The Rangers opened their five-game road trip with a dominant 4-1 win over the Kraken. New York's victory continued their pattern of good game-bad game, as they entered the contest off a brutal 4-1 loss to Nashville. Saturday, the Blueshirts' flipped the switch back to what we saw in games 1 and 3 of the season.
A few thoughts:
1) The young 'uns: all the "kids" contributed to the win and were major keys to the victory. Saturday might have been Alexis Lafreniere's most complete contest of his career. He was engaged, he was physical, he was creative and he was all over the place. Laf's goal came about due to hard work, aided by Will Cuylle's physical play, Filip Chytil's brilliant dish and Laf;s finding of space and quick shot.
Cuylle has shown he is not overwhelmed by the speed or physical play of the game. He has carried forward his strong pre-season and earned his ice time. When Peter Laviolette double shifts on that third line, it's Blake Wheeler rightfully sitting, not Cuylle.
Chytil was rolling last night. Three assists and he could have more. Chytil had 11 shot attempts, including five on goal, not including hitting the post. Chytil was creative, aggressive and dominant in the win. He wanted and demanded the puck throughout the game, resulting in a team-high 10:04 of ice time. When he plays like this, the Rangers are heard to beat.
If you want, add in K'Andre Miller to this list, as he had a pair of assists and was far better defensively than he was Thursday and recently.
2) Jonathan Quick was solid in the start. He wasn't called upon to make many saves, just 18, and did not have a period when he saw double-digit shots. But when he needed to be big, he was. In the first, he robbed Oliver Bjorkstrand with a glove save. In the third, Quick had a pair of stellar saves, including one on Jaden Schwartz when he went from one side of the net to the other to stone a Grade A chance. The performance earned Quick his first win as a Ranger and 379th of his career.
Dare I ask the question of with Igor Shesterkin up-and-down to start the season, like the team, through four games, do you go with Quick on Tuesday in Calgary?
3) Artemi Panarin is rolling. Maybe his hair was the anti-Samson and he needed to cut it all off to find his game. Maybe he is just in a much better mindset now, and yes, maybe it's because it's just the regular season (cognizant the latter will be the story until April). Whatever the reason, Panarin is on fire.
Offensively, he has been brilliant. His two goals - opening and closing the scoring for the Rangers - extended Panarin's season-opening point streak to five games, during which he's posted a team-high seven points (three goals and four assists). Almost as impressive and the component for which he has been criticized has been his play on the defensive end. Panarin has been engaged on the forecheck, trying to create turnovers and turn those into offense.
What I have liked the most from Laviolette is that he rewards players who are succeeding in-game. As noted above, he has double-shifted Panarin, recognizing when the winger has it rolling. The Panarin-Chytil-Laf line most certainly was dominant last night.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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