10:23 PM: Gerard Gallant spoke after the game and said (NYR):
- Have you seen improvement from Kravtsov, “I didn’t like our game tonight, not just him, a lot of them. A lot of them didn’t do themselves favors with tonight’s game, but again, it’s from Day 1 to tonight. It’s not judged on one game and hopefully they’ll get back and all play better than they did tonight. A lot of guys are battling for jobs, but it wasn’t a good game for a lot of those guys tonight, and our whole team, we weren’t good enough. The one line, The Kid Line was pretty good, besides that I didn’t like our team much. Sammy Blais stood out, too and played pretty well.”
- Does The Kid Line playing well make you want to keep them together or putting them with different lines, “Exactly. (laugh) I don’t expect us to play like this too often, but obviously if they are playing that way we’d like to keep them together, but, again, we gotta get the other guys going too. And it’s an exhibition game, disappointed, but we move on.”
- Is Igor okay, “he’s fine. A little stomach flu, that is it.”
9:25 PM: First Period:
- Mika Zibanejad (1) Assists: Chris Kreider (1), Jacob Trouba (2)
- Jake DeBrusk (1) Assists: Marc McLaughlin (2), Mike Reilly (2)
- Mika Zibanejad (2) (Power Play) Assists: Zac Jones (1), Vincent Trocheck (2)
- Kaapo Kakko (1) Assists: Matt Bartkowski (1)
Second Period:
- Pavel Zacha (1) Unassisted
- David Pastrnak (1) Assists: David Krejci (1), Pavel Zacha (2)
- David Krejci (1) Assists: David Pastrnak (1), Pavel Zacha (3)
Third Period:
- Kaapo Kakko (2) Assists: Libor Hajek (1), Alexis Lafreniere (1)
- Mike Reilly (1) Assists: David Pastrnak (2)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- The Rangers had a good first period and then seemed to either take their foot off the gas or the Bruins, and David Pastranak after getting his legs under him in his first preseason game, stepped things up.
- The Kid Line was very good once again and it’s going to be really hard to break them up if/when the top-two lines need upgrades at RW. The three of them just seem to have so much confidence together, they make plays, possess the puck and create offense. Keeping them together would, in theory, give the Rangers three good scoring lines, but keeping them together may leave at least one spot on the right side lacking….until the trade deadline.
- I’d like to see them give Vitali Kravtsov 5-10 games with Panarin and Trocheck before they make any changes. The top line is the more interesting spot with Jimmy Vesey, Sammy Blais or Barclay Goodrow as the most likely options to start the year. Those three are all interesting options, but at the same time, those three together could also form the fourth line. I think that Blais would be the preference, but he’s still rounding himself into shape.
- Kaapo Kakko scored one of his nifty breakaway goals and also one where he was just around the net and pushed it over the line. Hopefully it’s a confidence boost and the start of a breakout season for Kakko.
- Again, with Zac Jones skating with Braden Schneider, who looks really good, it seems like he will be the one in the lineup to start the season. It seems like he’ll get Game one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hajek gets in quickly.
- Just one more to go until they start doing this for real on Tuesday.