Grading NY Rangers defense against Montreal

There is no hotter team in the NHL right now than the New York Rangers. At 5-0-1 over their first six games, the blueprint for the rest of the regular season has started taking shape. Their most recent win, a 7-2 bludgeoning over the Montreal Canadiens, featured an offensive explosion.

But, do not forget to add the superb defense into the positive category as well.

Let's give the defensive unit a grade worthy of their great performance.

The Rangers defensive unit was superb in the 7-2 victory over Montreal. With the return of a key piece, the final configurations for the three defensive lines are almost complete.

After suffering an upper-body injury in the preseason, Ryan Lindgren finally returned. Even though he has returned to the roster, he was not sorely missed as his replacements have stepped up big time in his absence. He saw 17:20 of ice time on the third pairing with Victor Mancini but didn't contribute to the stat sheet. Still, seeing #55 healthy and skating again was a nice sight.

The top line of K'Andre Miller and Adam Fox keeps on rocking. Game after game, they are developing more and more chemistry with one another and the Rangers are benefiting from it. For Miller, he is proving to the Front Office that he should remain a Blueshirt once this season is over. Fox keeps on racking up the points with another assist, his seventh in the first six games.

Finally, the second pair of Jacob Trouba and Braden Schneider featured the most points on the night, with Schneider potting a goal and adding an assist. This pairing is a fun one to watch, especially with Schneider continuing to evolve his offensive game to coincide with Trouba's.

All in all, it was a great defensive effort against Montreal. As I said earlier, the formation for the three lines seems to be getting more and more complete. With the offensive unit firing on all cylinders, it is great to see the defense also starting to get hot.