The post-trade-deadline Rangers started off on the right foot as the club cracked the final 20 games of the regular season.
They looked fast and shifty in a swift 4-0 win over the Blues Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, where newly-acquired forwards Jack Roslovic and Alex Wennberg played an integral role in the team’s strong transition game in their Rangers debuts.
It was Game 1 of Peter Laviolette’s assessment period to solidify the Blueshirts playoff lineup.
And the Rangers head coach had to have liked what he saw from his starting point.
St. Louis gave the home team lots of time and space in a game where the Rangers power play accounted for three of their four goals.
The Rangers’ new-look fourth line of Jimmy Vesey, Barclay Goodrow and Matt Rempe generated the other, as well as many other impactful contributions throughout the night.
And goalie Igor Shesterkin continued his dominant stretch with 26 saves in his second shutout of the season.
Consistently flying through the neutral zone as the Blues struggled to present much of a defensive challenge, the Rangers seemed to have the puck more often than not.
This all while adjusting to the absence of their captain, Jacob Trouba, who will miss 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury.
That, of course, forced Laviolette to switch up his defense pairs and insert Zac Jones back into the lineup. The Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox pairing remained intact, while Jones skated on the left side of Erik Gustafsson on the bottom pair.
Braden Schneider filled in for Trouba on the right side of K’Andre Miller, and the two young blueliners were sharp while primarily facing the Blues’ top line of Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
The Rangers were onto their second power play less than five minutes into the game, when ex-Blueshirt Kevin Hayes took St. Louis’ second slashing penalty in the span of 2:26.
Roslovic and Wennberg skated on the team’s second unit, but it was the top group who struck first.
Skating around the top of the zone to find a lane, Artemi Panarin finally found one and sent the puck in. Vincent Trocheck got a stick on the puck before it ricocheted off Blues defenseman Colton Parayko’s stick and in to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Jimmy Vesey then doubled the Rangers lead on a partial breakaway with seconds left in the first period.
The Rangers nearly made it a 3-0 game early on in the middle frame, when Matt Rempe helped force a turnover in the defensive zone before blasting a one-timer set up by Barclay Goodrow at the other end.
Refs reviewed the play and ultimately decided that the puck, which bounced off both posts, never fully crossed the goal line.
Later on, Chris Kreider and Kaapo Kakko each chipped in a power-play goal in the third period to put the game out of reach.
Source
