Rangers Alexis Lafreniere's Playmaking Skills Emerge In Loss To Canucks

The Rangers lost a we-are-number-one contest to the Vancouver Canucks, but Alexis Lafreniere provided a silver lining with his coming-on playmaking.

The New York Rangers fell to the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 last night, only the second time this season they have lost back-to-back games. 

It was another defeat that featured five or more goals, struggles at even-strength play, and a lack of superhero goaltending. They are now 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. 

Albeit, the Ranger's 2020 1st overall draft pick Alexis Lafreniere displayed his ability to drive the play on a line that features the Rangers' most consistent forwards in Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin. 

The Bread Man and No.16 ate last night, but Lafreniere set the table. The 22-year-old winger recorded two nearly identical assists, the first to set Panarin for his 26th goal of the season, the second an end-to-end rush and brake pump to hit Trocheck in stride. 

Lafreniere has five points in his last five games and has 25 points in 39 games. 

No longer is he a passenger on the Ranger's most dynamic line this season, he is taking the wheel. He's also skating two more minutes on average per game. 

Peter Laviolette shortened the bench to get the team back into Monday's contest in the second period. Lafreniere was one of the seven forwards deployed the rest of the game. 

"The Trocheck line was humming. I just wanted to put somebody up there to give Mika [Zibanejad] and [Chris] Kreider a different look." Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said. "Just tried to move it around, we are down three to one...

There were just a couple of guys that were going inside the game that I wanted to double-shift and get them out there, and when you do that it's at the expense of different players."

Lafreniere has never skated a game in the AHL, but it is a sign of his development that the organization sent Brennan Othmann down to Hartford this morning, and No.13 is being double-shifted onto the top line. 

Just last season, he was still healthy and scratched. 

If there is a silver lining from a loss that will enact systematic changes, it is that Lafreniere can be counted on to deliver on offense reliably for the first time in his NHL career.