BUFFALO — The teachings of Peter Laviolette’s first training camp with the Rangers resonated enough for the team to translate it to the ice in the first game of the season.
It was evident that the Blueshirts had spent the last three weeks following a new voice.
One that had the club playing a much more structured style of hockey that led to a convincing 5-1 win over the Sabres Thursday night at KeyBank Center.
After enduring a slate of exhibition games that were naturally filled with disarray, the Rangers looked like a team that had absorbed every pointer it was given in the preseason and applied it the instant it actually mattered.
Perhaps the anticipated learning curve won’t be as arched as originally thought.
The Rangers had already built themselves a 3-0 lead just over halfway through the second period, but the defense up until that point was just as notable as the score.
Not only did the Rangers tilt the ice on offense, outshooting the Sabres 30-24 overall, but they looked vastly different in the neutral zone than they have in years past.
They anticipated passes and were simply in better position to limit offensive zone entries, in addition to showing a clear plan for how they wanted to push the puck up the ice.
Buffalo struggled to generate high-quality scoring opportunities through the first two periods in particular, while the Rangers doubled the home team’s high-danger chances, 6-3, over the same span, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Sabres couldn’t get one past a sharp Igor Shesterkin until the 18:30 mark of the middle frame, when JJ Peterka followed up on a blocked shot and cut the Rangers’ lead to two.
There haven’t been too many instances in recent years where the Rangers finished games just as effectively as they started them, or vice versa.
It was usually one or the other, but the 60-minute effort was there Thursday night.
After fighting off a 12-second 5-on-3 disadvantage later in the third period, Mika Zibanejad’s individual effort at the other end allowed the Rangers’ No. 1 center to dish to a streaking Chris Kreider for the shorthanded goal – his second of the night after a power-play tally in the first – and the 4-1 lead.
The first 20 minutes of Laviolette’s Rangers tenure couldn’t have gone any better unless the new head coach had drawn it up himself.
From puck drop, the newly constructed second line of Artemi Panarin, Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere was buzzing.
As a unit, they combined for two goals, including Panarin’s bullet from the slot for the 3-0 edge in the second.
The first goal of the Rangers’ season belonged to none other than Lafreniere, who put forth arguably one of his best games of his young career after drawing heaps of negative attention in the preseason.
It wasn’t just Lafreniere who struggled in the preseason, either.
The Rangers as a whole had some concerning moments.
Those games, however, didn’t count.