The New York Rangers are back in action during a spaced-out two-week stretch of their early schedule. With a visit to Toronto tonight, they will close out the month of October with a Saturday road stop in Ottawa and a return to Madison Square Garden against the Los Angeles Kings.
This shapes up as an electric matchup against the Maple Leafs, especially considering Toronto's offseason overhaul has not produced immediate dominance. The Leafs sit fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 5-4-2 record for 12 points, looking to establish consistency on home ice.
If the Rangers want to take two points out of this Original Six showdown and correct their 1-3-1 road mark, four specific players will have to set the tone.
Alexis Lafrenière
After having his season-opening point streak halted in Columbus, Lafrenière immediately responded with a two-assist performance in Monday’s 5-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. He has piled up 13 points through his first 11 games, keeping him firmly on pace for a triple-digit scoring campaign.
No. 13 has historically relished matchups against the Maple Leafs, collecting five goals and eight assists for 13 points in 15 career games. With Toronto's blue line prone to surrendering rush chances, Lafrenière's ability to drive through the neutral zone alongside Mika Zibanejad and Gabe Perreault will be central to New York's transition attack.
Pavel Dorofeyev
If there was ever an ideal moment for Pavel Dorofeyev to bust out of his early-season rut, it is under the bright lights of Scotiabank Arena.
The past week has tested the 25-year-old winger's patience. After converting on just two of his first 33 shots (a 6.0% shooting percentage), head coach Mike Sullivan pulled him off the top power-play unit in favor of Gabe Perreault. Dorofeyev fired five shots on goal and generated four high-danger scoring chances against Anaheim, but walked away with only a secondary assist.
If he wants his prime special-teams deployment back, solving Sergei Bobrovsky from the slot tonight in Toronto's building is the quickest way to reclaim it.
Adam Fox
Defenseman Adam Fox is entering the Norris Trophy conversation again, and for good reason. The 28-year-old defenseman is finding himself in the right areas of the ice, both offensively and defensively, and it is helping the Rangers win hockey games.
This is always a tough test against Matthews, William Nylander, and the rest of the Maple Leafs high-octane offense. But, he should be able to help out our last X-factor quite easily.
Dylan Garand
This is shaping up to be one of the coolest New York sports stories of all time. Dylan Garand is taking this opportunity with the Rangers as if it is his last-ditch effort of being an NHL goaltender, and completely running off with it. In Igor Shesterkin's stead, he has been everything and more for this team to maintain a winning record.
The question still remains if he can keep it up all season long. Joonas Korpisalo is still nowhere near ready to come back to game action. The Rangers are going to keep riding him with the light workload for the rest of October, but what comes after that? This showdown, "In the six", will determine what that might look like for No. 33.
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