If there was any trio on the Rangers that could reasonably look to duplicate its Game 1 performance on Friday night, it would be the second line.
Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere were the only line that Peter Laviolette did not mix up at some point during the series-opening 3-0 loss — in part because Laviolette has no interest in touching them and in part because they were the only group that seemed to have anything going at all.
In Game 1, the trio out-chanced Florida 7-3, outshot the Panthers 8-4 and played up the ice a whole lot more than any of their teammates, the best chance coming when Lafreniere hit the bar late in the third period, mere minutes before the puck caromed off his stick and into the Rangers net.
That moment became a flagship of the night, though the Rangers have repeated ad nauseam since that Lafreniere was both in the right spot and will get over it.
“He’s fine,” Trocheck said in the leadup to Game 2. “He’s confident enough to know that s–t happens. The goal is what it is. We had chances — I think we hit three or four posts last game. As for Laf, I don’t worry about that.”
The matchup game was not particularly vital in Game 1, but it is worth noting that Trocheck’s line was largely kept away from that of Aleksander Barkov — the two centers shared the ice for just 3:31, over which the Rangers did not produce a shot.
That is important to keep in mind when the series moves to Florida and Paul Maurice gets the choice of where to deploy his top centerman.
Right now, the second line looks like more of a threat than the first, which saw roughly double the time against Barkov in Game 1.
The Rangers always need their second line to produce.
But as long as that is the case, there is even more emphasis on the output from Trocheck and company.
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The trio leads the Rangers in ice during the playoffs, over which they had amassed a 57.94 expected goals percentage heading into Friday night.
They led the Rangers in ice over the regular-season, too, with 768 minutes and change, per Natural Stat Trick.
If there were any questions about their Game 1 production, they were very much on the backburner compared to everyone else.
But the Rangers need everything from the guys who gave them just that all season.
“The chemistry we’ve built from game one of the season has improved a ton,” Trocheck said. “We obviously want to be together, we want to play together. We’re very aware of situations, making ourselves better every night. Finding adjustments, whenever we don’t do what we want to do in a game, going into the next night. So it’s good to have that continuity.”
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