NEW YORK — The New York Rangers participated in one of the strangest periods the NHL has seen this young season. The second frame saw seven goals scored between New York and Utah, plus an overturned goal, a failed challenge, two fights, two ejections and 50 total penalty minutes.
It all was part of the journey to the Rangers’ first overtime game of the year, which they lost 6-5 after a Clayton Keller winner. The Rangers got a three-assist night from Adam Fox, a two-goal game from Artemi Panarin, and a bizarre K’Andre Miller goal scored when he attempted to rim the puck and accidentally bounced it off the wall and into the net.
That wasn’t enough for a win, in part because of chances against that coach Peter Laviolette deemed too loud.
“I think we could’ve won the game,” Chris Kreider said. “Probably should’ve won the game.”
Here are five takeaways from the eventful evening.
Shesterkin has up-and-down night
Igor Shesterkin had as sparkling a season debut as he could’ve hoped for Wednesday in Pittsburgh. His performance Saturday was not at the same level. He allowed six goals on 26 shots. The Rangers defense certainly failed him in some instances. Keller found Barrett Hayton all alone in front of the net on the first one, for example, and Hayton made a nifty move to finish. Shesterkin likely would like to have some of the other goals back. On the fourth, for example, he had eyes on a Kevin Stenlund shot, but the Swede beat him glove side.
Shesterkin allowed six goals in a game only twice all of last season. He particularly struggled in the second, giving up four goals on 10 shots. He rebounded in the third, shutting out the Hockey Club in the frame, and made a game-saving stop on Matias Maccelli in overtime. Unfortunately for him and the Rangers, Keller ended it shortly after.
“We’re generating offense, but we’ve got to keep the puck out of our own net, got to help our goaltender,” Kreider said. “Two games now he’s been making some pretty ridiculous saves. Gotta shore up our own end and help out our goaltender.”
Rempe’s linemates do the fighting
You’d be hard-pressed to find many situations in which Matt Rempe is on the ice while a fight is going on and he’s not the one throwing punches, but that’s what happened Saturday in his season debut. His linemates, Sam Carrick and Adam Edström, both dropped their gloves during a scrum midway through the second.
Carrick and Michael Kesselring first split away from the grouping around the net and began throwing punches. Shortly after, Jack McBain and Adam Edström joined them. Rempe found himself in unfamiliar territory: holding an opponent and watching.
Since McBain and Edström, who had never had an NHL bout before Saturday, started fighting after the Carrick and Kesselring bout began, they were each given a game misconduct.
Trocheck line remains opportunistic but gives up chances against
The Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière line gets hemmed in its defensive zone from time to time, but there are few lines in hockey more opportunistic. That was on full display in the opening period. Lafrenière picked a Kevin Stenlund pass off the boards in the defensive zone then moved up ice. He dropped a pass to Panarin in the offensive zone, and the star wing buried his first goal of the year.
Artemi Panarin.
It’s a power-play goal. pic.twitter.com/yU4dVP5nBI
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 13, 2024
In general, though, the Rangers likely needed a bit more from the group defensively. Lafrenière didn’t pick up Hayton on the Hockey Club’s first goal, for example. In total, the Trocheck-centered trio was on the ice together for four of the Hockey Club’s seven high-danger chances at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“Some of the chances we gave up, they’re pretty loud,” Laviolette said. “There’s things we could do to quiet things down a little bit.”
Cuylle and linemates continue strong start
The Will Cuylle–Filip Chytil–Kaapo Kakko line looks good to start the year. Each player was plus-three against Utah, and the Rangers dominated analytically with them on the ice, taking 84.31 percent of the expected goal share.
The Rangers trailed by two late in the second, and Cuylle factored in the next two goals, which tied the game. He picked up a secondary assist on Braden Schneider’s first of the year. Then, in the third period, Kakko found him in front of the net. Connor Ingram stopped him initially, but then Fox shot a puck off his leg and into the net. That goal was the reason the Rangers picked up a point.
“They’re a fast, skilled line,” Fox said. “They all bring a little bit of a different element. That shift was a good example of them just working it down low, getting it low-to-high and getting chances at the net. They’ve been good so far.”
Rangers unhappy with goaltender interference calls
The Rangers got called twice for goaltender interference. On one, the referees waved off Victor Mancini’s first NHL goal because Matt Rempe was in Ingram’s crease. Rempe didn’t initiate contact with the goalie, but Ingram skated forward to get positioning and appeared to touch the Rangers’ forward — whose skates were in the blue crease — right before the puck flew into the net. Laviolette challenged the call, but the ruling stood, sending Utah to the power play.
“It just didn’t look like there was contact to me,” Laviolette said. “I understand that the right side of his heels are on the line and in the blue paint, and I get that. But I believe you’re allowed to be through the paint. You can’t interfere with the goaltender. You can’t take him out of the play.”
And the referees determined Rempe did.
“It didn’t look like he was really in there,” Fox said. “It’s tough to see, especially for a guy you thought scored his first goal. Remps doesn’t really get the benefit of the doubt with a lot of things.”
Cuylle also got assessed a minor penalty for goaltender interference. He raced Mikhail Sergachev for a loose puck, and the two collided. Ingram, meanwhile, skated into his right faceoff circle to try to play the puck. Cuylle went into him.
“I saw nothing,” Laviolette said. “I saw Will battling somebody else for a puck. If you really slow it down, both players hit the goalie. The goalie is 15 feet out of the net, and I don’t think either one of the players that were going for the puck were looking at the goalie. To me that was incidental contact.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
