Despite his 6-foot-7 frame and physical style of play, Adam Edström hadn’t gotten into a fight at any level until this weekend. Dropping the gloves is punished heavily in his native Sweden, and he never fought with AHL Hartford or during his stint with the New York Rangers last season.
Then came Saturday. With Utah in town, the 24-year-old found himself tangled up with Jack McBain in a net-front scrum. The skirmish escalated until the two were trading punches. Edström landed a big blow and pulled McBain to the ice. He gave the Utah forward a good-natured pat as they got back on their skates.
Asked how he picked up fighting tips despite never having done it in a game, Edström pointed to linemate and locker buddy Matt Rempe, a frequent fighter.
“I talk to this guy,” Edström said. “He knows what he’s doing out there.”
Added Rempe: “We just go out there sometimes and wrestle around and show grips and stuff like that.”
Edström’s fight came with a game misconduct penalty because Sam Carrick and Michael Kesserling were already fighting along the boards at the same time. Edström had his back turned to them, so he didn’t notice. Simultaneous fights aren’t allowed, as the Rangers and New Jersey Devils saw last season when eight players were ejected after a game-opening line brawl. Edström got a bike workout in after his ejection.
Rempe would have loved to get in a fight Saturday, too, but he was standing next to Dylan Guenther, a skill player who is more than half a foot shorter and had no interest in throwing punches. “I’d probably get suspended,” Rempe said.
So it was Edström who got the spotlight.
“I’ve never felt that kind of adrenaline right after,” the Swede said. “I’m just proud of myself, standing up for myself in that situation.”
“It was awesome,” Rempe added with a grin.
The fight leads off this observations column, which I’ll be writing every week this season with various scenes, thoughts and tidbits I pick up about the Rangers. I have 16 this week in honor of Vincent Trocheck’s jersey number.
1. With Edström ejected, coach Peter Laviolette shrunk his rotation mostly to the top three lines. Rempe finished the night with only 3:40 of ice time, and Carrick got only 4:35. That was in part because Laviolette felt the Rangers were chasing the game most of the night and wanted his top players on the ice, especially when New York got within a goal.
“I’ve got 60-, 70-, 80-, 90-, 100-point players on the bench,” he said. “The only thing at that point that’s on my mind is making sure we get the next goal and tie it.”
2. Will Cuylle got penalized for goaltender interference Saturday in a call with which coach Laviolette disagreed. Cuylle and Mikhail Sergachev were both skating into the Rangers offensive zone trying to gain possession of a loose puck. They collided and Cuylle went into Connor Ingram, who had left his crease to try playing the puck. The goaltender fell to the ice and the referee raised his arm for a penalty as Cuylle tried to put a shot on net.
Here was Cuylle’s perspective on the play: “It was a footrace to the puck. I saw Sergachev going for the puck and I tried to get in front of him, get body position and lift his stick. I didn’t really see the goalie come out until he was right in front of me.”
3. K’Andre Miller had a bizarre goal against Utah. He tried to rim a puck around the boards, but it hit off the side wall and went toward the net. Ingram had gone behind his net with plans of playing the puck, leaving him helpless as it slid into the net. Cuylle, who was on the ice, said he’d never seen a goal like that in person.
“Only on TV,” he said. “Crazy.”
“We needed it at that time,” added Laviolette.
Miller’s luck turned in the third period when he missed an open net trying to shoot a loose puck from short range. Perhaps the hockey gods were evening things out after his unintentional goal.
4. Unsurprisingly, plenty of players’ families gathered by the glass pregame ahead of the home opener. Chad Ruhwedel, who wasn’t in the lineup but went through warmups, stopped to take a photo with his family while in uniform.
5. It was funny seeing a new team in the fold with Utah in town. But a relocation means another spot lost a club. There was a “Keep Hockey in Arizona” sign along the glass during warmups.
6. The league named longtime Rangers broadcaster Sam Rosen the Lester Patrick Trophy winner. Rosen is set to retire after the season, and the trophy is given for outstanding service to hockey in the U.S. Rosen received a cheer from the Madison Square Garden crowd when he appeared on the jumbotron for his pregame hit with partner Joe Micheletti.
7. Rosen fasted Saturday for Yom Kippur until sundown. He broke his fast at 6:37 p.m., just before calling the first home game of the year. His first food of the day was raisin challah with cream cheese.
8. Rangers fans weren’t thrilled with referee Wes McCauley during Saturday’s game, but surely they can appreciate his gesture pregame. He pointed toward Rosen in the booth in acknowledgment of his last season.
9. I didn’t have a decibel-measuring tool on hand, but I think Rempe and Igor Shesterkin got the loudest cheers during home opening introductions.
10. The Rangers have added banners for the Presidents’ Trophy and Metro Division championships. Fans cheered when they were highlighted pregame, though surely many had been hoping to see a different banner this opening night.
11. I heard a funny interaction on the elevator before the Utah game. One fan asked aloud who everyone thought would win the game.
“Sixth floor,” the elevator operator said.
“Six to four!?” the fan asked. “You think Igor is giving up four!?”
“No,” the operator said as the doors opened. “This is the sixth floor.”
Unfortunately for the fan, Shesterkin ended up allowing six.
12. Filip Chytil, who missed most of last season with a concussion, scored his first NHL goal since April 18, 2023 in the opener. He was far from satisfied, though.
“We had a lot of chances and we scored only one goal,” he said. “There’s still room to improve.”
Overall, his line (Cuylle-Chytil-Kaapo Kakko) is off to a strong start.
“We all bring something a little different, and as the games go on we’ve gotten a bit more comfortable with each other, practicing and talking throughout plays and stuff,” Cuylle said. “I think we all kind of complement each other in different ways.”
13. Speaking of young goal scorers, Alexis Lafrenière continued his ascent with a highlight-reel tally against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He toe-dragged around a sliding Marcus Pettersson and finished on Tristan Jarry.
Lafrenière’s numbers jumped last season when he had 28 goals and 57 points. He’s picked up where he left off offensively.
“I thought his confidence increased the entire year last year to the point in the playoffs where he pulled it off two or three times,” Laviolette said. “He pulled off a move like that, one where you tick up your eyes a little bit and say ‘that was a pretty special move.’ That one the other night was as well. To me, that shows confidence in a player and his game and his ability.”
Through two games, Lafrenière has a goal and two assists, all at even strength.
14. Artemi Panarin put a career-best 303 shots on goal last season. That resulted in 49 goals, 17 more than his previous high. He’s showing a willingness to put pucks on net again this year. He has six shots through two games, including four against Utah. Two found the back of the net.
15. Ryan Lindgren has continued skating with the Rangers in a non-contact jersey. Jimmy Vesey has begun skating on his own. There don’t appear to be any new injuries, though Braden Schneider took a stick to the face against Utah and went to the dressing room. He returned with a cut lip and scored his first goal of the year.
16. With Lindgren out, Schneider is adjusting to playing on the left side. Laviolette has him playing with captain Jacob Trouba on the right.
“(Against Utah) I thought he did do a good job of playing the off side and pulling the puck into play,” Laviolette said. “I think the more reps you get at that, the more accustomed you are to playing on the off side.”
Schneider is in line to see an uptick in playing time this year, even if he’s on his off side. He’s averaging 19:30 of ice time a night through two games, up from 15:54 last year.
(Top photo of Adam Edström fighting Utah’s Jack McBain: John Jones / Imagn Images)
