N.Y. Rangers: First Line Front and Center at Montreal

From the desk: RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS

FIRST WIN

With Injuries to Kappo Kakko and Ryan Strome, First Line Must Carry Rangers

It can now be said the Ranger season is underway.  It took three games, but they went from blowout to overtime loss to victory.

Coach Gallant's first line contributed four points towards the victory.  Chris Kreider opened the scoring on a power play midway through the second period on feeds from Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox.  After Montreal tied the game at one in the third period, Alexis Lafreniere answered just 0:26 seconds later on assists by Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin.

The first line (Kreider-Zibanejad-Lafreniere) accounted for 13 (54%) of the Rangers' 24 shots on goal.  Chris Kreider scored his third goal,  Zibanejad picked up his third assist, and Lafreniere scored in front of his home area crowd.

It's too early in the season for me to start wrangling over Mika Zibanejad's first-line qualifications.  We knew early last season he was recovering from a bout with COVID.  To what degree that affected his season-long play, we will not know.  All we can do is compare this season's performance against the previous two campaigns.  In the meantime, the Rangers demonstrated their faith in him with a lucrative contract.  To that point, three points in three games is an excellent way to start proving one's worth.

Chris Kreider is a car of another stable.  Like Zibanejad, he has three points through the first three games, all goals.  Are we now to expect a long drought of pointless games?  Because that's what his career trends suggest.  

Last season Kreider posted twenty goals and ten assists in fifty games.  He scored three goals through the first 15 games, then caught fire with eight goals over his next six games, giving him eleven goals through the season's first 21 games.  Kreider then finished out the season with seven goals and 15 points in his last 29 games.  He scored just three points in eleven games in one late-season stretch from March 27 through April 15. 

If and when someone impacts this team with sustained, tangible, and meaningful leadership, then you sew the C on their sweater.  Until then, I agree with Coach Gallant: let these guys keep having to prove themselves.

• Kappo Kakko sustained an upper-body injury in the first period and was placed on the injured reserve list, and Ryan Strome is still in concussion protocol.