The New York Rangers haven’t been 3-0-0 since the 2015-16 season. Friday night will see the Blueshirts go for their continued hot start to the 2022 NHL season when they take on the Winnipeg Jets.
Whether it has been solid goaltending, stout defense, or an overwhelming offense, New York has looked excellent in their two victories to start the year against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Minnesota Wild.
Winnipeg on the other hand heads into its season opener after a disappointing 39-32-11 season in which the Jets missed the postseason.
Can New York get to 3-0 in the young season? Here are three names to watch for the Rangers when they take on Winnipeg tonight.
Jaroslav Halak
I would doubt that Igor Shesterkin, after another brilliant performance on Thursday, plays tonight in the second game of a back-to-back.
If that’s the case, Jaroslav Halak would be set to make his season debut for the Rangers tonight in Winnipeg. Halak is 15 wins away from 300 in his long career and signed a one-year, $1,500,000 with the Rangers in the off-season.
With the Vancouver Canucks last year, Halak tallied a .903 save percentage, and gave up just under three goals a game (2.94). As backups go, Halak is as experienced as they come and will be an excellent veteran to go to should a night like tonight come up throughout the year, and New York wants to give Shesterkin a rest.
New York will need to play better defense than they did last night, but Halak should be up for the challenge in his first start of the 2022-23 season.
Filip Chytil
The top two lines have clearly dominated through the first two games of the season, but Filip Chytil’s stat sheet has been full of important points.
Chytil posted a goal in Thursday’s win over the wild, has helped get the third line moving repeatedly, and winning face-offs at a 60% clip.
He won’t get the same recognition as Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, or even Vincent Trocheck, but the 23-year-old has been playing well to start the season. As teams begin to try and take away the top two lines, it’ll be important for Chytil to continue the offensive pressure.
So far, he’s done just that for the Rangers.
Adam Fox
It was a slow start for Adam Fox on Thursday night, but he got the puck moving on the powerplay and began to make his mark on the offensive and defensive sides of the ice.
The Rangers are deadly when Fox is making the smart play, and playing smart defense. For a good half of the first period, I think you can argue he wasn’t doing that against Minnesota. Winnipeg is a much different team though and getting a strong game from Fox will be essential to a 3-0 start.
Fox tallied a goal and an assist in the 7-3 win in Minnesota Thursday and really settled down after the initial onslaught from the Wild.
New York moves the puck so well offensively that it is hard to key on any one player but with K’Andre Miller moving the puck on his defensive pair, and Zac Jones doing it for his group, it’ll be up to Fox to have the Rangers defensive lines ultra-aggressive in the offensive end.
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