated? They have been linemates for most of the time over the past few seasons, but maybe a shakeup is needed in order to spark Zibanejad’s game. If “Mika March” won’t lift his game, then there might need to be some concern as the playoffs keep getting closer. The Rangers need their top-line center to start producing like he has in the past if they want to be a serious threat for the Stanley Cup.
