The Rangers opened their 90th season in successful fashion, beating the Islanders 5-3. It was a total team effort, as five players scored in the win and everyone contributed in some fashion. Those five players were located on the four lines, which is what coach Alain Vigneault looks for, balance throughout the lineup.

Carp put in best: "All the questions, for one night, were answered in the affirmative as they checked a lot of boxes: Defend around the front of their net? Check. Kill penalties? Check. Create on the power play? Check. Use their new speed? Eye-popping check. Compete in every portion of the rink? Check. Do it for the full 60? Check. Get important saves from their goaltender (does this one need to be asked?)? Check." For one night at least, it all came together. I will add one more to the mix, resiliency. After seeing a 2-0 lead dissipate 4:04 into the third period. the Rangers reacted as a good team would. By putting on their big boy pants, picking up their game and scoring a pair of goals to earn the victory.

The first goal was defense leading to offense. A breakout from the defensive zone. Jesper Fast to Brandon Pirri for a shot, Michael Grabner burning to the net to bury the rebound. A nice three-man wave up the ice, speed through the neutral zone and Grabner hard to the net to pick up the garbage.

The second goal was a bit of a lucky bounce, as Mats Zuccarello's shot hit off Ryan Strome's skate and in. But the play was first made by Mike Zibanejad, who went through the legs and got the puck in deep, The puck went to Brady Skjei, who found Zucc in the slot for the backhander.

Down 2-0 into the third, you knew the Islanders would pick up their game. They clearly did. A good defensive play and then transition through the neutral zone. Nikolai Kulemin went hard to the net, taking Zib with him, but no one picked up Nick Leddy coming down the slot. That was an issue last year and resulted in the goal, as Casey Cizikas found a wide open Leddy, who beat Henrik Lundqvist.

The second goal was very similar. Pavel Buchnevich, who was good throughout the game, threw the puck across the offensive zone to no one and the Islanders picked it up to break out. On the odd-man rush, Buchnevich was late on Kulemin, resulting in Marc Staal choosing to chase Kulemin, allowing Cal Clutterbuck to go unfettered through the slot enabling him to deflect Kuleimin's shot past Lundqvist.

This is where the Rangers rebounded. Lundqvist left the puck for Nick Holden, who moved it to Buchnevich, who threw a touchdown pass about four feet in the air to Kreider. CK20 turned on the jets and despite being slashed, went forehand/backhand to beat Jaroslav Halak and give the Rangers the lead once again.

The Kreider-Zib-Buch line was very good all night. As Carp noted: "Kreider carried over his monstrous play from preseason, using his big body and his wheels in the offensive zone. Zibanejad was fabulous. He just seems to have a sense of where his teammates are. Such a good skater, with such good vision, and hand skills and shot. Buchnevich, except for his turnover on the rush then not getting back to help prevent the first Islanders goal, had a tremendous game for an NHL debut." Get used to seeing some magic from this trio during the year. Call it whatever number line you want, but that trio should be very impressive.

The fourth goal came about due to a hunch. Up 3-2 with just over four minutes remaining, this is normally where the Rangers would go with two d-men on the PP. instead, AV went with Pirri as one of the point men, noting after the game, “I was going to go with him for 30 seconds and then use two defensemen [on the points] after that.”

Pirri made AV's gut move pay off. Kreider jumped on a rebound in the slot, had no shot, and back-handed a pass to Pirri, who slit down from the point. He blasted the puck into the open side of the net, upping the margin to 4-2. His goal turned out to be the winner, as after JT Miller notched the empty netter, the Islanders made it 5-3 on a goal that looked like what we saw last season. A 2-on-3 that turned ugly when Zuccarello took a wrong turn and Stepan lost his man, allowing Brock Nelson to score.

Despite a few bobbles, I saw improvement throughout:

- a real strong game by Dan Girardi. If G can play like this daily, the D will be a lot better
- speed, speed, speed. That speed will create chances and force turnovers
- four lines that can score and transition from D to O
- the blue line for the most part was good. Ryan McDonagh look more like his 2013-14 self. Holden and Skjei acquitted themselves well as well. The only so-so d-man was Marc Staal.
- solid play from Lundqvist, who made 25 saves, including several early in the game. As noted in the paper, he defeated Halak (34 saves) in a head-to-head matchup, including international competition, for the first time since Jan. 17, 2010, when Halak was with the Canadiens.
- one criticism. Rangers did a great job on the opening ceremony, bringing back players from their history to celebrate the 90th season. But no Neil Smith smacks of pettiness. You had Mike Keenan there, so how do you not have Smith, who was the GM that put the team together, at the event?

Look for the lineup to be the same Saturday night in St. Louis.

Join the Discussion: » 355 Comments » Post New Comment

» Game 2: Rangers hold on for 4-3 win and 2-0 series lead

» Game 1: Rangers hold serve at home 4-1 over Caps behind the fourth line

» 2024 Series Overview and Preview - Round 1 - Rangers-Capitals

» Rangers-Capitals: Reading the Numbers, Looking for an Advantage

» Rangers-Capitals meet again, though for first time since 2015, in playoffs