After a disappointing ending to last season, the New York Rangers enter this year with one thing on their minds–another deep playoff run. The Blueshirts have shown early promise to do so with a 2-0-1 start to their 2024-25 season.
Three Player Spotlights
The Rangers have seen great production early on from many players, especially Artemi Panarin, captain Jacob Trouba, and young star Alexis Lafreniere.
Artemi Panarin
Artemi Panarin had the best season of his career last year with an MVP-like campaign. He tallied the fourth most points in the league with 120, 49 goals and 71 assists. He has picked up right where he left off through the first three games of this season.
In game one against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Panarin set up both of his linemates for goals, Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck. He followed up with two goals vs the Utah Hockey Club, one coming on the Power Play. Panarin continued his multi-game point streak by contributing on three of the Rangers goals against the Detroit Red Wings.
In three games, the left winger has racked up a league-leading seven points, two goals, and five assists. The chemistry with Trocheck and Lafreniere continues to improve each game as the group has combined for 11 points thus far.
Jacob Trouba
Jacob Trouba had a roller coaster of a 2023-24 season. Poor play, injuries, having a big contract, and New York fans calling for a trade led to a lot of uncertainty for the captain's future in the Big Apple. Despite all the noise, Trouba has showed up big time in the Rangers’ opening week and looks like a guy who could be a key piece to the team this year.
Trouba has been solid on both ends of the ice. He was heavily involved in the offense against the Penguins where he had two assists, one resulting in Sam Carrick’s first goal as a Ranger. He also got great scoring chances with four shots on net. Defensively, he finished with a +2 rating and helped out goalie Igor Shesterkin by blocking five shots and laying one hit.
Trouba continued his offensive production in the next two games by tallying two more assists. He now has four assists on the season along with a +1 rating, six shots on goals, seven blocks, and two hits on 20:13 average time on ice.
Alexis Lafreniere
Alexis Lafreniere gave the Rangers a big boost in the 2024 playoffs and has continued to do the in the early portions of this season. He scored a dazzling goal against the Penguins, something we saw him do countless times in his breakout 2023-24 season. In three games the 23-year-old has two goals on six shots and two assists.
Lafreniere has the skillset to be New York’s leading goal scorer this year. With the combination of speed, shot ability, and playmaking, the Candian will look to outperform his 28 goals from last season.
Next Game
The Rangers look to continue their great start to the season as they travel to Detroit for another matchup with the Red Wings on Thursday, puck drop at 7:30 pm.