First Period:
- Jesper Bratt (5) (Power Play) Assists: Jack Hughes (5), Ondrej Palat (1)
- Luke Hughes (1) Assists: Dawson Mercer (2), Ondrej Palat (2)
Second Period:
- Will Cuylle (2) Assists: Braden Schneider (2), Kaapo Kakko (1)
- Dawson Mercer (2) (Power Play) Assists: Timo Meier (3), Nico Hischier (3)
- Adam Fox (1) (Power Play) Assists: Artemi Panarin (1), Chris Kreider (1)
- Jack Hughes (3) (Power Play) Assists: Tyler Toffoli (3), Ondrej Palat (3)
Third Period:
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- Nico Hischier (1) (Empty Net) Assists: Alexander Holtz (1), Timo Meier (4)
Tyler Pitlick did not play after the first period due to an upper body injury.
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- Another game and another less-than-impressive performance from the Rangers. It is preseason and they are learning a new system, but in general they look slow and out of sorts. On the one hand, it’s basically the same team as last season and the bulk of the team from two seasons ago and so you’d expect them to be better and more on the same page, but this new system Peter Laviolette is installing seems very different than the one they had, or didn’t have, under Gerard Gallant. So they deserve some slack, but so much of this preseason looks like those last five games against the Devils. Again, it’s preseason, guys have been banged up and the lines are being jumbled all the time to try and find chemistry, so it’s hard to put a lot of stock in it, but there are only a handful of players individually who have been impressive.
- One of those players is Will Cuylle and he scored again tonight while on the third line. He took that spot and Brennan Othmann took one on the fourth line. Maybe they flip-flop tomorrow as, especially in the case of Othmann, they gauge his ability to make an impact besides his shot. I’ve come basically all the way around, from being so sure that they were both going to start in Hartford to now being pretty sure at least one of them is breaking camp in the top-nine.
- Artemi Panarin made a nice pass to Adam Fox that Fox was able to bank in on the PP, but he looks completely out of sorts. Again, preseason, but simple plays seem tough for him right now.
- There is still a week before the opener, and we’ll see what lines get thrown together tomorrow, but after all of the experimenting Peter Laviolette has done, I think that we will end up with familiar duos and defense pairs. I’d expect Chris Kreider and Mika ZIbanejad to be back together and Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck. It would have been nice to see Filip Chytil get some time next to Panarin to see if that was anything, but unfortunately, Chytil has missed most of camp and the preseason. It was smart to experiment and try out different things, but I’d be surprised if we don’t end up seeing the familiar groups from the past few years.
- I’m still waiting until he gets a few regular season games to make any judgment on Quick.
- We’ll see Alexis Lafreniere tomorrow and see where he ends up getting slotted.
- One more to go, tomorrow against Boston, and then a week of practice before it starts for real.