Maybe it is the history that encourages — no, demands — skepticism over this 18-4-1 start that is the best in franchise history and has elevated the Rangers to the top of the NHL world.
Maybe it is the memory of last year’s collapse against the Devils. Maybe it is the hangover from the final four games of the Tampa Bay series the year before that.
Maybe it is 2015 and Game 7. Maybe it is 2014 and all the wrong calls that went against them in the Cup final. Maybe it is Adam Henrique ensuring that it was over in 2012.
Maybe it is all of it.
There is no maybe about it, is there?
This is the plight of the fan steeped in franchise lore. To be forever on the lookout for the black cloud that will darken the sunniest of skies. To be forever expecting that Lucy will snatch the ball away before the kick can be made.
But I’m here to tell you to enjoy this ride. Henrik Lundqvist always talked about appreciating the journey rather than fixating on the result. Ranger aficionados should enjoy this getaway, have fun watching this team and leave the worries for later.
Regarding the best team in hockey ahead of Tuesday night’s match in Ottawa:
- I don’t know whether Peter Laviolette used the carrot or the stick — likely a combination of both — with Alexis Lafreniere toward the end of training camp when the head coach scratched No. 13 from the penultimate exhibition match at New Jersey in which every other member of the varsity played.
But that became a watershed moment for the then-21-year-old, who would celebrate his next birthday the day before the season opener in Buffalo. The message was received. Loud and clear.
Laviolette mentioned a “reset” the following week in which Lafreniere noticeably amped up his game in the final preseason practices after an unimaginably bad start to camp in which he was being auditioned for a top-six role on the right.
The winger has never looked back.
If we’ve been talking about enjoyment, for the first time in his career, Lafreniere is playing with unbridled joy. You can see it in his step. You can see it in his presence.
The young man from Saint-Eustache, Quebec, has found his hockey soulmate in the winger across from him who hails from Korkino, Russia. Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin have been the team’s offensive engine, indeed combining for 17 of the Blueshirts’ 48 goals at five-on-five.
So perhaps Lafreniere can be excused from those attempted 65-foot passes across the offensive zone Sunday against San Jose when he was attempting to set up his buddy for a hat trick Panarin would ultimately record later.
Lafreniere makes plays, he goes to the net, he shoots the puck. He is physical. He is engaged. The four years of controversy or confusion about whether his skill set would allow a move to right wing always seemed silly. In retrospect, the whole thing was ludicrous.
Fortunately the hierarchy recognized that in time.
Four seasons later, introducing the first overall selection of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
- Cale Makar seemingly has a league-wide PR machine behind him, but it is difficult to imagine anyone being more valuable to his team thus far than Panarin. He should be the leader in the clubhouse for the Hart Trophy after finishing as runner-up in his first season on Broadway in 2019-20.
Folks thought that Laviolette might demand too much of Panarin. Folks thought very wrong. Panarin has refined his game a bit, there are nights where there is more simplicity to it, more straight-line to it, and less risk to it, but there’s no diminishing his creativity and vision.
He and Marian Gaborik are completely different players, but Panarin scoring from around the net reminds me of the Great Gabby doing the very same thing during his 41-goal season in 2011-12 when he was trying to make a point to then-head coach John Tortorella.
Panarin has developed a shooter’s mentality whether he wants to admit it or not. According to Natural Stat Trick, No. 10 is launching a career-high 19.65 shot attempts per 60:00. Last year, Panarin averaged 11.57 attempts per 60:00. The 32-year-old’s personal best had been 14.9 per 60:00, in 2019-20 when he recorded 32 goals and 95 points.
This, too: Panarin has cut his average shift length by 10 seconds to 0:51 after it ballooned to a career-high 1:01 a year ago. This represents his shortest shift length since he clocked in at 0:49 per as a rookie in Chicago in 2015-16.
Can you spell, r-e-d-e-m-p-t-i-o-n?
- Jacob Trouba is likely playing the most consistent hockey of his career, certainly so for his five seasons in New York, and I wonder if his reliably staunch defensive work — and how much of it — is connected to Laviolette’s decision to remove No. 8 from the power play.
The captain averaged 1:07 per game with the man-advantage last season on the second unit. He had averaged between 1:12 and 1:47 in his first four years as a Ranger, between 1:17 and 2:04 his six seasons in Winnipeg.
But Trouba this year has gotten a grand total of 4:28 on the power play that equals 12 seconds per game. That leaves all his minutes as defense-oriented ones.
- Jimmy Vesey, Nick Bonino, Tyler Pitlick, Erik Gustafsson, Jonny Brodzinski and Blake Wheeler, who account for an aggregate $4.775 million in payroll, have combined for 12 goals, 27 assists and a collective plus-eight.
Not bad work massaging the cap.