Rangers vs. Lightning: The Lafrenaissance Is Upon Us
No Igor, no problem. The Rangers continue surging ahead on the stick of Lafrenière and the glove of Garand.
- It was Hispanic Heritage Night at Madison Square Garden, and it made me miss all the fun practice jerseys the New York Rangers would wear for themed nights. I would kill for another jersey like this beauty.
Proudly commemorating our first-ever #NYR Hispanic Heritage Night. #NoQuitInNY | @Verizon pic.twitter.com/v9U4JMsgL1
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 20, 2022
- Also, shout-out to my fellow Guatemaltecos.
- Beating the Vancouver Canucks is fun and all, but last night brought a more serious vibe check for the Igor-less Rangers. The Tampa Bay Lightning were back, and they haven't lost a game since the Rangers bootstomped them just under two weeks ago.
- I gotta say, the Garden was looking a little sparse. I looked it up, and there were 17,076 in attendance, just a shade under capacity.
- Not only are the Rangers scoring this year, they're scoring quickly, which, I gotta say, is just a peachy thing for them to do. With his opening goal, Alexis Lafrenière has now scored in four straight games. Folks, we could be looking at the best-value contract in the NHL if he keeps this up.
- There was a faceoff in the Rangers' end where the linesmen called it back after a clear Lightning win. The linesman then threw Connor Geekie out of the circle and had Cole Beaudoin lining up against Jake Guentzel for the second attempt at the puck drop. Beaudoin lost this one too.
- But that brings me to another point here: MSG Networks analyst Dave Maloney couldn't explain what had happened, and while that's not usually a good indicator of things, I do wish there were some signal calling that could quickly explain what exactly it was that went wrong. This was a low-stakes faceoff, but I imagine deep in the third period in a close game, teams and fans alike would want an explanation.
- In the defensive zone, Matt Rempe poked the puck free and sent it the length of the ice for an icing. He had some space and could have held on to it and made any type of play. Nothing negative came of it this time, but the Rangers now more than ever need every player locked in with the puck. I know I'm nitpicking, but the forwards especially need to make plays with the puck, not panic and get rid of it.
- Throughout the game, Dylan Garand made a couple of bad passes into the skates of his defensemen. I really do think the kid could be something special, at the very least an NHL goaltender, but a puck handler like Igor Shesterkin he is not.
- I've seen some chatter about Pavel Dorofeyev's play lately. Stop that. I don't think he did himself any favors with his early-game play. But the moral of the story here is to give him some time to settle. He'll get there. The team is scoring and the team is winning. It's not a problem right now.
