As Rangers Captain Jacob Trouba said after the game, if the Rangers play all 82 games like that, they’re going to be in damn good shape. The New York Rangers kicked off the 2022-23 season with a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in what may have been one of their most complete all around games in a long time. The Blueshirts out shot, out hit, outperformed their opponent, winning face-offs and puck battles almost as if they were in mid-season form.
ESPN robbed Rangers fans of enjoying the player introductions but at least we did get to welcome back John Brancy for the national anthem. From there, official Chris Rooney greeted hockey fans to the new season despite the regular season already starting in Czech Republic over the weekend, a country the NHL is apparently already no longer welcome in and just like that, the puck dropped and we were underway!
As expected, there were plenty of kinks to work out in the front half of the opening period but once everyone got a feel for the ice, it was all business from there. Initial impressions from the Rangers in period one were certainly positive and Kaapo Kakko was one of the standouts. He looked right at home on that top line with Zibanejad and Kreider playing strong on the puck and generated a couple of great shifts and scoring chances. The one major downside to the outcome of the season debut was losing Vitaly Kravtsov early in the first period to a questionable, awkward hit from Victor Hedman. The refs did not hesitate to blow the whistle once we got out of the first period but they let a lot slide in the first and the hit to Kravtsov was without a doubt one of them. Early indications seem to suggest it’s not a major injury to Kravtsov but we’ll know more once he gets evaluated. Just an incredibly unfortunate situation for the Rangers prospect who is generating quite an unlucky streak early in his Rangers tenure.
The refs finally called a penalty late in the first, sending Erik Cernak off for holding Kaapo Kakko giving us our first look at the Rangers power play unit. The unit is extremely similar to what it was last year just replacing Ryan Strome with Vincent Trochcek and despite only capitalizing once during the game, that top power play unit looked incredible. Andrei Vasilevskiy was a huge reason why the Rangers only won the game 3-1 as the Blueshirts had quite a surplus of grade A scoring chances. However, for as strong as Vasilevskiy played, Shesterkin played just as well, shutting down several Lightning chances including a breakaway chance for Brayden Point who looked to be in great shape after missing a good chunk of the playoffs with his injury.
The penalties without a doubt picked up in the second period as Vincent Trocheck went off for holding just over two minutes into the period. Luckily for the Rangers, the penalty kind of worked in their favor as Mika Zibanejad found the back of the net on a 2-on-1 to claim the first goal of the Rangers season. Zibanejad had Kreider with him but the defender took that option from Mika, forcing him to have great patience with the puck, pulling off a beautiful move to his backhand where he roofed the puck past Vasilevskiy. Getting Mika going early in the season is going to be huge for the team's overall success and there’s no question he looked phenomenal in the season opener.
The penalty train kept chugging along as the refs assigned K’Andre Miller and Barclay Goodrow minor penalties for tripping and elbowing the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel. Tripping calls are always kind of tough to call but the hand could’ve stayed down for this one. However, the Goodrow hit that immediately followed was pretty clearly a high hit. Nevertheless, the Rangers were given the task of killing off a 5-on-3 Tampa man advantage. Sure enough, the Lightning capitalized thanks to a rocket of a shot from Steven Stamkos. This let K’Andre Miller out of the box and the team was able to kill off the remainder of the Goodrow penalty. The Rangers would get two more power play opportunities in the remaining duration of the second period and although they didn’t find the back of the net, the top unit continued to look incredibly strong.
The third period would finally allow the Rangers power play unit to get on the board and once again, it was Mika Zibanejad with his rocket of a one timer beating Andrei Vasilevskiy on the back door. The fourth time in his career netting a shorthanded and power play goal in the same game, fifth player in league history to do it in the season opener. In the time surrounding the Rangers taking a lead over the Bolts, they were busy killing more penalties as Goodrow, Carpenter and Chytil were all called for either tripping or holding. With about nine minutes to go, the Rangers fourth line featuring Goodrow in place of Vesey, (Lines jumbled all night with the Kravtsov injury) went to work on a great shift that started with Ryan Carpenter cycling the puck down low. With good pressure from Reaves, Carpenter got the puck to Lindgren who let a shot go that was tipped in by Barclay Goodrow. A perfectly executed goal that you love to see from your fourth line. While Jimmy Vesey is fine to have in that spot, you have to think once Blais is healthy he can slot in to where Gallant had Goodrow on line three and Goodrow can move to four with Carpenter and one of Reaves, Vesey, Hunt depending on match ups.
The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy as time ran out but weren’t able to generate much. Mika Zibanejad was inches away from the hat trick when he cleared the ice, hitting a post on the empty net. As time ran out and the horn sounded, the Rangers gathered around Igor Shesterkin to deliver helmet taps as Madison Square Garden queued up We Are The People. The Rangers win their season opener and should have nothing but smiles going into their first back to back series on the road with Minnesota and Winnipeg. They’ll have a day to travel and prepare for their next outing and awaiting updates on Blais and Kravtsov will be among the pressing topics in the meantime.
Chris Feldman
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