Nov 11, 2023

Rangers Thoughts Presented by Vintage Ice Hockey: Another Starting Goalie, Another Win

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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.