Something old, something new, and the hockey season began in New York with a whole lot of blue.
The Rangers opened the regular season with an entertaining 5-3 win over the rival Islanders on Thursday night at the Garden, and it was a quick refresher that these Blueshirts are a little different, a little the same and still step on to the ice every night with high expectations.
“The way our team is constructed here is you need youth getting installed in your lineup all the time,” captain Ryan McDonagh told The Post. “They’re going to play in big situations, big moments, and what a way to start.”
The youth infusion was best on display when 21-year-old Russian Pavel Buchnevich, making his North American debut, made a long cross-ice feed to linemate Chris Kreider, sprung for a breakaway that he buried for a 3-2 lead that turned the tide of the game back to the Rangers with just over 10 minutes remaining in the third period.
The first 4:04 of the third had the Islanders erase a 2-0 deficit with goals from Nick Leddy and Cal Clutterbuck, but the Rangers stayed resilient.
“Tie game out there in the third period, and guys continued to make plays, both offensively and defensively, and we gained confidence as the game went on,” said McDonagh, whose defensive corps showed far more efficiency in exiting their own zone and defending in front of their net then they did for most of this past season.
“The forwards are fast getting out, but they’re also fast getting back,” McDonagh said, “which is good for us, too. That’s a big part of us not spending a lot of time in our zone.”
Kreider and Buchnevich joined new center Mika Zibanejad for the Rangers’ best line all night. They were fast and quick on the puck, just as they were all preseason when they found some instant chemistry.
“A couple things we struggled with last year that we focus on right from the start, which I think is a great sign,” Kreider said. “You see us paying fast again. There are 81 games to play, but you want to play well in Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, etc.”
After Kreider made it 3-2, the Rangers were able to extend their lead to 4-2 on a goal from new addition Brandon Pirri, who scored on a power play while Islanders captain John Tavares was in the box for one of his two third-period penalties. It was a bit of a risk for coach Alain Vigneault to stick with a four-forward power-play group while protecting a one-goal lead — Vigneault later admitted the next group coming out had two defensemen — but it paid off.
“Everybody is happy,” Pirri said, “and usually you are going to be in the lineup when you are winning.”
The first two periods were buoyed by terrific goaltending, and Henrik Lundqvist (25 saves) beat Jaroslav Halak (34 saves) in a head-to-head matchup for the first time since 2010, when Halak was with the Canadiens. Goals from former Islander Michael Grabner and Mats Zuccarello staked the Rangers to a 2-0 lead, but the Isles came out in the third with some jump and it quickly looked like a good night for the Rangers was going to turn sour fast.
“We had a stretch in the third where obviously we just have to manage the puck a little bit better with odd-man rushes. That’s how you get hurt in this league and that’s how we got hurt a little bit last year,” said Lundqvist, who was also beaten by Brock Nelson late in the third after J.T. Miller had extended the Rangers’ lead to 5-2 with goal into the Islanders’ empty net. “If we just clean that up, we are in good shape.”
So as the Rangers celebrate their 90th year playing hockey, they have a team that has quite a few new faces to go along with the familiar. They’re hoping it is a formula for success.
“In the big picture, it’s only two points,” Vigneault said. “But for us, to play the way we did, to do it against a huge rival of ours, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”