A thrilling opening night 6-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets

The New York Rangers won their home opener over the Winnipeg Jets 6-4.  It was a wild game that was probably a preview of what is to come this season.

What a first game for these new New York Rangers.  Leads were exchanged, goal were swapped within seconds and there were some fabulous saves.  This is what this Ranger season will be like.  Lots of offense.  Shaky defense and goalies under siege. If the Blueshirts can win a majority of these games all the better.  If they lose, it will still be exciting.

The newcomers made their mark and the veterans chipped in during this roller coaster of a match. It was a member of the team’s youth movement who scored the winning goal. .

Ironically, it was the second most senior Ranger who got the team on the board.  Marc Staal drove to the net and scored on a wraparound goal eight minutes into the first period.

Staal scored on assists from Mika Zibanejad and Anthony DeAngelo.   Going ahead was big for the Blueshirts who looked shaky in the opening period.  They had a hard time establishing any kind of offensive structure and the Jets were buzzing. Sure enough, at the 17:23 mark, Mark Scheifele knotted the score on a point blank shot from the slot as he was left uncovered.   The Jets spent some quality time in the Ranger zone and Lundqvist had to do a lot of work as they outshot the Blueshirts 13-7. The Rangers were lucky to escape tied 1-1.

Josh Morrissey took a slashing penalty as the first period ended and the Rangers power play made them pay just 27 seconds into the second period.  Of course, it was Artemi Panarin who scored his first goal as a Ranger.

It took the Jets all of 30 seconds to tie the score on the first of Blake Wheeler‘s two goals. DeAngelo and Staal were caught flatfooted by Nicolaj Ehlers who made a perfect pass the Wheeler streaking down the right wing.  It was a goal that shouldn’t have been scored, but all of the Rangers on the ice looked like they were still caught up in the Panarin goal.

Six minutes later, Jacob Trouba joined Panarin as a first time goal scorer scoring on a slapshot from the blue line.  It was a knuckler that went in off the crossbar.

With the Rangers up 3-2, this time it took Blake Wheeler nine seconds to tie the score. This  was a goal that Henrik Lundqvist would want back. Wheeler broke in over the blue line and looked to be making a pass, but took the shot and it beat Lundqvist.

The Jets continued their domination of the Rangers, outshooting them 20-14.

Two minutes into the third period, Brad Skjei took a delay of game penalty and the Jets cashed in quickly.  Josh Morrissey took a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle and Kyle Connor deflected the puck.  Lundqvist got a piece of it, but it trickled past him barely crossing the goal line.   That made the score 4-3 and it felt like last season.

Two minute later, the Rangers best player took over.  Jacob Trouba sprung Mika Zibanejad for a breakaway with a nice pass.   Zibanjead doesn’t miss on those and he didn’t.

With the score tied 4-4 and just over four minutes left in the game, it was the third line that took over.  Brett Howden won a faceoff in the Jets zone and  went to the front of the net with Brendan Lemieux.  Brady Skjei got the puck to Jesper Fast who took the shot.  Howden got to the rebound in a scramble in front of the net and put it in.

It got a little dicey with  1:37 left when Jesper Fast took a holding penalty, but the Blueshirts withstood the Jets offense and Brendan Smith sealed the deal with an empty net goal.  Henrik Lundqvist finally got win number 450.

Lundqvist stopped 43 of 47 shots and looked to be in mid-season form.  It wasn’t pretty, but it was fun.