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Rangers defeat Lightning 3-1 in season opener, Kravtsov injured |
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The Rangers kicked off the 2022-23 season in fine fashion with a 3-1 win over the Lightning. Mika Zibanejad scored twice while Barclay Goodrow added the icer. Igor Shesterkin was solid in net with 26 saves. The one native was the injury to Vitali Kravtsov. New York is in Minnesota to face the Wild on Thursday.
Game recap:
Lineup: Sammy Blais missed the game with his upper body injury while Dryden Hunt was the healthy scratch. On the blue line, Libor Hajek watched from the press box.
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko
Panarin-Trocheck-Kravtsov
Lafrenière-Chytil-Goodrow
Vesey-Carpenter-Reaves
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
Halak
A few thoughts:
1) Mika Magic - Zib found his groove as the playoffs continued and the confidence he showed there certainly looked to have carried forward to this season. Mika was not shy about shooting, putting 12 shots towards the net, nine of them in goal. In addition, as part of his complete game, he went 9-for-13 in the faceoff dot.
The chemistry between Zibanejad and Chris Kreider was noticeable, as usual. The pair just know where each other will be and have a symbiotic thought on how to read situations to capitalize on opportunities. This applies in all situations, including short handed, where Zib tallied his first goal, roofing a backhander.
His power play goal came on a great seam pass leading to the one timer. Kreider just missed netting a pair, as he was stoned in front twice by Andrei Vasllevskiy. While it’s just one game, getting off to a strong start, especially the top line, was nice to see
2) Game stats: The numbers bear out just how solid the performance was. Hard to find an area where the team was not solid. They out-shot the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions, 39-27, captured 64% of faceoffs (30-for-47) and created 21 high-danger scoring chances while allowing only 14, according to Natural Stat Trick. While it’s only one game, given the past difficulties with draws, winning 64% of faceoffs is something we are not use to seeing.
3) Kravtsov - if there was one downer, it was the injury to Kravtsov in early in the first period. I guess using your knee against the boards in that manner is an acceptable way of checking. Victor Hedman pushed Kravtsov against the boards while the young forward was on his knees and it looked like his head got squeezed in the equation. Alexis Lafreniere moved up to the second line and shifted to the right side to replace Kravtsov. If Kravtsov is forced to miss time, look for Hunt to play on the fourth line and Laf to stay on the second.
4) Defense - The Lightning didn’t dominate action 5x5, which was an area of weakness last season. Credit goes to the team defense overall. We know the top-four but Zac Jones was solid in his 13:31 of ice time and didn’t look overwhelmed at all by the moment.
As a reminder, I am out of pocket Sunday through Tuesday night for the final Jewish holiday of the season.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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