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The Rangers followed up a tough weekend loss in Columbus with a tough home-opening win over Arizona.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Rangers.
1. I knew the Rangers’ effort produced in the season opener in Buffalo wasn’t going to be something to expect night in and night out for 82 games, but I didn’t think it would evade them so quickly. Certainly not two nights later against the Blue Jackets.
“Tough game, tough game,” Peter Laviolette said of the 5-3 loss in Columbus. “Funny game, tough game.”
The Saturday night loss to the Blue Jackets was a letdown. After the Rangers took an early 1-0 lead (50 seconds in) on a lucky bounce/redirect off a skate, I think everyone thought the Rangers would run away with the game. Joe Micheletti mentioned how a young Blue Jackets team that had a tough season a year ago and a tough opening night could easily let the game get away from them if the Rangers could extend their first-period lead, and the Rangers nearly did so … twice.
2. A pair of first-period goals by the Rangers were called back after Blue Jackets challenges for offside. Both plays were barely off (which is why they weren’t called off in real time), but off nonetheless. Once those goals were called back, a feeling of impending doom for how the game would play out began to settle in. That feeling proved right.
After the two non-goals, Elvis Merzlikins turned into a brick wall and once he left the game with an injury, backup Spencer Martin played the same. On top of the Blue Jackets getting surprising all-world goaltending, every extended shift for the Rangers in the Blue Jackets’ zone was immediately met with a Blue Jackets goal.
“There were some odd-man rushes I didn’t like,” Laviolette said, “there wasn’t overwhelming amounts of it, but the ones we didn’t take charge of, they came back the other way and bit us.”
3. Ryan Lindgren’s absence due to an upper-body injury had a distinct impact on the loss as the Braden Schneider-Zac Jones pairing had a rough game. Even still, the Rangers had opportunities to take the lead and then to tie the game and then to get back in the game, but nearly every time, Merzlikins and Martin made spectacular saves.
“Offensively I felt we pushed the entire game, especially in the third,” Laviolette said, “we just couldn’t seem to get it in.”
4. Monday night’s home opener was a different story. The Rangers didn’t provide the type of stunning, nearly flawless effort from Buffalo, but they managed to beat Arizona 2-1. Laviolette called it a “hard-fought win” and “gusty effort” and that’s putting it mildly.
The Rangers were up against it all game with Connor Ingram continuing the trend started by Merzlikins and Martin in Columbus of the Rangers getting the absolute best from the opposing goalie. Thankfully, the Coyotes got the absolute best from their opposing goalie as well.
5. After being barely challenged in Buffalo, Igor Shesterkin had an off-night in Columbus. He bounced back on Monday and gave the Rangers their first “Igor” game of the season. They desperately needed it.
Through the first two periods, the Coyotes were granted five man-advantages to the Rangers’ two. Two of the Coyotes’ five came at the same (18;41 of the second) with Alexis Lafreniere going off for a soft slashing call and Lindgren joining him in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct for shooting the puck at the boards after the call on Lafreniere. After scoring the game-tying goal earlier in the second on the power play, the Coyotes would have full, two-minute 5-on-3 power play. The Rangers managed to kill off the entire two-man advantage with blocked shots from their triangle and saves from Shesterkin.
6. “Theres nothing that goes up on the scoreboard from a 5-on-3 kill,” Laviolette said, “but I do think that everyone else feeds off of that.”
The Garden showered the Rangers with appreciation for the two-minute, two-man kill, and when the Rangers finally received a power play o their own a few minutes later, they took the lead. Vincent Trocheck did his best Chris Kreider impression and deflected home an Artemi Panarin shot into traffic.
With the Rangers unable to extend their lead, and clinging to their 2-1 advantage, Barclay Goodrow held on to Jason Zucker on a breakaway and the new Coyote was awarded a penalty shot.
Zucker came down the right side and rather than deke, tried to beat Shesterkin with a shot past his blocker.
7. “On the penalty shot, it is more like mind games,” Shesterkin said. “So when Zucker moved on the right side, I was looking for the shot on the blocker side.”
Shesterkin kept his perfect “mind games” record in tact with the save, improving to 4-for-4 in stopping penalty shots in his career.
After that, it was all about the Rangers holding on for dear life over the final 4:48, which they did.
8. The Rangers power play scored for a third straight game to open the season, and Kreider has now scored in a ll three games as well. The Panarin-Filip Chytil-Lafereniere line has been superb to begin the season, but the Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Kaapo Kakko line has been every bit as good, if not better. The Rangers finally have a true, defeined top six.
“To me, it’s been a really good line,” Laviolette said of the Zibanejad line, which provided the game’s first goal on a 2-on-1. “(Kreider) has been a noticeable impact player for us.”
9. The Rangers have looked extremely different in all three games this season. In Buffalo, they looked like the best team in the league. In Columbus, they fought the game and bad bounces with nothing coming easy after the two disallowed goals. At the Garden, they had to rely on their goaltending.
“I think that you’re going to have to figure out how to win a lot of different ways,” Laviolette said of his team’s effort after the home opener.
10. The Rangers became too reliant on Shesterkin under Gerard Gallant, and when Shesterkin didn’t provide a historic effort (like he did for all of 2021-22), it was challenging for them to win. That’s no longer the case. Sure, there will be times when Shesterkin will get them two points on his own, but it won’t be a nearly-every-game necessity.
“It’s a long road,” Laviolette said about his team’s varying performance through the first three games. “We don’t have to be perfect or perfectly ready tonight.”
The Rangers have been mostly good through three games, and for one of those three nights they were almost perfect. Over time, they won’t need to be to win games. Not with this coach and this roster.
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!
Rangers Thoughts Presented by Vintage Ice Hockey: The Igor Shesterkin Show added by Neil Keefe on
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