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How Rangers found scoring touch, though ‘not doing anything different’
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- How Rangers found scoring touch, though ‘not doing anything different’
The New York Rangers went from the gang that couldn't shoot straight to a bunch of sharpshooters.
The Blueshirts made the most of their 21 shots on goal Wednesday night by scoring on seven of them in a 7-3 demolition of the Tampa Bay Lighting at Broadmark International Arena. That came two days after they put six of their 18 shots into the net in a 6-3 victory against the Nashville Predators at Madison Square Garden, their first home win of the season after an 0-6-1 start.
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New York scored 35 goals on 459 shots in its first 16 games (2.19 goals per game; 7.6 shooting percentage) despite outplaying opponents in many, if not most, of them. They were outshot 30-18 by the Predators and 36-21 by the Lightning but coasted to victory in each case because they scored 13 times on just 39 shots, a 33.3 percent shooting percentage.
"I think we've scored a lot of goals the past two games, but we're not doing anything different," forward Artemi Panarin said after his four-assist outing against the Lightning. "It's just the puck is going in the net."
The Rangers scored on each of their first three shots against Andrei Vasilevskiy , one of the premier goaltenders in the NHL, and sent him to the bench for the third period by scoring five times on just 13 shots.
Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
"It obviously gives us a boost of confidence," coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday "The irony of it is I feel like the games where we didn't score, the effort and execution on both sides of the puck was really high. I thought, tonight, I don't think we were at our best. We were opportunistic. We had some pretty good looks and we scored on them.
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"You could say the same about the last game. So, I don't think they were the cleanest games from (an) execution standpoint on either side of the puck."
Artemi Panarin , Vincent Trocheck leading offensive revival
Much of the credit for the offensive renaissance belongs to Panarin, their leading scorer in each of his six seasons with the Rangers. Panarin Panarin shaved his head last week in hopes of changing his luck after going without a point for six straight games, the longest drought of his career – and it worked.
He had three points (one goal, two assists) in a 4-1 road win against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, and after coming up empty despite five shots on goal in a 5-0 loss to the Islanders on Saturday, scored two of the six goals against Nashville before his four-assist night against Tampa Bay.
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Panarin recorded seven points in his first 14 games; he has nine in his past four and leads the team with 16.
"I sleep deep tonight," the game's Second Star said with a smile when asked what the offensive revival would do for him. "Good dreams."
Getting center Vincent Trocheck back on Monday after he missed 14 games with an upper-body injury has also had a major impact. Trocheck, who plays mostly between Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, had two assists against Nashville and scored two goals in Tampa, earning First Star honors.
Lafreniere, who's struggled to score for most of the season, also looks different since Trocheck's return. He scored for the second straight game and has three goals in his past four.
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Some power-play tweaks have also helped. Power forward Will Cuylle opened the scoring 1:09 into the game, 24 seconds after Tampa Bay's Yanni Gourde was sent off for cross-checking. He has two power-play goals in the past four games, and five goals of any kind in the past six.
"It's good. Happy to contribute," said Cuylle, who added an empty-netter and leads the Blueshirts with six goals. "I'm pretty comfortable in front of the net. I like that spot. It's been nice to get a few in the last couple games and help out."
The Rangers next task is to continue the scoring surge when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
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"It's always good to see the puck going into the net," Trocheck said. "But you look at this one for a day, go over the things we did wrong, try to correct them and focus on Columbus."
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