Keefe To The City

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The Rangers are back to their winning ways. After winning in Ottawa over the weekend, the Rangers beat the Avalanche and Lightning at home over the last three nights to increase their lead in the Met.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. Through the first 37 games of the season, the Rangers were 26-10-1 and had been atop of the Met since opening night. Their outstanding play through 45 percent of the season had made it so they could play below-.500 hockey for the remainder of the year and still reach the postseason.

They decided to test that theory in the New Year, losing four straight to Montreal, Vancouver, St. Louis and Washington in the opening weeks of January. After back-to-back wins over Washington and Seattle to momentarily right things, they went to the West Coast and put together the absolute opposite performance from their early-season West Coast/Western Canada 5-0 road trip, this time losing four of five. They returned home and avenged their 5-1 loss in Las Vegas by losing at home to the same Golden Knights 5-2. The Rangers had lost 10 of their last 15 and were embarrassed twice in eight days by the reigning champion Golden Knights.

2. For the last six weeks, the Rangers’ contender status has been called into question, and at times, rightfully so. But it was impossible to believe the team that won 18 of its first 23 games was going to continue to win 78 percent of its games over the entire season. The Rangers’ success over the first three months of the season essentially guaranteed them a postseason berth, and the remaining three-plus months would be about getting and hopefully remaining healthy for the postseason.

3. The Rangers last six weeks wasn’t a decline, just part of the normal ebbs and flows of the 82-game season. Even if the Rangers did win 78 percent of the games for the entire season, none of it would matter once the playoffs started. Just like it won’t matter if they win the Met, finish as a 2- or 3-seed or fall to a wild-card berth. The entirety of the 2023-24 season will be evaluated on what happens from Game 83 on.

4. Because of that, the lull of the NHL regular season has set in for teams like the Rangers that know they are going to the playoffs and will spend the remaining third of the season preparing for such. A big part of that preparation will be getting Igor Shesterkin back to playing at the best of his abilities, or like Jonathan Quick called him on Wednesday night, “the best in the world.”

Shesterkin found himself on the bench for the third straight game on Wednesday, and he belonged there, whether it was an organizational plan or not. His recent play warranted him being on the bench. Peter Laviolette recently said, “Shesty is our guy,” but this season Quick has been the guy.

After picking up the win in Ottawa on Saturday, holding the Avalanche to a lone Nathan MacKinnon goal on Monday and then shutting down the Lightning on Wednesday, Quick improved to 14-4-2 on the season.

“When we need him to make a big save, he’s made them,” Jacob Trouba said. “I think everyone here kind of rallies around what he’s doing for us right now.”

5. The last couple of seasons the Rangers needed Vezina-esque goaltending on a nightly basis to have a chance, the same way they needed it for the entire Henrik Lundqivst era. Like Lundqvist for 15 years, if Shesterkin didn’t carry the Rangers to a win, they weren’t going to win. That hasn’t been the case this season with Quick turning back the clock.

“We’re fortunate to have a guy like Jonathan in the stable,” Laviolette said.

“He’s been a rock for us all season,” Jimmy Vesey said. “He just battles and competes and has some swagger in net.”

6. It was Vesey’s two goals (one an empty-netter) that gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead over the Lightning and put Wednesday’s game out of reach in the final minute. But on a night when all of the Rangers’ scoring came from the bottom-six (Brodzinski had the Rangers’ second goal) and Quick was on his game, the first-year Ranger acted as though the result was expected.

“You take what comes and you try to make one save after another,” Quick said. “When we play like we did, it gives us a good chance to win every night.”

7. The Rangers have been winning every night once again. The day after getting embarrassed by Vegas, the Rangers went to Ottawa and found themselves in a 2-0 before scoring seven unanswered goals for a 7-2 win. On Monday night, trailing the Avalanche 1-0 at the Garden late in the third period, Artemi Panarin tied the game and Alexis Lafreniere won it in overtime. Quick was in net for all three wins.

“He’s given us really quality games,” Laviolette said. “Every day he comes to the rink, he’s ready to play. You’re appreciative of everything he does.”

8. The win over the Avalanche was especially encouraging. The Avalanche have beaten the Rangers handily in recent seasons, and the game served as a strong litmus test for the Rangers against the second-best team in the West (points-wise).

“That was a big win against a really good team,” Lafreniere said. “We wanted to play better defense, and I think we did a really good job.”

9. The Rangers have made a habit of blowing multi-goal leads and allowing multiple goals minutes apart this season. Those horrible trends have come to a halt on the three-game winning streak, and holding the Lightning and Avalanche to two goals total in two games is a sign that maybe the Rangers’ team defense has turned a corner.

“We’ve gone over a lot of things on the defensive side,” Vesey said. “We’ve done a good job with two games we can build on.”

10. The Rangers are undefeated in 15 home games when their opponent scores three or fewer goals. Despite their recent “slump” they remain atop the Met, where they have been all season.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

The Rangers’ latest winning streak came to an end in Ottawa with a 6-2 loss to the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. It’s difficult to be upset when the Rangers play as poorly as they played on Tuesday in Ottawa. Sitting atop the Met and the East with the league’s best record by points percentage, it’s easy to brush aside games and efforts like the one the Rangers produced against the Senators.

2. Playing the East’s last-place team after a day off, the Rangers fell behind 2-0 in the first period on goals by Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux. Artemi Panarin cut the deficit in half 39 seconds into the second period on the power play when he threw a shot into traffic from the point, and the puck found the back of the net like it alway seems to do off Panarin’s stick.

3. Five minutes later, the Senators answered with a goal from old friend Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored to make it 3-1. (Tarasenko added a empty-netter as well because why wouldn’t he? Every ex-Ranger has to score against hte Rangers. That’s the rule.) Twenty-two seconds after Tarasenko made it a two-goal game again, K’Andre Miller scored to trim the Senators’ lead to 3-2. But that’s all the Rangers would get for the rest of the game, as the Senators’ three-goal second was too much to overcome.

“The second period was a track meet,” Peter Laviolette said. “I mean, it went up and down the ice at 100 miles an hour. One way going 100 is fine, but the other way, we have to have better reads and better decisions coming out of offensive zone play.”

4. The Rangers allowed five-plus goals for a second straight game and it was their fourth time allowing four-plus goals in their last six games.

“There’s things we did that didn’t give ourselves the best chance at being successful,” Laviolette said. “I think that they’re easy things to fix.”

Too many odd-man rushes against, too many turnovers and general sloppy play is what I think Laviolette is referring to as the Rangers were outplayed by the East’s worst team.

5. “Obviously, we didn’t like how we played,” Jacob Trouba said. “You’re going to have some games like that.”

Trouba is right, every team is going to have “some games like that,” even the Rangers who have played .750 hockey through the first quarter of the season. That’s why it’s hard to do anything other than “turn the page” like Trouba also said.

The loss was one of 82, just like the other regulation losses this season to Columbus, Nashville, Dallas and Buffalo were. The only issue is when you read through the names of those teams, outside of Dallas, the Rangers clearly have an issue playing down to their opponent’s level.

6. Ottawa is in last in the conference, Columbus is in second-to-last and Buffalo is right behind Columbus. (The Rangers needed a game-tying goal with 11 seconds left in regulation and a shootout win the last time they played Columbus to avoid being 0-2 against the Blue Jackets.) Nashville has played better of later, but the Predators are unlikely to be a postseason team. The Rangers have also lost to the West’s fourth-worst Wild (a game in which the Rangers blew a three-goal lead) and barely eked out a win against the league-worst Sharks last weekend.

7. Now you could argue some of those losses have been negated by wins over Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Detroit. Yes, the Rangers have come out on top against the best teams they have played (aside from Dallas), but it would be easier to stomach some of their losses if they weren’t letdown performances against the worst teams in the league.

That is about as much complaining as one can do about the Rangers right now, and it’s not even really complaining since it’s just the truth: the Rangers have not played well against bad teams.

8. To the Rangers’ credit, they played on Saturday night in Nashville, returned home to play on Sunday night at the Garden, had Monday off and then played in Ottawa the following night. Three games in four days in Tennessee, New York and Canada is not nothing.

9. It was another multi-point game for Panarin, who now has 13 of those in 24 games. Miller scored for the third time in the last four games and fourth time in the last six games, Adam Fox (who you would never know missed 11 games) picked up a point as well. That was about all the good from the game.

10. After having a back-to-back last weekend (Nashville and San Jose), the Rangers will have another this weekend in Washington D.C. and home against Los Angeles. They will play back-to-backs every weekend in December. The quick trip to play the Capitals will be followed by three straight home games and six of the next eight at the Garden. 

The Rangers had recorded at least one point in 17 of their last 19 games before the loss in Ottawa. They will look to add to their East-leading point total and avoid losing back-to-back games for the first time this season on Saturday against the Capitals.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

After a mid-week win over Detroit and a Saturday night win in Nashville, a Sunday night home game against league-worst San Jose was set up to be a trap game for the Rangers.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. I was worried about the Rangers and their league-best record hosting the Sharks and their league-worst record. Having played the previous night in Nashville and playing for the third time in five days, I had visions of David Quinn walking out of Madison Square Garden holding his head up high with a smile on his face after knocking off his former employers. Thankfully, Artemi Panarin put my fears to rest, handed the Quinn’s Sharks another loss and pushed him a little closer to the door in San Jose.

2. Panarin produced his league-leading 12th multi-point game of the season (in just 23 games), scored his fifth career hat trick, added an assist and the Rangers won 6-5.

“He leaves you speechless sometimes,” Mika Zibanejad said of Panarin. “I couldn’t be happier having him on our team.”

Panarin is up to 35 points in 23 games and a 125-point pace over 82 games. He has never scored more than 32 goals in a season and he’s one away from being halfway to that total with more than 70 percent of the season to play.

“He’s been outstanding,” Vincent Trocheck said of Panarin. “He’s taken another step, somehow, and he was already a world-class player.”

3. In what was a wild game, the Rangers overcame two deficits, blew a one-goal lead and nearly blew a two-goal lead.

“It was loose defensively, but we can’t make excuses about that,” Trocheck said. “We have back-to-backs all the time in this league. Whether it’s a great team or a team that’s maybe not in a playoff spot, you still have to come out the same way.”

4. The Rangers’ first deficit came 3:50 into the game when Anthony Duclair undressed Jonathan Quick with a breakaway deke to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. The former Ranger who was traded away as a 19-year-old rookie is now a 28-year-old vet, having played for seven teams within the last decade. There’s a chance he could return to the Rangers later this season as he has been a popular name tied to the team as a potential trade deadline target, and I’m all for bringing him back to where he started. 

5. Five minutes after Duclair opened the scoring, the Rangers tied it on the power play with Panarin’s first on the night — a wrist shot from the point through traffic. The Sharks regained the lead less than four minutes later, and then just 34 seconds after the Sharks scored, Panarin tied it at 2. Zibanejad scored his sixth of the season at 16:42 of the first period in what was the final goal of a five-goal first.

The Sharks got a power-play goal at 9:16 of the second to tie it at 3, and later in the period, Will Cuylle broke the tie with his first goal in 10 games (and his first point in nine).

“He’s a young player who gives everything he’s got every night,” Peter Laviolette said of Cuylle. “He’s learning, but he’s off to a good start.”

6. Jonny Brodzinski got a chance to play with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider in his latest and best attempt to stick in the NHL, and he didn’t disappoint with his second straight two-assist game. The four-point weekend and the chemistry with Zibanejad and Kreider will certainly give Brodzinski an extended look in the Rangers’ top-six.

“He had a really good training camp,” Laviolette said of Brodzinski. “He was generating lots of scoring chances, attempts, pucks at the net and doing lots of good things.”

7. The Rangers extended their lead in the third, making it 5-3 on Panarin’s third of the game, and then 6-3 on K’Andre Miller’s fourth of the season. With a three-goal lead, the remaining 6:56 seemed like a formality, especially with the Sharks as the opponent, but a couple of turnovers at the top of the offensive zone led to Sharks’ goals at 14:38 and 15:50 to cut the Rangers’ lead to 6-5. Fortunately, there was nothing more after that.

“They made it interesting in the end,” Zibanejad said. “We’ll take this win and these four points this weekend.”

8. “Give our guys a ton of credit,” Quinn said. “They came ready to play tonight and had a chance to tie it late.”

Yes, the Sharks came ready to play, allowing six goals and losing on the road for the 11th time in 12 rod games his season.

The win improved the Rangers to a ridiculous 18-4-1 on the season and 9-0-1 in their last 10 games against the Sharks. 

“It’s a good feeling,” Panarin said. “We look pretty good right now. I hope we can play this way all year.”

9. For as good as the Rangers have been this season, and they have been unbelievable, it’s hard not to think ahead to their eventual postseason berth and what type of team they will be come April. At this point, the Rangers playing in April is a given. They have a 97 percent chance to make the playoffs as of now, which represents the highest odds in the Eastern Conference. With 37 points through 23 games, playing .500 hockey for the rest of he season would give them more than enough to reach the playoffs. For now, I will try to stay in the moment and enjoy this magical run.

10. Next up is a game in Ottawa on Tuesday, and then another weekend back-to-back in Washington and home against Los Angeles. Nine games over the next 19 days before Christmas break with five of them at home and all nine in the Eastern Time Zone. After a grueling, ugly schedule over the first two months of the season, the schedule finally favors the Rangers, and so far thy have made the most of playing at home and on the East Coast. I don’t expect them to stop now.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

The daunting three games in four days schedule sandwiched around Thanksgiving for the Rangers resulted in three wins. The Rangers won in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and then knocked off Boston in New York.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. After blowing a two-goal lead, allowing six unanswered goals and losing to Dallas 6-3 on Monday night, the Rangers bounced back with a 1-0 win in Pittsburgh. It was the Preseason Problems Game as Alexis Lafreniere’s goal 5:10 into the game stood up with Jonathan Quick making 32 saves for his second shutout in five starts as a Ranger. Those two were the ire of many Rangers fans for their late-September and early-October play, but their performance in actual, meaningful games that count have served as a reminder that the preseason is meaningless.

Quick made five power-play saves and one shorthanded save in the game, but no save was bigger than him getting a piece of Sidney Crosby’s wrister as the Penguins legend was left alone in the slot in the final minute of play. Evgeni Malkin found Crosby by himself and as a Rangers fan (and Rangers +100 money line bettor), my heart momentarily sank.

2. The Rangers had a rather quick turnaround from Wednesday night’s win to Friday’s early-afternoon game in Philadelphia. Earlier in the week, it was shocking to see the Flyers sitting in second place in the Met. Sure, they had played more games than teams right behind them, but still, it’s the Flyers, and they suck. Seeing them in second place through six weeks whether teams had games in hand on them or not is not something anyone should have expected at this point. It only took a day’s worth of the Rangers beating up on them and the rest of the division getting back into action for the Flyers to tumble to down the standings.

This one was over rather quickly. Mika Zibanejad scored just 45 seconds into the game, for his third of the season, first in November and first in 25 days.

One minute and eight seconds later, the Rangers scored again. Travis Sanheim threw the puck in front of his own net and it was as if he were wearing a Blueshirt as it was placed perfectly on Chris Kreider’s tape. Kreider banged it home to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. MSG quickly panned to the Flyers’ bench where John Tortorella looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world other than behind his team’s bench.

Just under eight minutes into the second, Zibanejad scored again. Here is what I wrote about Zibanejad on Wednesday:

One of these games, Zibanejad will go off, net a hat trick and get right back to being his usual self. With the season 20 percent over, it would be nice if that happened in the near future, and no better time than this week where the Rangers will play three games in four days and five games in eight days. This is the most opportune time for Zibanejad to start finding the back of the net.

He came one shy of a hat trick, but the two-goal game was a welcome sight. In 27:41 of play against the Flyers, Zibanejad doubled his season goal total, and with a three-goal lead against this Flyers team, the remainder of the game was a formality in an eventual 3-1 win.

A day later, the Rangers were back home for the first time in nearly two weeks to host the Bruins in a battle of the Eastern Conference’s best. It was a game that drew my attention when the schedule was released in the summer, and a game that saw its attention grow exponentially over the first fifth of the season.

3. With Igor Shesterkin having played in Philadelphia, Quick was given the start in the second game of the back-to-back, and it was another quick start for the Rangers’ offense as well.

Nick Bonino scored his first goal as a Ranger when he gathered the puck near the top of the circles, spun around and wristed it past Linus Ullmark to give the Rangers a 1-0 at 5:58 of the first. Five minutes later, the Rangers extended their lead to 2-0 with Kreider picking up a rebound on the power play. The Bruins responded to the early deficit by calling timeout. The Bruins looked like nothing like advertised through the first 12-plus minutes of the game as they didn’t record their first shot until there was just 7:21 left in the period. It’s quite possible (and extremely likely) they took advantage of landing in New York in the early evening on Friday and having a night out in the city. But whatever Jim Montgomery said to them during that timeout changed their play and demeanor. The Bruins tied the game with goals 22 seconds apart. Then it was Peter Laviolette’s turn to call a timeout.

“There was a rollercoaster of emotions in the way that the game was played, and that was one of them,” Laviolette said. “To me, just to stop the game to reset, it’s now back to even, back to work.”

I figured the Rangers may collapse the way they have so many times in recent seasons with two-goal leads in game. They had just blown a two-goal lead and lost four days earlier in Dallas and it wasn’t that long ago they blew a three-goal lead and lost in Minnesota. When Erik Gustafsson went off for hooking with 1:34 to go in the first, a two-goal lead becoming a one-goal deficit seemed inevitable.

But 15 seconds after Gustafsson went off, the Bruins turned the puck over at the top of the offensive zone, Kreider fled the zone and Jacob Trouba hit Kreider in stride for a breakaway. Kreider, the last person you ever want on a breakaway, finally converted one for a shorthanded goal and the Rangers had the lead back.

“It was a great read by Jacob, ” Kreider said. “Nice pass right on the tape.”

4. The lead didn’t last long. The Bruins began the second period on the same power play and when the Rangers failed to clear the puck near the blue line, the Bruins turned it into a 3-on-1 below the top of the circles. David Pastrnak hesitated, got Quick to open his five-hole and jammed it past him to tie the game.

The game remained tied for more than 16 minutes of play, until a delayed Bruins penalty turned into a 6-on-5 for the Rangers, which turned into Jimmy Vesey’s fourth goal of the season. About three minutes later Mika Zibanejad left a drop pas for K’Andre, who walked into it with all 6-foot-5 of his body and blasted a ridiculous slap shot past Ullmark. 5-3 Rangers.

“That was back and forth, a lot of emotions probably from both teams,” Laviolette said. “I thought the guys showed a lot of resiliency.”

5. It was the best and worst game of the season. Best in terms of putting up a 7-spot on the league’s second-best defense (the Rangers entered the game first in the league in terms of goals against average) and beating the Rangers’ direct competition for the East’s 1-seed by three goals. It was the worst because of the blown two-goal, two blown leads and uneasiness of the Rangers’ own defense from the midway point of the first period through the second period.

This time the Rangers wouldn’t blow the lead though. 5-3 became 6-3 on Tyler Pitlick’s first as a Ranger. A minute later, the Bruins cut it to 6-4, but two minutes after that, Artemi Panarin slammed the door, making it 7-4, which is how it would stay. (After three straight pointless games, Panarin had a goal and two assists against the Bruins.)

6. “Doing that against a Top 2, Top 3 team in the league is always nice,” Miller said. “It shows we have a pretty good team.”

Not just a “good team” but the best team in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers lead the Met by nine points. They have lost in regulation once (Dallas) in more than five weeks. They have only twice (Dallas and Minnesota) in six weeks (and they held a multi-goal lead in both games). The Rangers started the season 2-2 and are 13-1-1 since.

7. “Our guys are going into a game expecting to win, expecting to play a certain way,” Laviolette said. “And if we do that, we can see the results. Today, I think was just a little but more challenging because of the schedule that we’ve been in.”

The schedule is something I wrote about on Wednesday:

The Rangers’ schedule has been rather odd to this point. After a pair of road games and a pair of home games to begin the season, they went on a 10-day, three-time zone road trip in which they went west (Seattle), east (Calgary), north (Edmonton), west again (Vancouver) and east again Winnipeg), They returned home for one game and then went back on the road and out of the time zone for one game in Minnesota. (Why not just play in Minnesota after Winnipeg?) Then they played three home games before having six days off. Now they are on a road trip that covers New Jersey (OK, not really a road trip), Dallas, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

When you’re winning, like the Rangers have been, it makes a frustrating and outrageous schedule less of an annoyance.

8. “I still don’t think we’ve played our best hockey yet,” Miller said, “which kind of scary and fun to say at the same time.”

I think Miller is somewhat right. The Rangers have played their best hockey, it just happened to come on opening night in Buffalo. That performance is likely to never be duplicated as it was the best and most complete effort from the Rangers in a decade. It’s scary that they are capable of that level play, and it’s even more scary that they haven’t come close to matching it and have a 15-3-1 record.

10. “We worked hard,” Laviolette said. “We worked smart to secure the two points.”

That’s all the Rangers seem to do: secure two points. Now the crazy schedule to date loosens up a bit as the Rangers remain home for two more games (Buffalo and Detroit), and then the schedule softens with back-to-back games next weekend at Nashville and home against San Jose. A lot of favorable opportunities over the next week to secure two points.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

The Rangers lost in regulation for the first time in more than a month on Monday in Dallas.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. Things are going so well for the Rangers that blowing a 2-0 second-period lead and allowing six straight goals (including five in the third period) in an eventual 6-3 loss isn’t upsetting. Losses are going to happen, even losses as bad as the one in Dallas on Monday.

“I thought we started the right way,” Peter Laviolette said after the loss. “It’s tough to finish that way.”

2. After the Stars tied the game at 2, their third goal was initially waved off before being overturned in their favor. When the Rangers had an obvious goal overturned a couple of weekends ago against the Blue Jackets, Stephen Valiquette said, “The Rangers never get a call … I’m not kidding.” And he wasn’t kididng.

The Rangers had two goals called back against them in Columbus in the second game of the season. They had the goal called back against them against Columbus two weekends ago. On Saturday in New Jersey, the Devils’ first goal was overturned in favor of the Devils and later in the game, a major penalty was taken off the board completely in favor of the Devils. Then in Dallas on Monday, not only was the Stars’ third goal overturned in their favor, but so was their fourth. The moment the officials need to review anything, you can guarantee it’s going against the Rangers.

3. That’s not me complaining about officiating or being a homer, it’s the truth. Valiquette wasn’t kidding, and neither am I. The Rangers are never the beneficiary of a review.

Despite the loss, the Rangers remain comfortably atop the Met with a four-point lead on the second-place Flyers, who they have two games in hand on as well. The Rangers may have blown a two-goal lead and have allowed six unanswered goals (two were empty-netters), but they are still very, very good.

4. Not all of the Rangers have been good this season, even with the team having won 75 percent of its games, and a good amount of them haven’t played to expectations. They haven’t had to because Artemi Panarin has been otherworldly with 10 goals and 16 assists in 16 games. Sadly, his point streak ended on Monday as he was unable to find the scoresheet.

Panarin’s 15-game point streak to begin the season was the longest to start a season in Rangers history and was the third longest point streak in Rangers history. It was the longest streak since Wayne Gretzky in 1996-97 and after Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Devils, Panarin became the first Ranger to have five consecutive multi-point games since Jaromir Jagr 18 years ago.

5. While Panarin is enjoying the best season of his career, Mika Zibenejad is mired in the worst of his in terms of goal scoring. Zibanejad continues to sit on two goals. He has as many goals as Kaapo Kakkko and Blake Wheeler and one fewer than Jimmy Vesey and Will Cuylle. He’s on pace for 10 goals this season, which is how many Panarin and Chris Kreider already have.

One of these games, Zibanejad will go off, net a hat trick and get right back to being his usual self. With the season 20 percent over, it would be nice if that happened in the near future, and no better time than this week where the Rangers will play three games in four days and five games in eight days. This is the most opportune time for Zibanejad to start finding the back of the net.

6. I do come across line change proposals and new combinations to get Zibanejad out of his funk, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Unless you’re going to pair him with Panarin (a move I have called for since Panarin’s Rangers debut) then there’s no need to upset the Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere line. Zibanejad can figure it out and will figure it out without needing to change the dynamic of a first- place team. (Again, unless you’re putting him with Panarin and Lafreniere).

7. Lafreniere continues to be noticeable every game and prove that former No. 1 overall worth. He had the game of his career to date against Columbus and even on nights when he’s not scoring or assisting on goals, he’s having an impact on the game. Too many times over his first three seasons would he have games (and even stretches) of being invisible and that’s not happening this season. Peter Laviolette’s faith in Lafreniere becoming the player the Rangers have dreamed out is paying off.

8. Kaapo Kakko just went 10 games without a point. Zibanejad has two goals. Adam Fox and Filip Chytil have missed 38 percent of the season and Chytil had no goals in the 10 games he did play. Igor Shesterkin missed two weeks and the Rangers used three goalies in their first 13 games. And yet, they are still 12-3-1. I’m sure the Rangers will give fans plenty to complain about over the remaining 66 games, but for now, even the things there are to complain about aren’t worth it just as of now. Again, they just lost for the first time in regulation and just the second time overall in more than a month.

9. The Rangers’ schedule has been rather odd to this point. After a pair of road games and a pair of home games to begin the season, they went on a 10-day, three-time zone road trip in which they went west (Seattle), east (Calgary), north (Edmonton), west again (Vancouver) and east again Winnipeg), They returned home for one game and then went back on the road and out of the time zone for one game in Minnesota. (Why not just play in Minnesota after Winnipeg?) Then they played three home games before having six days off. Now they are on a road trip that covers New Jersey (OK, not really a road trip), Dallas, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

10. Now the Rangers have an extremely tough week ahead with games against the Penguins, Flyers, Bruins, Sabres and Red Wings. There’s a chance they could get Fox back next week and there’s hopefully a chance Zibenejad will score a goal within the next week. The Rangers’ third-period heroics finally went the other way against them in Dallas, and if it wasn’t just one loss and if the magic that has been the first six weeks of the season is going to start to wear off, they’re going to need both the physical return of Fox and the goal-scoring return of Zibanejad to avoid undoing what they have done to this point.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

1. If you had told me before the season began that through less than the first month the Rangers would briefly lose Ryan Lindgren to injury, put Adam Fox on long-term injured reserve and a goal-less Filip Chytil on injured reserve, Igor Shesterkin would only play in eight games to date (and get pulled in one) and get injured, his backup would get injured, the team would be on their third goalie, Mika Zibanejad would have two goals, and the Rangers would have lost games to the Blue Jackets and Predators and blown a three-goal lead to the Wild, I would have asked you how many more losses they have compiled. Instead the Rangers are 8-2-1 through 13 games, and after their 4-1 win over the Wild on Thursday, they have won eight of their last nine.

2. Five nights after blowing a three-goal lead to the Wild before losing 5-4 in a shootout, the Rangers got retribution for their collapse in Minnesota. They didn’t play a complete game, but they scored the first goal of the game, never trailed and got an amazing performance in net from Louis Domingue in his first game as a Ranger.

“When you’re older, you don’t build yourself up too high for a game like this,” Domingue said. “You just try to do your job.”

Domingue did his job and did it exceptionally well. he turned away 25 of the Wild’s 26 shots, limited to them just one goal in their dominant second period and helped ease the minds of Rangers fans nervous about the health of Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick.

3. “It’s not his first rodeo,” Peter Laviolette said of the 31-year-old Domingue playing for his seventh franchise. “He really stepped up big for us.”

It was the first NHL appearance for Domingue in more nearly 19 months. For the Rangers, it was the first time since 1989-90 they had three goalies record wins in the team’s first 13 games. It was the seventh time already this season the Rangers didn’t allow more than one goal in a game.

4. Domingue was able to get an early cushion to work with because just like they did in Minnesota five nights earlier, the Rangers got on the board early. An Erik Gustafsson-to-Alexis Lafreniere-to-Vincent Trocheck goal gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead just 3:56 into the game.

How good has Gustafsson been? It’s hard to believe he had to take a one-year, $825,000 offer from the Rangers in the offseason. Now with three goals and nine assists this season, he has made the absence of the irreplaceable Fox hurt a little less.

5. The Wild were finally able to break through against Domingue at 12:33 of the second period when Brandon Duhaime scored For much of he second, the game had a similar feeling to the Rangers’ loss in Minnesota. The Wild controlled play for the entirety of the second, taking the first eight shots of the period, leading 11-1 in shots with seven minutes to go in the period and finishing the period with a 15-3 edge.

6. The Rangers regrouped during the intermission and responded with another pretty goal from the Lafreniere-Trocheck-Panarin line to take a 2-1 lead. It was the second even-strength goal of the game for that line that has played extremely well together since the shuffle was made before the 5-3 win over Detroit. After the trio each produced an even-strength point against the Red Wings, they came back and did the same against the Wild.

“He’s doing most of the forechecks for us,” Panarin said of Lafreniere after the line’s first game together against the Detroit. “Nice to see young guy working for the old guys.”

7. With just over seven minutes to go, the Rangers received their first power play of the game, and the second unit extended the lead to 3-1 when Blake Wheeler banged home a rebound for his first goal as a Rangers.

Lafreniere assisted on the Wheeler goal for the first three-point game of his carer. With a goal and two assists in the win, Lafreniere now has five goals and four assists on the season (a 32-goal, 25-assist, 57-point pace). Everything about his game looks improved and the trust and belief Laviolette has instilled in him is paying off.

Panarin had another Panarin game, continuing his streak of recording at least one point in every game this season. The 1.38 points per game he produced during his first season with the Rangers was remarkable and it’s hard to believe he’s currently destroying those numbers with 1.69 points per game this season to date. He’s currently on pace for 139 points.

8. Through 13 games, the Rangers have three losses and each loss can be clearly defined. In Game 2, after coming off their most complete performance in at least a decade, they laid an egg on the road against last season’s last-place Blue Jackets. In Game 4, they no-showed at home against the inferior Predators before embarking on a five-game, 10-day West Coast/Western Canada road trip. In Game 11 in Minnesota, they held a 3-0 lead just 6:53 into the game, and then were thoroughly dominated for the rest of the game on their way to a three-goal lead collapse (though they did manage to earn a point). Other than that, it’s been all wins. Blowout wins, hard-fought wins, come-from-behind wins, wins they didn’t deserve, shutout wins, you name it, and the 2023-24 Rangers have done it already.

“It’s never one thing,” Laviolette said of the team’s ability to win in so many ways. “It’s probably a combination of a bunch of different things.”

9. I don’t think anyone thought the Rangers would get off to this kind of start. The kind of start that is nearing a place where they can play .500 for the remainder of the season and still reach the playoffs. As of now, if the Rangers won only half of their remaining schedule, they would finish with 96 points. The Panthers were the last team in the playoffs last season with 92 points.

“You can have objectives and what you think is necessary to be successful,” Laviolette said about winning. “If you can check off eight out of 10 of those objectives and you can do it consistently, you probably find yourself winning hockey games.”

10. That’s where the Rangers find themselves: winning hockey games. They are atop the Metropolitan Division, sitting five points ahead of Carolina with a game in hand on the Hurricanes.

On Sunday, before enjoying a six-day break, the Rangers have a chance to extend their division-topping lead at home against last-place Columbus. I expect this game to play out differently than the second game of the season when the Rangers fell to the Blue Jackets in Columbus.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

The Rangers kept their winning streak alive in their return home, but it came at a cost, as they lost their best player and also a top-six center on Thursday.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. After beating up on the Western Conference for two weeks on the West Coast (Seattle) and in Western Canada (Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg) and setting a franchise record for undefeated length of a road trip, the Rangers returned to the Garden on Thursday for their first true test of the season: Carolina. The odds-on favorite to not only win the Eastern Conference this season, but to win it all, the Hurricanes arrived in New York one win and two points behind the Rangers in the Met.

2. It didn’t take long for the Rangers to get on the board in this one as a too many men penalty on the Hurricanes just 1:38 into the game put the Rangers’ dynamic power play on the ice. A little over a minute into the man-advantage, Artemi Panarin carried the puck up the ice and dished it off to Vincent Trocheck just before entering the offensive zone. Upon entering the zone, Trocheck immediately had the puck knocked away, but it was knocked away directly to Panarin, who was now in the right corner. Panarin one-timed a backhanded pass from the corner all the way through the crease where Chris Kreider was waiting alone to bang it in. 1-0 Rangers.

2. The pass from Panarin may have seemed like nothing other than a perfectly-placed feed for Kreider, but the degree of difficulty was enormous. To put that much strength behind the puck on the backhand, get it from the corner through the front of the net and keep it accurate is silly. Less than two minutes into the game and Panarin had his season-long point streak extended.

3. For the first nine minutes of the first period, the Rangers controlled the play. They had little trouble getting through the Hurricanes’ neutral zone defense and managed to create some high-quality scoring chances, while the Hurricanes were held shotless. But when the Rangers got called for their own too many men penalty, the Hurricanes evened the game.

4. Tony DeAngelo began the power-play rush to a heartwarming chorus of Garden boos and passed the puck off to Sebastian Aho. Aho found a streaking Seth Jarvis with a blue line-to-blue line pass, and Jarvis split a flat-footed Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren, went in all alone and finished with a quick shot over Igor Shesterkin’s glove. 1-1.

5. Later in the first, Adam Fox had a lane down the middle of the ice in the offensive zone to potentially receive a pass for an undefended shot in the slot. Before he could make his way toward the net, Aho, realizing he was out of position to defend Fox, stuck out his right leg and caused a knee-on-knee collision. The play went uncalled by the officials, and after trying to continue to play, Fox went down the tunnel and didn’t return to the game.

“I went in and looked at it after the period,” Peter Laviolette said. “Especially from the overhead, I didn’t like the hit.”

At best, it was clear interference on Aho that resulted in the Rangers’ most important player leaving the game in the first period with a “lower-body injury.” At worst, it was a dirty, disgusting play by Aho that could leave the Rangers without their most important player indefinitely.

6. Fox wouldn’t be the only Ranger to exit the game with an injury. After a first-period collision that looked like nothing other than Chytil awkwardly losing a glove on the hit, he would eventually leave the game as well. His injury is being called “upper-body” and after the Ranger announced they were recalling Johnny Brodzinski early on Friday, it looks as though Chytil will be missing some time.

Chytil has yet to find the back of the net this season, but he has been playing well, creating scoring changes and setting up his teammates (six assists in 10 games). Injuries are always a problem for the cetnerr though, and his career injury log is as long as a CVS receipt.

Undisclosed
Upper
Lower
Upper
Upper
Undisclosed
Lower
Lower
Upper
Undisclosed
Concussion
Lower
Upper
Upper

That’s 14 documented injuries since April 2019. Again, the hit that caused him to leave Thursday’s game looked like nothing at the time and still doesn’t when you watch it back. So maybe he will miss nothing more than a couple of games?

“Chytil and Foxy are really important players for us,” Shesterkin said. “Hopefully everything will be good.”

Yes, hopefully everything will be good. Hopefully Fox’s removal from the game was cautionary and he’s fine now and can return to play unscathed on Saturday. The Rangers are limited in depth as is, and there’s no replacing Fox.

7. From the nine-minute mark in the first until halfway through the third, the Hurricanes took over. The Rangers had trouble generating offense, the Hurricanes began to successfully clog and defend the neutral zone and any Rangers entry was immediately met with a turnover or loss of possession.

“Between periods, I thought we needed more bite in our game,” Laviolette said. “You kind of start to see the buildup back in the third period and go back out there and continue to push on. I really liked our response.”

8. With just over nine minutes left in regulation and the scored tied at 1, Jacob Trouba lost control of the puck at the right point. He was able to regain control and skate around Jarvis and eventually make his way to the right corner untouched when DeAngelo decided to skate past him and defend no one behind the net. Trouba picked his head up and found Will Cuylle gliding toward the front of the net. Trouba fed Cuylle and Cuylle deflected it in.

“I like his straight-ahead speed. I Like his physicality,” Laviolette said of Cuylle. “A big goal at the right time in the third period.”

9. The Rangers hung on for the final 9:39 for a 2-1 win, their sixth straight. Clear Sight Analytics Hockey had the Hurricanes beating the Rangers in expected goals 2.97 to 2.58 and outchancing them 27-22, so it was once again another big performance in net for the Rangers. The win increased the separation between the Rangers and Hurricanes to four points in the standings.

10. Next up is a game in Minnesota on Saturday. (Wouldn’t it have made sense for the Rangers to go from Winnipeg to Minnesota and then return home to play Carolina, rather than go from Winnipeg to New York to Minnesota?) After the oddly scheduled one-game trip outside the time zone this weekend, the Rangers won’t play a game outside the Greater New York City area for more than two weeks.

The Wild are off to a shaky start (3-5-2), but always seem to play the Rangers well, and the trio of Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek are all averaging a point per game this season. It will be a challenging test for the Rangers to extended their winning streak to seven straight. Let’s hope Fox is there to take it with them.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

After alternating wins and losses through the first five games of the season, the Rangers have now won back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. It’s rare when anything good comes from a Rangers West Coast or Western Canada road trip, but after beating the Kraken 4-1 in Seattle on Saturday, the Rangers followed that victory with a 3-1 win over the Flames in Calgary on Tuesday. It was their first win in Calgary in nearly six years (Mar. 2, 2018).

“I kind of thought of that coming in,” Chris Kreider said. “I didn’t want to say it out loud, but it’s been rough sledding for us.”

2. It looked like the winless streak on the road against the Flames may continue early on. After being pulled in his most recent start last Thursday against Nashville, Igor Shesterkin was beat from right slot by Blake Coleman just 75 seconds into this one. A turnover in the neutral zone by Filip Chytil gave the Flames possession, and then a poor defensive decision by Chytil to join Adam Fox below the goal line in pursuit of the puck allowed Coleman to become wide open in the slot. But following the early goal, Shesterkin was perfect for the remainder of the game, shutting out the Flames for the remaining 58:45, and turning away 23 of 24 shots overall.

3. The first period was a slog. The Rangers had just three shots in the first 14 minutes and it wasn’t until the last five minutes of the period that they started to generate offense. Still looking for his first goal of the season, Mika Zibanejad missed the net on a breakaway, and seconds later got stopped by Jacob Markstrom on a 2-on-0 with Kreider below the hashmarks. Chytil had a contested breakaway chance that he was unable to convert with 10 seconds left in the period, and just before time expired, Braden Schneider hit the post.

The Rangers were able to build off their play near the end of first period for almost the entirety of the second period. The second period ending up being the only period the Rangers they played a complete, 200-foot game, and unsurprisingly, it was the one period they did all their scoring in.

4. The Flames entered the game having killed off 21 of 22 power plays this season, but their 95 percent success rate took a dip thanks to the Rangers’ first and second power-play units.

On their first power play of the game, it was the second unit that got the Rangers on the board and tied the game at 1 at 7:38 in the second. Kaapo Kakko was able to keep the puck in the zone on a failed clear attempt by Elias Lindholm, and as a result of Kakko’s play at the left blue line, the second unit was eventually able to set up on the opposite side. Alexis Lafreniere passed it off to Chytil who went to Erik Gustafsson at the point with it. Gustafsson threw a shot into traffic and Lafreniere, who had worked his way down low, deflected Gustafsson’s shot for his third goal of the season.

“We work a lot in practices at trying to get a stick on it, and we have really good (defensemen) who can find lanes,” Lafreniere said. “If you can get to the front, things will happen.”

5. Lafreniere is currently on pace for a 41-goal season. It’s unlikely he will keep that pace up, but for a player who has averaged .20 goals per game in his 216-game career, the early-season total is exciting. League history has endless examples of high first-round picks who found their game for good in their fourth season, and you don’t have to look any farther than Zibanejad for comparison. Zibanejad was the sixth overall pick in 2011, and it wasn’t until his fourth season in the league when he put together his first 20-goal campaign after a 16-goal campaign in his third season. Lafreniere’s third-season goal total? 16.

6. About five minutes of play later, the Rangers got their second power play of the night. Peter Laviolette opted to start the man-advantage with the second unit, but this time it would be the first unit that would come through. With 10 seconds left on the power play, Artemi Panarin, holding the puck at the top of the zone, fed Kreider the perfect pass at the goal line to deflect by Markstrom to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. The power-play goal was the Rangers’ sixth in six games, as Panarin kept his every-game-of-the-season point streak alive.

7. Less than three minutes later, on a 4-on-4, Chytil weaved his way through the offensive zone and ripped a shot from the top of the circles on goal. Markstrom squeezed his pads together, but the puck squeaked through his legs. Much like Kakko’s goal against Phillip Grubauer in Seattle, Gustafsson skated in and banged in the loose puck in the crease to make it 3-1.

8. The third period was played much like the first: a slog.

“I don’t think that we were full tilt tonight,” Laviolette said. “I thought we defended too much.”

The Rangers produced just one shot on goal in the first 10 minutes of the third, couldn’t generate any real scoring chances or create sustained pressure. They seemed content with running out the clock on their two-goal lead much to the chagrin of their head coach.

“I’d rather not sit back and try to hang on to that 3-1 lead,” Laviolette said. “I’d rather go down and press on the forecheck and fire 25, 30 attempts and 15 shots on net. But that didn’t happen.”

It didn’t happen against the inferior Flames, and it didn’t need to. Against a much better opponent, that kind of third period will likely get the Rangers in serious trouble. But with Shesterkin playing the way he did, showing up for one of three periods was enough. (Clear Sight Analytics Hockey had the Flames winning in expected goals 4.29 to 2.45.)

9. “We’re happy that we got the two points,” Chytil said, “but I think we set the bar a little higher than how we played tonight.”

The standard of play for the Rangers this season remains opening night in Buffalo, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising if that level of effort and domination isn’t matched again by the Rangers this season. That’s how nearly flawless they were in that game. Their next-best game came in Seattle. The win over the Flames wasn’t to the level of either of those two games, but like Chytil said, they got two points nonetheless.

10. “Every game can’t be an ‘A-plus’ game,” Laviolette said. “You want it to be, and then if it’s not, you try to fix it and correct it, so it is an ‘A’ game.

The Rangers have played one ‘A-plus’ game this season (Buffalo) and one ‘A’ game (Seattle). Despite their at times inconsistent play, they have still managed to win four of six, including their first two on their season-long, five-game West Coast and Western Canada road trip, proving even their ‘B’ or ‘C’ game is enough to get two points. It would be less stressful if every game were an ‘A’ or ‘A-plus’ effort, especially if one of those games were to happen in Edmonton on Thursday night.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

After a disappointing effort against Nashville in New York, the Rangers began their season-long, five-game road trip with their second-best effort of the season against in Seattle.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. I used to love the oddity of a Rangers West Coast road trip and the unusual start times. Now with two toddlers that wake up just a few hours after the end of a West Coast game, not so much.

The late-night starts are bad enough, but to have to endure four of them in a row in the second week of the season makes it even worse. Then add in a lighting delay a minute into the first of these games, and you have the scene from Saturday night in Seattle.

Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena underwent a $1.15 billion renovation prior to the Kraken beginning play in the NHL, yet somehow all of that money couldn’t prevent a bank of lights from going out midgame. About a minute into play, the Rangers and Kraken were forced to sit around after a dim landscape fell over the Rangers’ zone. Following a lengthy delay, the game was resumed under the agreement the teams would switch sides halfway through each period, so each team would have to defend the dim zone an equal amount.

2. The Kraken scored the game’s opening goal on a Justin Schultz one-timer just before the teams were to switch sides for the first time (8:41). Jonathan Quick slid too far to his right on the Schultz blast, and whether the goal was a result of the lightning issue or just a mistimed slide by Quick, the Rangers trailed 1-0 and it began to feel like the bank of lights would regain their power just as the Kraken were supposed to defend the dim zone.

3. Thankfully, the lights didn’t regain their power prior to the switch (and didn’t regain their power for the entirety of the game), and Artemi Panarin tied the game at 1 at 12:15 in the first.

As the first man in the zone on the forecheck, Alexis Lafreniere created pressure on Vince Dunn below the goal line and Dunn hastily threw the puck up the boards where Filip Chytil was waiting. Chytil immediately found Panarin all alone on the opposite side of the zone, fed him the puck, and Panarin ripped it shortside past Philipp Grubauer.

4. Early in the second, Jacob Trouba was called for boarding for a hit on Andre Burakovsky. It was a late hit by Trouba, but wasn’t vicious. In the moment, it was hard to believe the relative lack of force of by Trouba on the hit could even knock over Burakovsky. The Kraken forward’s awkward fall led to him leaving the game. Burakovsky had to undergo surgery for whatever happened to him on the play that will keep him out six to eight weeks. What the surgery was on or for is unclear as his absence has always been labeled an upper-body injury in the NHL’s continued silly characterization of injuries.

5. With the Rangers attacking the lit zone in the first half of the second period, Mika Zibanejad cleanly won a draw in the right circle back straight back to K’Andre Miller, and Miller set up Trouba for a one-timer from he point. Trouba’s shot squeaked threw the legs of Grubauer, and Kaapo Kakko outmuscled Brian Dumoulin to get behind the Kraken defenseman and bang in the puck sitting behind Grubauer in the crease for a 2-1 lead.

A little less than five minutes later, Lafreniere forced another turnover at the goal line, passed it off to Chytil who skated elegantly around the right circle. Chytil weaved through Dumoulin and Jaden Schwartz and flicked a backhand pass to Lafreniere who had positioned himself in the slot after forcing the turnover. Lafreniere deflected the puck over the shoulder of Grubauer, and the Rangers had a 3-1 lead.

6. With the Rangers attacking the dim zone to begin the third, Miller skated the puck up the ice and went untouched through the neutral zone with the Kraken choosing to not put a stick or body on the Rangers defenseman. Miller crossed the blue line and gave the puck up to Chytil who then gave it to Panarin streaking down the middle. Chytil’s pass was deflected into the air, but Panarin was able to glove it down to the ice. The puck never settled, and yet, Panarin was able to snap the bouncing puck past Grubauer for his second of the game to give the Rangers a three-goal lead.

Both of Panarin’s goals came in the dim zone (as did three of the game’s five goals). As the Rangers’ most productive player this season, he now has three goals and four assists on the year, having produced at least one point in all five games.

“For me, I want it darker, so it’s harder for goalies,” Panarin said. “That’s why I scored two.”

7. Chytil hasn’t found the back oft he net through five games, but his play is noticeable and his game has taken another positive step from the player he was a year ago. His three assists were a career best in a single game as he led all Rangers forwards in ice time with 19:14. It was his quick decision making that led to the Rangers’ first and third goals, and his pass with a little luck that led to the fourth goal.

“We had a tough last game,” Chytil said. “We just had to bounce back and this was the best scenario for what could happen.”

8. Nearly halfway through the third, the game got chippy with Yanni Gourde finding himself tangled up with Chris Kreider in front of the Rangers’ bench in what resulted in matching roughing penalties. A little over a minute later, Vincent Trocheck dropped the gloves with Jared McCann off a faceoff. It was just Trocheck’s sixth career fight (third with the Rangers), but you wouldn’t have guessed it with the way he used and landed both rights and lefts on McCann.

9. “I liked the way we skated and competed right from the drop of the puck,” Peter Laviolette said of the 4-1 win. “Pretty consistent for 60 minutes.”

It was easily the Rangers’ best game played and best effort since opening night in Buffalo, which continues to be the standard for how their play is evaluated. 

The Rangers may only be 3-2 on the season, but in terms of expected goals, they have outplayed their opponent in every game except for the ugly, shockingly bad game against Nashville. Courtesy of Clear Sight Analytics Hockey, here is the expected goals total for each of the Rangers’ five games.

Rangers 3.50, Sabres 1.41

Rangers 3.38, Blue Jackets 3.13

Rangers 3.25, Coyotes 2.59

Predators 3.48, Rangers 1.29

Rangers 4.78, Kraken 1.31

10. Coming off a disappointing effort against the Nashville, I wasn’t sure which version of the Rangers would take the ice in Seattle. But knowing what Laviolette is capable of as a head coach and what the roster is capable of as a team, it seemed unlikely they would lay two eggs in a row.

“Five games on the road is a long time,” Kakko said. “First win feels good.”

One down and four to go for the season’s longest road trip, with all four remaining games in Western Canada. If the Rangers play in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg like they did in Seattle, the lengthy road trip won’t feel so long.

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Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!

The Rangers no-showed at home on Thursday against Nashville and lost 4-1. At 2-2, they now head out on their longest road trip of the season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.

1. It’s hard to believe the Rangers team that played a near-flawless game in Buffalo last Thursday is the same Rangers team that played the Predators this Thursday. In a week’s time the Rangers went from looking like a team ready to take the next step in their quest for a championship to looking like a team that’s on their third head coach in four seasons for a reason.

“It was definitely our worst game of the season so far,” Jacob Trouba said. “We got outworked. We got out-battled. We got out-competed. We got beat.”

2. The Predators were playing an oddly scheduled, mid-week game in New York City sandwiched between four home games, and yet they never for a second of play looked like the visiting team that had the opportunity to explore everything the city has to offer the night before. Everything about the 4-1 loss was ugly, leaving nothing positive to take away from the fourth game and second loss of the season.

3. The Rangers were sloppy in all three zones, missing passes, overskating the puck and turning it over whenever pressured. Their defense lacked structure and organization, leading to costly mistakes and high-quality scoring chances for the Predators throughout the game.

“We gave up eight odd-man rushes and two breakaways,” Peter Laviolette said. “You’re just not going to find success unless you button that up.”

4. The first of those two breakaways gave the Predators a 2-0 lead when Cole Smith (who scored the Predators’ first goal on a rebound off a Tyson Barrie shot) hopped out of the penalty box to receive the gift of all gifts. A K’Andre Miller D-to-D saucer pass sauced right over Erik Gustafsson blade’s and landed on Smith’s tape, fleeing him for a breakaway opportunity that he successfully converted with 3:38 left in the first.

Just 3:22 into the second, the Predators extended their lead with a Ryan O’Reilly power-play goal, and 10 minutes later, they put the game away. Filip Forsberg carried the puck inside the Rangers’ zone, briefly fell to his knees, maintained possession, skated the puck to the right hash and blasted a slap shot over the left shoulder of Igor Shesterkin, ending Shesterkin’s night and essentially the game.

5. The remaining 26 minutes were nothing more than a formailty. There would be no Rangers Classic, game-of-the-year-type comeback. The only goal the Rangers were able to muster came on a 5-on-3 when an Adam Fox pass through the crease was deflected in by Ryan McDonagh. I can only imagine McDonagh was trying to pay homage to his former Rangers D partner Dan Girardi by inexplicably lying down in the crease to inadvertently score on his own goal. It was a beautiful tribute and one that likely conjured up some dark memories for Henrik Lundqvist.

6. Fox’s game on Thursday night summed up just how bad the Rangers were. Despite the fortunate, deflected goal, Fox had arguably the worst game of his career. He took two hooking penalties in the first 23 minutes of the game, misplayed the puck several times, couldn’t maintain his handle on the puck in the neutral zone on a 6-on-5 delayed penalty call and looked lost the entire night. Aspects of the game that come so easy to Fox, qualities that make him one of the best defensemen in the league vanished against the Predators and he spent the entire night fighting the play.

It’s not like Fox isn’t entitled to an off-night and it’s not as though he was even close to being the Rangers’ biggest issue in the loss, but it was startling to see him not be himself for an entire game. I guess if he were going to pick a night to play the way he did, he picked a good one, since the rest of the team played the same way.

7. Most offensive zone entries were met with a turnover, and in the rare instances when the Rangers were able to gain entry, their opportunities were one-and-done. There were no second chances and there wasn’t any sustained pressure for the entire game.

“Slow” would be the best way to summarize the Rangers’ effort. After the second period, Stephen Valiquette opined on MSG that he “anticipated the Rangers tonight looking like they did in Buffalo” and instead “It looks like they’re playing in quicksand a little bit.”

8. So far the Rangers have played four very different games. They have been at their absolute best (Buffalo), they have played well and lost (Columbus), they have played well and relied on their goaltending when they couldn’t find the back of the net (Arizona) and they have also not shown up (Nashville). As difficult as it is to remember a game in the last few seasons when the Rangers looked as good as they did against the Sabres, it’s equally as difficult to remember a game when they looked as bad as they did against the Predators.

9. This sporadic type of play was to be expected early in the season with a new head coach, a new system, a quarter of a new roster and new line combinations. The Buffalo game immediately set a standard for what the Rangers are capable of when everything goes right, but expecting that kind of game and effort each game was never realistic. Even still, I thought we may see it more nights than not.

That hasn’t happened. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It’s possible that version of this team (the very best version of this team) will be the team that takes the ice in Seattle on Saturday night. Given the way this team has historically played on the West Coast and in Western Canada, it’s not easy to envision.

10. About to embark on their longest road trip of the season, a five-game stretch in Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg, I think everyone expected a better all-around game for the home team that won’t play at home again until November 2. Rather than head out on the road on a high note, they leave having scored three goals in two home games, while committing 10 penalties. They leave with a 2-2 record against four teams that all missed the postseason a year ago, and will likely all miss it this season as well.

We know what the Rangers’ best looks like (Buffalo). We hopefully now know what their worst looks like (Nashville). Which version of the Rangers will show up on the West Coast and in Western Canada? I wish I knew.

Vintage Ice Hockey is the only company that sells premium-quality jerseys, apparel and team merchandise for defunct minor league hockey franchises. It’s a family-run, hockey fan-driven company that’s committed to celebrating and preserving the legacies of defunct minor league hockey franchises. Check out their collection spanning over 100 years of minor league hockey and use code KTTC for 15% off your order!