Rangers Shine Through the Lights-Out Performance in Seattle

Read about the Rangers’ electrifying performance in Seattle after a light delay, as they dazzled with a 4-1 win and left fans beaming with pride!

New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette was in a bind. He had to decide whether to shake things up to send a clear message or stick to the same game plan and see how this revamped team would respond.

The Blueshirts hit the road for a season-long five-game bender out west.
They were coming off a concerning 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday, where their captain, Jacob Trouba, didn’t hold back. He said they got outplayed, outbattled, and outcompeted.

Laviolette, went with the latter option. He rolled out the same lineup when they faced the Seattle Kraken on Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena.

And what do you know? It worked like a charm! The Rangers looked like a completely different squad in their 4-1 victory over the Kraken, even though the player arrangements remained unchanged.

That was worthy of Laviolette tapping each player on the back as they left the ice.
Sometimes, consistency can be the secret sauce for success.

The game got off to a rocky start, with an 11-minute light delay on New York’s side of the ice.  The teams had to switch sides midway through each period. However, according to the folks at Blue Collar Blueshirts on Twitter, the lighting problem “Wasn’t that bad,” so I guess they weren’t playing in the dark.

On MSG network, Steve Valiquette mentioned that goalies train with white pucks in the offseason for situations like these – maybe they should’ve brought out the glow-in-the-dark ones!

Play resumed, and Seattle struck first. Yanni Gourde won an offensive faceoff against Filip Chytil, and the Rangers couldn’t get the puck back. Eeli Tolvanen’s keep-in led to Brian Dumoulin finding Justin Schultz, whose one-timer beat Jonathan Quick. The Kraken took a 1-0 lead, but New York  weren’t ready to walk the plank yet.

The Blueshirts had an answer, thanks to their revamped Artemi Panarin-Filip Chytil-Alexis Lafreniere line. They outshot Seattle 18-10 in 13:45 of ice time, with three decisive goals.

The first came when Lafreniere used his body to create a turnover behind the net, and the puck found its way to Chytil, who found Panarin in the slot and put it past Philip Grubauer.
This line’s forechecking in the offensive zone was perfect, and they weren’t done there.

After the teams switched sides in the second period, the visitors would get the game’s first goal on the lighter side of the ice.

In the second, a faceoff win by Mika Zibanejad back to K’Andre Miller led to a Jacob Trouba slap shot, which hit the post but got behind Grubauer. Kaapo Kakko would outmuscle Dumoulin  and poke the puck home to give the Blueshirts a 2-1 lead. It was Kakko’s 100th point of his career.

The productive shift would pause the Rangers’ top line, which they would take advantage of.
Less than five minutes later,  New York would double their lead. A pass behind the net from Alexis Lafreniere to Filip Chytil, led to him dangling behind the net. Then, Chytil  found his  linemate in front for his second assist and Lafreniere’s second goal of the season.

Panarin got his second in the third when Chytil set him up again for the first three-assist game of his career.
Laviolette knew Panarin was on a heater, so he double-shifted the star forward with Vincent Trocheck and Blake Wheeler. Panarin had 22 shifts and had 18:39 of ice time.

Strategies That Left Seattle in the Shadows:

The Rangers brought their A-game, and one of the most impressive aspects was their defensive play. Seattle is known for playing a tight game on both ends, but Laviolette’s men found a way to counterattack.

In the neutral zone, the Kraken tried to prepare for New York’s 1-3-1 neutral zone trap, but it seemed like they were caught in a fishing net, struggling to execute it effectively. On the flip side, the Blueshirts had no trouble breaking Seattle’s 1-2-2 formation, like they were finding the right combination on a locked door.

It looked like a chess game when the Kraken set up their 2-1-2 formation in the offensive zone. Defenseman 1 (D1) had the puck and tried to find Forward 1 (F1), who was looking to pass to Forward 2 (F2) positioned in the slot. If F2 had some company from the defense, he could pass it back to D1, who crept in a bit, while D2 held down the blue line. Forward 3 crashed the net.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. When there was a 50/50 puck battle along the boards, D1 took a bit of a risk by getting closer to the action, exposing the point area.

To cover for this risky move, D2 stepped over to provide support, and this strategy is what they call an “overload.”
Yet the Rangers matched it well with their tenacity. That was evident in Panarin’s first goal when Chytil passed through the four man overload to a wide-open breadman at the other end of the ice.

If F1 and D1 won the puck and got it away from the wall, D2 and F2 would join the attack. F3 would roam the area and adapt to the situation. He could help along the wall, or seal others off. However, there wasn’t much space for Seattle to work with. They only managed two shots in the second period. It’s like the Rangers built a fortress on ice!

Regarding Dave Hakstol’s breakout plans, Seattle traversed the puck between the defensemen (Ds) laterally, sometimes behind the net, and then directed it to Forward 1 (F1), waiting at the far blue line.
Forward 2 (F2) would sprint through the middle, attempting to regain possession in the offensive zone, with  the third forward crashing the paint.

On the defensive side, Seattle played it safe with a literal “box” defense around the net, Yet the risk was that this squeeze created more open ice, and the Rangers capitalized.