The Rangers picked up their first point of the season, falling 3-2 to the Stars in overtime. On a night where they honored Rod Gilbert, New York came out to a slow start, but picked up speed and found their game in the second period and carried play throughout the remainder of the game. Adam Fox was his dominant self once again and the best Blueshirt on the ice.
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1)
Fox - brilliant throughout, takes his game to another level when needed. Strong defensively, has a knack of getting out of trouble in his own zone without taking a straight on hit. Offensively, possesses the ability to make others miss to create room, time and space. This was evident on his goal along with other instances, where he used his innate ability to stickhandle to shake a defender.
2)
Style of play - Larry Brooks summarized nicely in his column. In addition, Chris Kreider noted that they spoke about "will coming before skill." New York flipped the game when they started going north-south not east-west, playing a more grinding style where they used their speed to go more downhill and then their size to gain advantages on the boards and down low. When the team can combine both aspects, they are a much harder squad to defend.
The Rangers carried the play for most of the final 35 minutes of regulation, creating rolling thunder with a four-line rotation with one unit after another putting the puck in deep and consistently going to work below the hash marks.
Barclay Goodrow had himself a night, with head coach Gerard Gallant using No. 21 on every line at different junctures of the game. Indeed, immediately prior to Kreider’s goal, Gallant moved Goodrow into Alexis Lafreniere’s spot at left wing on the Kreider-Mika Zibanejad unit. Bingo.
The second-period charge — the Rangers out-attempted Dallas 28-7 at five-on-five and 37-12 overall — was actually ignited by a strong offensive-zone shift by the third line consisting of Goodrow, Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier, the winger getting into the lineup in place of the ailing (lower body) Sammy Blais. After that, the Blueshirts were off to the races; er, trenches.
3)
Nils Lundkvist - solid overall, got better as the game wore on and jitters ended. Earned the solo lap to start pre-game, as is the norm for rookies. Was on the ice for the first Dallas goal against, taking puck in his skates and then being a little indecisive on whether to charge or lay back. That will come as he gets more experience and adapts to the speed of the game. He should be in the lineup every game moving forward.
4)
Igor Shesterkin had a strong game, though he possibly should have been able to stop the winning goal and maybe the first one. But he came up with several stellar saves to keep the team in the game early and then tied later. If Igor is not in net Saturday, storming the castle would be a recommended approach.
5)
Kreider - net front presence again. Gets dirty goals on deflections. Hard to move and a stalwart on the power play, especially since the first unit remains out the majority of the man-advantage. Leader on and off the ice.
6)
Jacob Trouba was much better than in game one. A hitting machine, especially when game turned in second period. Unsure what he was doing on the ice on the 3-on-3 in overtime and why he was cruising back in the zone to defend Miro Heiskanen's breakaway. Only possibility is he was concerned with the trailer and wanted Igor to take the Heiskanen and he would mark the trailer, but the effort looks odd.
7)
Special teams - power play didn't score, but boy did they look good. first unit is still on too long, but when they click, they will post goals in bunches. The penalty kill is still a work in progress, adjusting to new personnel after losing Pavel Buchnevich and Brendan Smith from last year's unit.
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