Rangers vs Penguins: Making Strides
From Igor’s brilliance to Adam Fox’s dominance to Noah Laba’s coming-out party, the Rangers didn’t just beat Pittsburgh—they looked like a team finding its identity.
- That was a much better effort—first period aside—with more of the performances you'd like to see across the board coming through for a dominant win. And as much as some people might make the argument that without Igor Shesterkin that would have been a much different game in the first? I'd agree, but also make the argument that the Rangers literally toyed with Pittsburgh for the final 30 minutes of this game and could have won by a lot more.
- I could talk about him for days, weeks, hours (we sort of did last year) but Igor Shesterkin is him, full stop. Through three games he's given up two goals.
Igor Shesterkin to start the season:
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 12, 2025
3 Games Played
2 Goals Allowed
1 Shutout
.976 SV%
0.67 GAA
11.5 Million Dollar Man for a reason 🗽 pic.twitter.com/7Rca4Jt2Rp
- The Vincent Trocheck injury (week to week) laid the path for Mika Zibanejad to move back to center, and separate him from J.T. Miller. There were and are concerns about this, justifiably, but I thought that was another really great game from Zibanejad—who opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal and was actively calling for the puck and shooting it all night.
If these first two games and 9 minutes are any indication, I’d say Zibanejad is feeling a bit more like his old self
— Joe Fortunato (@JoeFortunatoBSB) October 11, 2025
