Lafreniere, Chytil and Panarin Shine In Rangers 5-1 Season Debut Victory

The New York Rangers come out with a bang in the first game of the Peter Laviolette era.

BUFFALO, NY -- The New York Rangers kicked off their 2023-24 campaign with an outstanding 5-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. 

Before puck drop, there was a very beautiful tribute to the late great Sabres play-by-play announcer, Rick Jeanneret, who was the voice of a generation. If I'm being completely honest, I had chills the entire time. Following the Canadian and American national anthem's, the Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin fired up the crowd by banging the Sabres drum. 

Then shortly after, the long wait for Rangers hockey was over. 

Lineup: 

Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko
Panarin-Chytil-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Trocheck-Wheeler
Goodrow-Bonino-Pitlick

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider

Shesterkin

1st Period:

The New York Rangers looked strong early, especially the second line of Panarin-Chytil-Lafreniere. After Chytil couldn't convert on a great backdoor pass form Lafreniere, Panarin made an incredible individual effort, following his shot and feeding Lafreniere for a gaping four by six to score the teams first goal of the season. They couldn't have picked a better guy to get the teams first goal. After a summer of criticism, that must have felt great for the Rangers former number one overall pick.

It's also an added bonus that Lafreniere celebrated his 22nd birthday last night, I asked him if the boys got him anything and he had a little chuckle, telling me that they got him a cake. Which after his performance tonight, was well earned. 

A lot of the calls were going the Rangers way early on. Kreider laid a massive hit on Henri Jokiharju, but Jordan Greenway retaliated which evidently negated the Sabres power play. The Rangers would get the games first man-advantage after Zach Benson was called for a questionable Hooking penalty. It only took them 16 seconds to tally on their first power play of the season. It was a tale as old as time as an Fox point shot was deflected by the stick of Kreider. That power play goal from Kreider was his 35th goal on the man-advantage since the start of the 2021-22 season, tying him with his linemate Mika Zibanejad in that department. 

After having plenty of slow starts in the preseason, it was encouraging to see the team come out and score a couple. Panarin, Chytil, and Lafreniere each had two shots on goal after the opening 20 minutes, the only skaters in the game to have more than one. 

The Rangers would carry a 2-0 lead into the second period. 

2ND PERIOD:

New York would get another power play opportunity just 32 seconds into the middle frame. It was our first chance to see K'Andre Miller quarterback the second unit, but they didn't get any great looks, coming up unsuccessful. 

The Chytil line would continue their cooking in the 2nd period as they continued to generate scoring chances. Lafreniere looked strong on both sides of the puck, causing turnovers in the neutral zone which would lead to odd man rushes in the offensive zone. I asked Laviolette about that lines ability to turn defense into offense throughout the night. Laviolette told me “we were talking about trying to get better, it never really showed in training camp, was to get into quick transition…to bring more pucks to the net..to try and jump on teams. It was nice to get some rewards back on that tonight.”

The Rangers third goal came off of a turnover caused by that line, specifically Lafreniere. Panarin found a loose puck and had Chytil backdoor, but instead, chose to shoot, which is very encouraging to see. 

It seemed that the Sabres were down and out towards the end of the second period, but a lucky bounce would lead to the puck finding the stick of JJ Peterka, who got them on the board late. 

Shortly after, Erik Gustafsson took an interference penalty, which resulted in the Rangers starting the 3rd period shorthanded. 

3RD PERIOD: 

The Rangers would kill off the early 3rd period penalty, thanks to some courage from their captain, Jacob Trouba as well as 4th line center, Nick Bonino, who came up huge with a couple of big shot blocks. 

The Rangers got into some penalty trouble, but thanks to the toughness of Trouba, Bonino and Lindgren, Zibanejad and Kreider were able to connect on a beautiful shorthanded goal to put the game away. The Zibanejad and Kreider connection is alive and well in 2023-24. 

Trouba would add an empty netter and the Rangers would hang on to win 5-1. 

A great 60 minute effort and now they're headed to Columbus for a Saturday night tilt with the Blue Jackets.