Is Game 2 of 82 too early to say this team is elite? The New York Rangers got off to the effective start they were hoping for and achieved their goal of soiling the Minnesota Wild’s home opener, putting up seven goals in the process. In what became a bit of a strange game with lots of penalties and varying intensity levels, the Rangers stayed the course and kept finding the back of the net to ensure they took care of business, remaining perfect to start the season.
It wouldn’t take long for them to get after it as Jacob Middleton of the Wild tripped up Ryan Carpenter just over three minutes in to put the Rangers power play unit to work early. Sure enough, Chris Kreider did what Kreider does best, in establishing dominant net front presence as Mika Zibanejad found him wide open on the backdoor. Anyone who was worried about Chris Kreider regressing this season can certainly put those feelings on a shelf for the time being.
As we neared the final stretch of period one, line two went to work as Panarin did a great job of opening up the ice, finding Alexis Lafreniere who sent it across to Adam Fox for his first of the season to five the Rangers a 2-0 lead. One thing that became evident throughout this outing would be how good that line of Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere looked. You have to wonder at what point does Lafreniere’s preference of the left side kind of go out the window as it’s likely in his best interest as well as the team’s to have him on the right side. Speaking of the right side.. Let’s go a little out of order and talk about the Rangers other young, emerging star and how he’s doing on that top line with Mika and Kreider.
Kaapo Kakko, found the back of the net early in the third period for the Rangers sixth of the night, scoring an almost identical goal to the one he scored during training camp his draft year in Traverse City, ironically enough also against the Wild. A tremendous individual effort to get around the net, finding his ice and taking the puck straight to the back of the net. I’m all for team work but man, if Kakko can be a little selfish now and then, moving confidently with the puck in a way we’ve only really seen from Rick Nash in the past, he’s absolutely going to have that breakout year. Kakko’s goal also completed a “kid line hat-trick” as Filip Chytil put away a loose puck toward the end of the second period. While all three of them are currently on separate lines, they’re all playing incredibly well in these early parts of the season.
While our breakout star candidates had themselves a solid night, our current superstar had himself a pretty stellar night, putting up four points in the process. Artemi Panarin not only scored to put the Rangers up 3-0 toward the end of the third, but assisted on three other goals throughout the night. One of which came on Vincent Trocheck’s first goal as a Ranger early in the third period of a one timer from the face-off dot. Panarin made a great defensive play to regain possession after Lafreniere’s initial shot got blocked in front. The last Rangers goal came from none other than Chris Kreider on a beautiful tip-in from a K’Andre Miller shot to finalize the score at 7-3. On Minnesota’s end, goals came from Matt Boldy (2) and of course, former Rangers icon, Mats Zuccarello.
Overall, you really can’t ask for much more when the team puts up seven goals, especially on the road. Special teams definitely had their work cut out for them last night as both teams had their fair share of penalties. We had our first tilt of the season as Ryan Reaves and Marcus Foligno went at it midway through the third following a rough hit to K’Andre Miller. Despite being cut from the hit, it seemed that Miller was fine for the rest of the game so there shouldn't be much to worry about moving forward. And with that, we’re on to Winnipeg!
Rangers Game Day @ Winnipeg Jets 10/14/2022
The beauty of the back to back is we get to do it all again tonight as the Rangers head across the border to take on the Winnipeg Jets! Tonight will likely be Jaro Halak’s first regular season start as a Rangers as they look to keep the ball rolling against a team that’s approaching a bit of a reset. The Winnipeg Jets had a pretty disappointing season last year and have a lot of internal issues that resulted in some leadership changes. Long time Jets/Thrashers veteran Blake Wheeler was stripped of the captaincy in the off-season. Many players both current and former Jets spoke about these issues after their season ended and it seems that management is taking notice and addressing it.
As the franchise begins to reset, they’re in sort of an interesting position for this season and likely next. They’re not really a playoff team but still, they have some really good pieces such as Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey. They have one of the best goalies in the league in Connor Hellebuyck making goal scoring no easy feat for opposing teams. Lucky for the Rangers, they’re coming off a seven goal win last night and found ways to beat Vasilevskiy in game one proving they have no problem beating good goalies. Winnipeg didn’t have many off-season additions as it may come as a shock but it isn’t easy attracting free agents when team morale is in the gutter. They brought in Sam Gagner and a couple other depth pieces but for the most part, this team is the same team that finished 6th in the Central with 89 points last season.
Similarly to Minnesota last night, the Jets have yet to play a game this season so the Rangers will once again have the opportunity to soil any hopes of a big season opener for the home team. Canada Life Centre isn’t an easy building to play in when the crowd is into it and the Rangers are coming into tonight tired having traveled and played the night before. Nevertheless, this will be another great test to see just how powerful this Rangers team is that has shown nothing but promise so far.
Aside from Halak likely getting the start tonight, there probably won’t be many changes to the lineup. The one question mark will undoubtedly be whether or not Sammy Blais is ready to return. Gallant has yet to rule him out for the second game of the back to back and he did make the trip with the team so you have to hope that he will be an option for tonight. If he isn’t, we’ll see the same lineup as last night but in the event that he’s given the green light, we can expect to see:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere
Goodrow - Chytil - Blais
Vesey - Carpenter - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Jones - Schneider
If the Rangers stick to their game and play even remotely close to how they have in the first two outings, they should have no problem taking care of the Jets. It’ll be interesting to see how the team does in their first back to back of the year and whether or not Sammy Blais makes his season debut. Either way, it should be great Friday night action as this team is certainly showing signs of becoming a fun one to watch night in and night out.
Chris Feldman
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