On Tuesday, the New York Rangers made a poor initial impression with a lackluster home debut under new coach Mike Sullivan.
Five nights later, the Rangers are returning home feeling better about their efforts following a pair of blowout wins. They’ll attempt to earn a third straight victory Sunday night when they host the Washington Capitals.
The Rangers opened Sullivan’s tenure with a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in which they were outshot 31-25 by the team that Sullivan coached the previous 10 seasons. Afterward, players conceded the effort was not their best and they were outplayed by their opponent.
After the disappointing showing, the Rangers responded with a 4-0 road win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday and a 6-1 rout of the host Penguins on Saturday.
In Pittsburgh, Adam Fox scored twice as the Rangers netted two power-play goals along with a short-handed tally by Mika Zibanejad, who was moved to centering a line with Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere in place of the injured center Vincent Trocheck (upper body).
“Kind of a choppy first period,” Zibanejad said. “Just getting used to playing with (Lafreniere and Panarin) and seeing how we can mesh.”
The Rangers lost a one-goal lead early in the second period but scored three times in a span of 10:32 before getting goals from Matt Rempe and Taylor Raddysh in the third period. Overall, 12 players registered a point, including Adam Edstrom, who set up two goals, and Fox, who finished with a three-point night.
The Rangers earned the win after learning Trocheck is week-to-week after exiting Thursday’s win during the second period. Trocheck’s absence led to Juuso Parssinen entering the lineup while Zibanejad took Trocheck’s spot after playing with captain J.T. Miller in the first two games.
“I think we need balance … and we need to give some of our other offensive people a center iceman that can think the game at their level and give them an opportunity to set them up for success,” Sullivan told reporters about the retooled lines.
Like the Rangers, the Capitals dropped their season opener by going 0-for-5 on the power play and allowing two goals in the third period of a 3-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
Also like New York, Washington’s second game was significantly better as it scored the first four goals and earned a 4-2 road win over the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Aliaksei Protas, who scored a career-high 30 goals last season after totaling 13 in his first three seasons, scored twice and added an assist on a goal by Ryan Leonard. Martin Fehervary also scored while fellow defenseman Jakob Chychrun collected a pair of assists.
Alex Ovechkin got his first point of the season by setting Fehervary’s goal, giving him 1,624 career points. Ovechkin is three shy of becoming the first player to reach 900 career goals after breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record on April 6.
“I felt like early in the game, we were on our toes, our (defensemen) were active,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “We were turning pucks over. And we get rewarded on the first or second goal; we keep a puck in at the blue line, it turns over quick, we’re attacking the net. I just thought we were playing on our toes, and guys were being aggressive in really, really good spots.”
Ovechkin scored four goals last season against the Rangers, and the Capitals won all three meetings last season by a combined 15-9 margin, including a 3-2 overtime win in New York on March 5.
