From a downright awful performance in Boston to a thrilling come from behind victory last night, the Rangers gave us another rollercoaster weekend. Losing in Boston was a gut punch, but they made up for it with a huge two points and a three goal third period to knock off Vegas. Jonathan Quick became the first ever American born goalie to get to 400 wins. With all of the great goalies this game has seen, it’s incredible it took until 2025 for an American to hit this milestone.

It’s early, but JT Miller is certainly making his presence known with 2 goals and 2 assists in his 2 games. He is doing exactly what the Rangers acquired him to do: Give the team an offensive boost and a boost in the locker room. He’s been heavily involved in the forecheck and has been winning his one-on-one battles. He was certainly an upgrade, but the Rangers do need more if they want to be real contenders.

Though it was a night of many triumphs and good vibes, I don’t know how much more of Ryan Lindgren I can watch. The man has literally bled for this team, but night after night he is getting exposed because he lacks the foot speed needed to properly defend in Peter Laviolette’s defensive schemes. The goal against by Jack Eichel is a perfect example as Lindgren didn’t step up at the blue line, allowed an easy entry into the zone, and Eichel went around him and beat Quick.

It’s not just the goals against though, Lindgren is affecting the play of Adam Fox, who has to compensate for him. The Rangers won’t be true contenders until he is no longer the 1LD.

But with the bad comes more good, and Mika Zibanejad looks revitalized in 2025. He’s notoriously hard on himself, and while he hasn’t been perfect, he’s been far better the last month. You can tell from his goal celebration that he may finally be confident in his abilities again, and the vibes around him are starting to change.

He probably shouldn’t be the 1RW at even strength, but that new trio with him, Miller, and Artemi Panarin has been great in two games. His shift to 1RW has created a hole at 3C to go with the 1LD hole, but it has given the Rangers another true scoring line. If we see it, then Chris Drury sees it as well. With just three games before the February break, and many GMs treating this as a soft deadline, we may see another move before they all get two weeks off.

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