Franchise power-play king Mika Zibanejad scores Rangers first goal of season

The New York Rangers were an absolute tire fire at Madison Square Garden last season, and early on in Thursday's home opener, Mika Zibanejad saved the franchise from repeating history. The 2025-26 Blueshirts failed to score in three consecutive home games to start the season, and it was a long 180:34 before they finally put a puck in the net. That's a really long time for the fans to not sing "woah" or "goal"., depending on what your preference is, and regardless of tonight's outcome the fans will be in a better spot than last year.

Artemi Panarin was the lucky goal scorer this time last year, and his tally against the Minnesota Wild came just 57 seconds into the game. Prior to that, Alexis Lafrenière had scored the first goal of the year against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but that was on the road.

Zibanejad gets the New York Rangers on the board for the first time this season

Zibanejad, in the most expected fashion, officially registered the Rangers' first goal of the 2026-27 season on a rebound from his office in the faceoff circle on the power play.

Zibanejad is the franchise leader in power play goals, and it was only natural for both his and the Blueshirts' first goal of the year to come on the man advantage. Adam Fox and Pavel Dorofeyev are two important players who will help determine how successful the team is this year, and both factored into the goal as well.

Fox is one of the best power play QBs in the league, and is a pace setter who keeps things calm under pressure. Dorofeyev was brought in to generate offense and score goals, and his one-timer off a setup from Fox created a long enough rebound for Zibanejad to fire it on net from an area of the ice that he loves spending time in.

Zibanejad hopefully can ride last year's momentum into this season

The Rangers missed the playoffs in 2024-25, and it was a year Zibanejad would like to forget. He finished that year with just 20 goals and 62 points, and it was one of his more disappointing seasons in recent memory. Last year was a nice bounce back in which he tallied 34 goals and 78 points, and he was quite proficient on the power play with 16 goals and 19 assists.

This year the Rangers are hoping to enjoy the success they experienced at the end of last year, and Zibanejad was right in the middle of that centering a line that includes youngster Gabe Perreault and Lafrenière.

Rangers were twice as lucky in first period

In addition to Zibanejad scoring early for the Blueshirts, the aforementioned Dorofeyev picked up his first tally as a member of the Rangers. Newcomer Oliver Bjorkstrand won a puck race and found a streaking Dorofeyev who wasted no time burying it to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

It is hopefully the first of many, and it is very gratifying to see him have an impactful start to the game during his first time as a member of the Rangers on the Madison Square Garden ice.

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