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

My three Rangers stars of the game

1. Jacob Trouba gets the nod as the top star because of the way he handled the pressure in his New York debut.  He played an excellent game and was as noticeable for his defense as he was for his offense.  He was playing his first game for a new team against the team he grew up with and he was outstanding.  That’s a number one star.
2. Mika Zibanejad is going to establish himself a one of the best centers in the NHL this season and he is well on his way.   Mark Scheifele may be the best center for Winnipeg, but he doesn’t kill penalties.  Zibanejad does everything. He was simply dominant.  All that is missing is the “C” on his sweater.
3. Henrik Lundqvist finally won his 450th game, becoming only the sixth NHL goalie to accomplish that feat.  Next on his list of targets is Curtis Joseph with 454 wins.  Lundqvist was really, really good in a game that was a flashback to the last two seasons. Get this, he never faced as many as 47 shots in a game last season. The last time he faced as many shots was March 2018 when Calgary had 51 shots  This was the ninth time in his career he has faced as many as 47 shots in a game. He has lost only one of those games in regulation going 4-1-4.

The official three stars

1. Mika Zibanejad
2. Jacob Trouba
3. Blake Wheeler

Next up

The Rangers travel to Ottawa to play the Senators on Saturday, October 5.   Gametime is 7pm.  Remember that the Rangers play only three games in the first 17 days of the season.  When asked if he liked the schedule since they would have a lot of practice time he gave a very succinct one word answer:  “No.”