Rangers Recap: Rangers beat a team of individuals

As the old adage goes, a win is a win. The Rangers weren’t perfect, with Peter Laviolette saying the team defended a bit too much in the third, allowing Calgary to make it interesting with stretches of prolonged possession time. But the Rangers got the job done and came away with 2 points on the road.

The Calgary Flames are a mess right now as they transition from a legit contender a few years ago to whatever they are now. Their own players are calling themselves “a team of individuals”. Kind of interesting to see how that works on the opposite side where this Rangers team’s vibes are not only good, but their hockey has been sound.

You know who needed this game more than anything? Igor Shesterkin. As ridiculous as that sounds, he has struggled a bit early on in the season. Stopping 23 of 24 hopefully reset him a bit. He is probably adjusting to the fact that he’s not seeing 35+ shots a game, so perhaps he was just bored?

There’s a different mentality involved when your team is much better with the structure in front of the goaltender. While in the long run I know Shesterkin will be just fine and he’ll be Igor, last night felt “vintage” with a .958 SV%.

When it comes to season long narratives, can you name a player taking control of his own story more than Alexis Lafrenière this season? Last night’s powerplay goal gave him 3 goals on the season, and he’s looking to put the first three years of his career behind him. He is really clicking with Artemi Panarin and Filip Chytil.

Lafrenière is proving to be the entire package for Peter Laviolette: forechecker, trigger man, and playmaker. I can’t believe previous coaching staffs couldn’t get this out of him.

The Rangers didn’t get much going at even strength in this one, and their process was a little off. But sometimes you just find a way to win. Good habits with new coaches are sometimes hard to come by, and the Rangers have developed good habits with process and finding another gear when the process isn’t always there..

The 5 on 5 play overall has been much improved since this staff has taken over. Can they keep it rolling against a McDavidless Oilers team Thursday? We shall see!