Exhibition games have different meanings for different players.
Of course Filip Chytil was pumped full of adrenaline Sunday as the 25-year-old attempts to reclaim a career that was ascending until he went bump in the night with Jesper Fast last Nov. 2, suffering another brain injury that ruined his season and appeared to jeopardize the way he makes a living.
The eighth-year pro (and how is that remotely possible?) stood out in Boston in the Rangers’ 3-2 victory in their exhibition season opener, as one would expect.
He scored a goal, added an assist, launched six shots on net and won nine of 15 draws in 22:34 of work, an unusually heavy preseason workload for a veteran. But Chytil craves as much as possible after being idle for nearly all of last season. He’s pushing. At some point, head coach Peter Laviolette will probably have to pull him back a bit.