Matthew Mugno and Jonny Lazarus' wave of bold takes following the first month of the season.
Rangers finish with the league's #1 PP (Jonny): The Rangers power play has been clicking very early. Their man advantage is ranked 2nd at the time of writing this (31.6%), and they have converted 12 goals in 11 games played. It's also encouraging to see that the power play goals aren't coming from just the first unit. It's not like the second unit has converted a ton, but it was nice to see Alexis Lafreniere get one for that group. That goal also came in a game against the Calgary Flames, who at the time had the league's 2nd best PK unit (95.5%). Once Mika gets going, this power play will be even scarier, but it's very encouraging to see the consistency from the top unit.
Alexis Lafreniere Finishes with 35 Goals (Matthew): The ping pong ball kid finished with 4 goals in October. If the 21-year-old winger currently flanking the electric "French Toast Line" can bury the same total every month for the rest of the season (give or take), that equates to 35 goals. When you cook with Panarin you're never going to fail. We've seen flashes of brilliance from Lafreniere before , but it is clear that the youngster is thriving in the Ranger's new system.
Artemi Panarin hits 100 points (Jonny): Peter Laviolette has made it clear that he is going to play Panarin as much as he can as long as he continues to perform the way he has. Panarin's confidence appears to be through the roof as he has a point in the first eleven games and is sitting at 18 total points on the year. Once Chytil gets going, Panarin's assists will rack up and we all know how well he produces on the power play. It's nice to see that the head coach is rewarding his best players with more ice time.
Adam Fox Finishes Top 3 in Norris Voting (Matthew): No matter which way you carve it up Adam Fox is missing 1/8th of the season which is a minimum of 10 games over 24 days. The 2021 Norris Trophy-winning defender and runner-up in 2023 was having a stellar start before his injury. Although Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes will have a leg up on Fox, I think he will still garner enough votes to finish as a top 3 rearguard in the league. Miro Heiskanen has fewer points than Fox has assists, and Rasmus Dahlin is on a middling Sabres team may hurt his stock. The Jericho native is still a better player than Dougie Hamilton, Charlie McAvoy, and Moritz Seider. All he will need is a game against the Sharks to get back into the picture...
Rangers finish 1st or 2nd in the division (Jonny): Not necessarily sure how bold this take is, but most people (including me) had the Rangers in a different tier than the Devils and Hurricanes before the start of the season. The Devils have started to pick their game up, but the Hurricanes have been a total disaster defensively, which is the opposite of what their identity has been over the past few seasons. Right now, the Devils are the only team I'm worried about in the Metropolitan Division, but if Shesterkin can play the way he did against Calgary, this team has the potential to win the division.
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